The funny thing is that the Project Big Picture has been in the works for nearly three years. Its disclosure was hastened by the current crisis.
But, yeah, there’s definitely going to be a better idea coming along which enjoys greater consensus up and down the leagues. Any day now.
There have been a lot of comments along the lines of ‘we like the £250M gift to the EFL and the 25% of future income so do that, but don’t do anything that allows clubs to make up that shortfall in a different way.
Nope. Doesn’t work like that.
It seems very likely that that idea will be resurrected at the end of all this. Big clubs that have faced two years of financial disruption and are trying to recover will start to look out for themselves - if the bottom 14 clubs of the PL are willing to let their self-interest override the majority preference of the EFL and the big 6 clubs of the PL, they can hardly be shocked if the big 6 start thinking purely in terms of their own self-interest as well. Tradition is great and all, how many fans would actually miss playing the likes of WBA if that fixture was made up with more matches against CL-grade opponents?
Have to say very disappointing response from SOS…
Nobody is redistributing wealth here for altruistic reasons; they cannot as a matter of fact. What they’re in effect saying is that the charity model on which most of football is currently based is not sustainable. That charity model includes the governance structure as it currently exists…
That statement was daft. The only thing the Government has been rushing to do is avoid taking any responsibility for saving clubs, and there are no signs of that changing any time soon.
My expectation is that this will crawl along until some League 1 or 2 club collapses completely and cannot fulfill fixtures. Then there will be a round of blame.
So sounds like they are going to review the proposal in more detail and re-brand it with a few tweaks… Yet most journalists would let you believe greedy LFC and Utd have just been beaten down.
Grimsby are probably one of those teams that need the cash mind.
The reactions to this proposal says a lot about the state of football imho. Firstly the tribal nature of the sport is ingrained to a point where if any club comes up with something then a large proportion of fan bases will be utterly against it because of who brought it up irrespective of the merits of the idea.
Secondly is the state of play within the League itself. The Premier League is a cash cow and I know the list of ‘richest clubs’ can be misleading but on the face of it, clubs who have won nothing for decades and bounce between upper midtable and relegation can be ‘richer’ than successful clubs on the continent. It’s pretty stark and they’re never going to get over the self serving nature of doing only what is right by them. One can argue that that is their right but you have the likes of Fulham having an equal say when they’re looking dead certs to go down. Guaranteed if it comes to a null and void scenario it will be the ones with the most to lose by continuation screaming the loudest to null and void. @Mattyhurst has said it better than I could; while the table hasn’t coalesced yet everyone on is banging on about fans, fans, fans while infection numbers rise but give it a few months at the same rate they’ll be banging on about safety, protocol and nulling and voiding to preserve the integrity of the league.
Thirdly, the average fan is pretty thick. Yeah some of the proposals were a little out there but by and large most of the good has gone completely over their heads. They can’t see the forest for all the fucking trees and then make a huge fuss and moan, along with the media, when the likes of Bury go bust and wonder why nobody could save them. Some clubs are on the brink right now and there is a very good likelihood that they might go under and when it does there will headlines splashed far and wide bemoaning that they did and how it could have been averted. Eeeer… if only there was a plan proposed by somebody to stop it, eh chaps?
Basically the state of football in a nutshell.
“There’s no way the PL will be able to come up with anything sensible in a few days but here’s what a few of us have put together on the back of a cigarette packet and we think this will definitely work, it’s the only way”…say Bernstein, Neville and Denise Lewis
Deeply suspicious of this one. Have they checked with FIFA that it would be happy with such an amount of government interference in football?
Also…this could well pave the way for private equity funds to buy up the FA, PL, EFL. Doesn’t fill me with much hope that the fans will really be put first.
Used to love watching Denise Lewis.
What an esteemed list of people stepping forward to fix our game.
An owner of a League 2 club, a bunch of ex this and ex that from within the FA and football and a heptathlete.
And what’s their big idea? Get some external body above the PL and the association that runs the game top to bottom.
It’s competitive sport. It isn’t supposed to be an even playing field. Gary Neville built his career on the back of a club that had a competitive financial advantage over everyone else. Now others have caught up and he’s running a club in the lower leagues the disparity needs addressing apparently.
League 1 and 2 saying that £50M is not going to get it done, so the alternative to ‘Big Picture’ has failed right out of the gate.
Meanwhile, Ridsdale suspects that at least some of his CH counterparts at the table are not wearing any trousers. Predicts some will fail in December. Doesn’t seem at all unlikely.
It is as predictable as a passion play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0yZQgDwn1A
Do you suppose a European Super League is the answer! The big clubs clustered in a league of their own and since they are pretty evenly matched, the negotiation and distribution will also be (more or less) evenly spread.
While the without the big clubs the national leagues too will have a bunch of (more or less) evenly matched clubs and their negotiation & distribution will also be more even.
Depends what the question is. If there is a European Super League, the former top tier leagues will probably be akin to the Championship - popular, but financially dependent on matchday revenue as compared to broadcast revenue. Most of what is now PL money would concentrate in the hands of a relatively small number of English teams.
Consider how large the United States is, and how many football (gridiron) teams there are, and how many professional football players there are. There is no real second tier.
Today I’m all for a European Super League if only to get away from cunts like Jordan Pickford and Richarlison.
I wasn’t exactly talking about the US system. I know the post is somewhat deceiving.
What I meant is that the Super League seems to be an equitable solution, oh that irony.
Clubs like Juventus, Bayern, Real, Barcelona etc. will not share their TV money with the other clubs in their respective leagues. If they are bunched together the TV money (maybe even the gate receipts) of the Super League will be distributed evenly among them since all of them have similar strengths.
With the big, monopolizing, clubs gone; the leagues will be left with clubs somewhat evenly matched and the TV money (and perhaps other revenue streams) for the leagues will be more equitably distributed among the remaining clubs.
Currently La Liga does have a fairly equitable TV distribution, based on the PL’s own model (this was a fairly recent development). La Liga also has a soft wage cap which the PL doesn’t come close to matching (although it has one of sorts).
I like the idea of a European Super League though for the reasons expressed by Mascot. Everton would never be in it.