Project Big Picture - Premier League overhaul

I doubt there would be a great deal of TV money left over. A European Super League would kill off the CL, but how much would PL rights be worth without say the Big 6 clubs? Close to zero internationally, and the domestic probably in the range of what the CH is worth now, perhaps 2-3x higher - but nowhere close to the present numbers. For the rest of Europe, as Kopstar notes, we already have recent history on what La Liga is worth if Barca and Madrid keep their TV money, they got about 80% of the total.

Something that the experiment with pay per view is more than likely to reveal, if ever the figures are published.

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According to this article in the Telegraph, and this one on the BBC, there are calls for the government to impose a levy on Premiear League broadcasting revenues, if a satisfactory bail out deal (for the lower leagues) can’t be agreed.

I can think of any number of objections to such a move, for example who, or what decides if the bailout is “satisfactory”? The recipiants, the donors, or some “independent” authority?

However my primary objection would be that I cannot see what authority the government has to force the Premier League to subsidise the Football League. I would liken it to imposing a levy on online retailers simply to subsidise the high street.

Would the imposition of a levy on the Premier League broadcasting revenue be legally enforceable?

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Frankly, I can think of better policy arguments for that than the PL being required to underwrite the Football League.

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It is probably an inevitability at this point but I’m happy to have it on record that the day we leave the Premier League and enter a European Super League - with no relegation/promotion - then I am out. No interest in that at all and I’d have no real issue with turning my back on the whole sport.

I don’t like the way the NFL is set up, or that it actively kills other leagues, but at least it has “always” been that way. Changing the very nature of football by taking all games to European Super Leagues, with many matches probably played in stadiums in China or Thailand, and aggressively defending a spot in the “top tier” by refusing to other clubs access - I can’t get behind that, and Liverpool being in it or part of it wouldn’t sway me towards supporting it. The day that comes is the end of this version of Liverpool Football Club and the start of a new club altogether which may as well be called “Generic Big Club FC #1”.

Anyway, I thought the Project Big Picture had some interesting ideas. There is a clear power grab but in fairness the response from the lower end of the PL table has also been a power grab. The big clubs - who make all the money and generate nearly all the interest - want to control the league. The other clubs, who make the league what it is with their diversity of style and fanbases, don’t want to reliquish their control of the league. It’s a shame that we have disingenuous arguments from the likes of Sean Dyche, who I actually find interesting most of the time, when one week he’s telling lower league clubs to fuck off and the next week he’s crying that “big clubs” don’t treat his club properly.

I suspect the majority of the EFL clubs will be unhappy, but not surprised, that the PBP has been rejected so easily and quickly.

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Could not agree more. Anyone who really looks at the North American sports leagues will be struck by the extended existence of clubs/teams/franchises that deserved to be relegated somehow, and because there is no such mechanism have been allowed to be persistently mediocre. That has nothing to do with market size and resultant wealth either - Toronto is one of the wealthiest professional hockey teams, and they have done not much of anything in my entire lifetime. Now, as a Montreal fan, the Toronto example doesn’t particularly trouble me, but every sport has teams like that. There is nothing more dismal than an NFL game in December between two teams with a losing record both trying to lose to get better draft picks, without being seen to be doing that.

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Actually, this is a pretty damned good point to, had missed that.

Where does that leave the CL though?

Anyway, I’m with @Sweeting on that matter. The day a European super league is created, I’ll call it a day following football on a regular basis. That would be pretty much the final stroke for me.

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I agree that the Premier League (or perhaps we should call it English League) will not have as much TV money as it currently has.

However, the very success of PL shows that if you have a marketing strategy you can not only carve out a niche; you can become mainstream. South Asia with its deep-rooted craze for cricket has become a stronghold of PL. China has become another big market; although, as far as I know, Badminton and Table Tennis is more popular among the Chinese. Meanwhile Sharjah became a Macca for Cricket connoisseurs and Baseball swept the Japanese off their feet.

The resource-pool (broadcasters, sponsors) is so big that a lot of major players will miss out on the ESL pie. For them, the national leagues will offer an effective flanking strategy. If, for example, ESL pools together BT, Amazon, Nike and Heineken; English League can still bank on Sky, Facebook, Adidas and Carlsberg. Overseas (Arab, Chinese etc.) owners can subsidies the broadcasts or provide free streaming in their native markets.

Imagine an Arab owned Newcastle (hypothetically) having pre-season in Middle-East, exposing it to literally millions of racially and culturally diverse audience. Imagine a tournament between Chinese owned (again, hypothetically) Fiorentina, Valencia and Bordeaux across major Chinese cities. Clubs like Parma and Celta Vigo will provide better entertainment to the Indian audience than Atletico de Kolkata or North East United ever will. What if the Chinese plant their key players at the clubs they own?

I really really hate the headline that SSN have gone with “European Premier League: Liverpool and Manchester United in talks for FIFA-backed tournament”

It’s purposely prepared so it looks like Man United and our own club owners are active/leading discussions. When you actually read the article, that is not the case, and pretty much every club you would expect to be in a European super league are also “in talks for the FIFA-backed tournament”.

This also looks like a replacement for the CL, rather than the clubs leaving their respective leagues in favour of the European super league.

So yeah - more FSG bashing coming right up - this time for something that’s nothing to do with the clubs actions. Good job SSN and the other cunty media outlets.

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https://youtu.be/3Yn_mK2ukuA

@0:18

Sky Sports News has learned…

Should be

Sky Sports News has been instructed by our executive board to say…

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My point was that I don’t like the click baiting misinformation in the headline by Sky @anon61491174, without looking at the bigger picture. I think it’s there to make it look like the pesky US owners being greedy. That said, I do however agree with you. Can add that;

Sky has pumped 10 of billions to the PL, but they’ve pumped 100’s billions into their own pockets too.

To say the club have done well from Sky is one way of looking at it. The flip side is that the clubs want to manage their own TV deals, and have not been able to make as much as they may have done due to the TV deals with Sky, whilst Sky held all the cards and carried on filling their pockets.

Agree it’s shake up time for sure. Sky are in trouble. They were the keystone to the PL windfall, but times are changing, and they’re strength is being diluted very quickly. Now they appear to be taking shots at the very clubs that were the reason for their own success.

This week fucking sucks a massive bag of donkey dicks.

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I’d be more suspicious if sly sports weren’t shit stirring.

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At this point this new league would mean the demise of the CL in it’s current form but in time could mean a breakaway from the EPL of the big 6 which would hit the pockets of Sky who, along with PL bosses will do all they can to scupper this deal before and after it gets off the ground.

I mean I guess that’s the price you pay for being the two biggest clubs in the country by an absolute mile. Nobody is going to care if they lead with City and Chelsea to spread their shite.

I agree, if “reports” from “sources” are to be believed, this would mean the end of the Champion’s League.

However, if “reports” from “sources” are to be believed, the European Premier League will be “based on a format of round-robin home and away fixtures” i.e. a minimum of 30 games per season for each participating team.

That would mean that a club participating in the Premier League and the European Premier League would play a minimum of 68 games per season. I can’t see how that would be possible with international breaks and the odd domestic cup game thrown in.

The only conclusion I can draw is that participating clubs would have to withdraw from their respective domestic leagues.

That’s if if “reports” from “sources” are to be believed. :crazy_face:

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A european superleague is inevitable. £££££££££££