Where do we go from here?

The majority of us oppose the Super League and fan emotions are high enough that they are suggesting some truly drastic measures. A lot of folks are suggesting that the clubs should be expelled from the Premier League and it’s not just opposition or rival fans saying that; I know many Arsenal fans, well meaning, thoughtful, intelligent Arsenal fans who think that the clubs should be expelled from the Premier League.

And UEFA are currently pursuing legal action to remove the Dirty Dozen from this year’s Champions League and Europa League. This measure has been temporarily stopped by courts in Madrid but it’s not necessarily over. And there is the very real threat that if Arsenal or Man City win the Champions League or the Europa League, they could have their titles stripped from them after the match.

I completely understand why they want to do this but it’s difficult to get behind. For one, it’s a huge punishment to players. What did Bukayo Saka do to deserve being kicked out of football? Or Marcus Rashford? The best players would find another job this summer but a lot of guys wouldn’t and a lot of them could take pay cuts. I know that’s probably a weak argument because maybe you don’t like a certain player or maybe think that the players could sue the club. But I’m not sure how they would get money from, say Arsenal, if the club is dissolved. And removing their sporting success because the owners planned to do something this summer is incredibly harsh. And the academy players would probably be harmed as well. Collective punishment for the players seems unfair.

For another, it’s a huge punishment to the staff and fans of these clubs. What happens to the thousands of employees at the club and their families? These are people who probably oppose the Super League or at least had nothing to do with the backroom deals which brought it about. If you expel Arsenal from the Premier League, the club will undoubtedly fold. Maybe not right away but fairly quickly. Again, what did Adrian Clarke (for example) do to deserve that?

And local businesses would be absolutely smashed to pieces if we “just boot them (the clubs) out”. Think about how many businesses support the club. Both real bricks and mortar ones and online. Maybe Arseblog could pivot to something else, he’s a great writer, but christ that would be a huge blow to so many good folks who make a living off writing/talking about Arsenal.

And what about the fans? I get that we are angry with Arsenal, I’m angry with Arsenal, and I can’t stand Enos Kroenke or his slickback scion. But if Arsenal are expelled from the Premier League what did I do to deserve that? It would be like ripping my heart out for this club to go bankrupt or just be shuttered out of existence. Maybe it would be resurrected as “Dial Square FC” or something, but the idea is terrifying to me.

I’ve had some folks tell me to support my local. But I can’t really go follow a local club, all my local options are owned by the Adrian Hanauer group (and/or Olympique Lyonnais) and they are all part of a closed league with no promotion or relegation. Why wouldn’t I just follow the Super Duper League at that point? I suppose I could try to support Atalanta but would I find the same passion I’ve had for Arsenal over the last 20 years? I feel like maybe not.

And why would you take away the trophy that Arsenal earned? We have spent the last few days talking about earning things on merit only to have it suggested that we should be stripped of the things we have earned through merit if we should earn them.

What I think needs to happen is that we need to find a way to punish just the owners and executives. That could be done with some legislation in England, I imagine. Make it so that they aren’t allowed to form a breakaway league or something. Or, as some folks are suggesting, perhaps even go so far as forcing the owners into a fan-owned, 50+1, collective ownership model. I’m not brain smart enough to understand how that would work in the UK.

But I’m really left scratching my head as to how to punish the people who are responsible for this without punishing everyone else. I’m also wondering what, exactly, I can do. I can write about it. I can provide you all with a platform. I can support some collective fan action. And I would happily not watch any Super League matches or boycott them.

And finally, I think we need to not lose sight of another problem here: UEFA and the new Champions League rules. They are basically the same as the Super League in that they have legacy places and also help to calcify Champions League places through their new rule that if you make it into the final 16 then you’re automatically qualified for the next Champions League season. It’s also intentionally structured so that we have a lot of matches between big clubs, much like the Super League. And it increases the number of Champions League matches over the year, increasing the number of games that clubs have to play. And worst of all, it will certainly have the knock-on effect of clubs fielding weakened teams in the Premier League/FA Cup/League Cup because it doesn’t matter as much where you finish in your league as long as you get into that final “golden group” which are guaranteed Champions League places. As far as I can tell, the new Champions League format will have a very similar effect on the Premier League that the Super League would have: reduced TV revenue, poorer matchday experience, and an ossification of big clubs as permanently having more money than other clubs. And from what I can tell it gives zero fucks about the “football pyramid” because it doesn’t really increase the solidarity payments.

We need to be opposing this greed just as vociferously as we have been the Super League. They are both VERY BAD PLANS which will kill football as we know it. I’m surprised that more of us haven’t come out in opposition to the UEFA plan. But also not surprised because football fans tend to be mostly traditionalists and as long as FIFA or UEFA come up with the ideas, they seem pretty happy to go along with them.

Qq

29 comments

  1. SIgh…In all the angst over these developments at least we can take some succor in knowing that more things change the more they stay the same. To that end, take a bit of cheer that the Dour One, the No-Longer-Special-One has once again been sacked by his club after sucking Vampire like, whatever little footballing soul was left in the team. Better yet, it’s the Tiny Tots. And surely we can take some pleasure from that!

  2. I have been asking myself “how much can I control this? How much can I influence the outcome?” and am trying to just stay calm and focus on work and family and not let this be a distraction. If the SL comes to pass, I can guarantee that I will be less immersed, less invested in Arsenal. That would be a shame. I certainly would stop buying gear etc. and I suppose that is all I can really do. Not buy the streaming service, not buy the gear, etc. The community around Arsenal, from my local Bay Area and Silicon Valley gooner groups, is very important to me, and I would continue a connection to them, and support the local pubs that host us… but perhaps less religiously than before. if that makes any sense. I hope this fails spectacularly, and the owners learn a long lasting lesson, but i doubt that any lesson would be heeded for long. If anything, they will just learn what they did wrong, and come back smarter next time around.

  3. To be fair to football fans Tim, neither Fifa or UEFA has ever stooped as low as shutting the door on everyone else. They may protect the interest of certain clubs or national sides, but they do so by opening more doors, not by shutting them down.

    That is the biggest difference between the Super League and UEFA/FIFAs changes. More teams in the Champions League? Every fan in places like Cyprus, Macedonia, Belgium, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Israel, Greece, and etc, will start celebrating that the door has been opened for them to share a stage with clubs like Arsenal.

    People will not complain about changes that do not only benefit the big clubs, but them too.

    As much as money talks, Arsenal are evidence enough that you still need to be run well no matter your fanbase or the balance in your bank account.The emergence of West Ham, Leicester and Everton as genuine challengers for European places over Arsenal would be all for nought under the Super League, where is the merit in that. At least under UEFAs reforms, they benefit too.

    Like I said before, your fanbase and bank balance is not merit. As Mich as we can say the top clubs that have money are dominating, I will give you this…..

    Dortmund (bailed out by Bayern around the same time that City got its funding) and Atletico (promoted to La Liga in 2002), in the last ten years, with no financial doping, have 3 finals appearances whilst City just got to the semi-finals for the first time in their history. PSG reached their first final last year. Ajax reached the semi-finals and Sp*rs reached a final before either side. Leicester have won a League title and Arsenal has 4 FA Cups in a League with 3 of the biggest spending sides of the last 10 years.

    Punishment? This is like the Rick and Morty episode where a Rick disguises himself by building a dome and covering it with Morty’s being tortured. We have owners that will protect themselves with Saka, Arteta, the lunch lady, the community and everything else Arsenal. I would vehemently support a 50%+1 ownership structure, especially for clubs like Newcastle.

    But to tell the truth Tim, I feel like you have an annoyance with UEFA, they are protecting the interests of the top clubs and themselves, but they are inclusive. The Super League kills every other competition.

  4. And also Tim….

    Saka, Arteta, the lunch lady, grounds keeper, local businesses and the lot might not be at fault for this situation, and it would be unfair to punish them.

    But that point right there is the cause of this whole Super League thing.

    European competition involves more than just a few teams from England, Spain and Italy. The fall of genuine routes into Europe will destroy the lives of the people we overlook when discussing football.

    What will happen to those who rely on European nights and decisive league games where teams are fighting to qualify? There are people in position to lose out if teams like Galatasaray can’t make it in or fight to make it in. Porto, Benfica, Shakhtar, Betis and etc, all have players who have done nothing to deserve having the door closed to them. Vendors, hotels everywhere (and I can assure you, everywhere!) will lose out.

    I have met too many great and hardworking people whose livelihoods are tied to participation in Europe, just as much, if not more than the people around Arsenal. But because fans are so narrow minded and club centric, they miss the rest of the football world. Which I think you might be missing Tim.

    I will be honest, if it comes down to Arsenal and its fucking buddies being banished or having the Super League, I would kick them out without hesitation. Football is a culture, not a status held by anyone.

  5. KABOOM! As of right now, apparently Chelsea and City are out. And Ed Woodward has resigned at United. Meaning the entire thing is likely going down in flames. Sadly, Kroenke apparently didn’t want to be the one that broke ranks. Maybe this will prompt him to sell out.

  6. And on the money thing, if you follow football anywhere in any year, there will always be big clubs and small clubs. Whenever any of you got into football, started loving it, until now, there was, is and will always be big clubs and small clubs. That is a staple of football, this whole thing of equalizing everything and the top clubs with their salary caps “being of benefit” is complete nonsense.

    There is no league in the world that is big and followed because everyone is even and equal. That is something that sounds good, but of no interest to football fans, let alone any sports (not sure about America).

    Football is the sport of the working class, and as much as it updates and upgrades in certain countries, the lifeblood globally (which is the target audience of this league) remains the working man.

    And he wants to see either a beautiful spectacle or David toppling Goliath (or at least pushing him to his limits). Super League? Not what is being proposed. Not this at all!

    1. “the working man” is so far cut out of the Premier League it’s not funny. And just FYI: the new Champions League rules happen to benefit Arsenal, who would probably make it in to the Champions League based off the fact that we are 11th in the coefficient list. So, while they are opening the door for a few clubs in macedonia or whatever they are making sure that big clubs get in.

      And while the guys in macedonia who won the league are celebrating their massive good fortune, the other teams in that league are dreading it because it means that that club will have financial resources which far outstrip every other team. So, while I get your sentiment, I can still say that I hate the effect that this will have on solidifying rich and successful teams as rich and successful.

      Everything doesn’t have to be fair and even but things as they are now are actually anti-competitive. What is the point of being a Newcastle fan if they have almost no chance of winning the League or even really finishing in the top half of the table? Now multiply that by basically every league in world football. Many fans are waking up to this reality and have stopped supporting their big, local, boyhood clubs and are going to support local, small clubs.

      The system is sick, it’s broken, and the Champions League reforms (which are opposed by most fans in Germany) and Super Duper League weren’t the cause, they were symptoms.

      1. Tim, the working man is the fan in the stands all over the continent, not just those that can afford the tickets to watch Arsenal. FOOTBALL is the working man’s sport, Globally. Your focus on the Premier League is what I meant when I said it is the reason for this Super League.

        I also acknowledged that they are working reforms to get the bigger clubs in, but unlike the Super League, those small clubs and people will still benefit from stepping foot into the Champions League.

        And just like yesterday, I spoke about taking ourselves out of the big club shoes and putting ourselves in the shoes of people at clubs lower than us, I’m sure you missed my point, but I said…

        “This point though is the most disappointing one from you Tim and probably why it can be viewed as having an American mentality to this. Normally when we discuss football, we usually monopolise the discussion to clubs whose aims are European qualification (top 4), trophies, titles, big signings, big salaries, big names and global appeal. It’s important to not only take others into account, but to also put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself “what does this person expect of their team going into each season?”

        What does the Super League take away from a Shaktar Donetsk and Shalke 04 (10/11)? APOEL (11/12)? Malaga and Galatasaray (12/13)? Atletico Madrid (13/14)? Basel and Monaco (14/15)? Wolfsburg, Gent and Dynamo Kyiv (15/16)? Leicester City (16/17)? Sevilla, Besiktas, Basel and Shaktar Donetsk (17/18)? Ajax and Porto (18/19)*? RB Leipzig, Atalanta and Lyon (19/20)?

        None of these sides consider themselves as genuine contenders for the Champions League, but they embody the very essence that makes football what it is. It’s not the big clubs that carry football, it’s the hundreds of smaller clubs, not really trying to take them down, No! But like Leonidas in 300, they go into the season hoping to make these “God King” clubs bleed. Ask Leicester fans about their sojourn into Europe and you never hear disappointment at a lack of money blocking them from winning the whole thing. Their fans reminisce about the opportunity received as reward for their performances in qualifying for the Champions League, and also the opportunity to write a story which can have a happy ending even without a trophy lifted at the end. The joy/attraction of football is not exclusive to the winners of titles.

        To tell the truth, the fallacies of UEFA are there for all of us to see, but as a follower and reporter, of many smaller clubs around Europe, the super league is a horrible idea and a killer of so many footballing cultures across the continent. Not just the Premier League and the leagues that these “big clubs” play in, which seems to be what everyone is fixated on. Europe is a continent with many football associations that have many clubs playing under them, with just one dream in mind, to share the biggest stage, even for one game, with some of the best clubs in the world. Some dreams are that modest and simple, are they less deserving of a place if they perform better than these so called “big clubs”? Even for one season?”

        Beyond just focusing on the few teams that get money, it still needs to be spent wisely and effectively. The veryArsenal you are talking about is trying to get in through the back door because better managed clubs with less money have overtaken them. It’s only a few teams from leagues across the continent that pull away from the competition in their league because of UEFA money. Pay more attention to leagues around the continent and stop focusing on the City’s and PSG’s of the footballing world, or you miss the really special cases that compete on proper planing and management of their clubs.

        Step out of the Arsenal fan stance and look at football as a whole. There is no perfect competition on this planet that will make everyone happy. UEFA have their flaws, but for the fans around the continent and the people who benefit from the Champions League and will benefit more so now, it is going to be of huge benefit to them, especially with the losses from Covid.

        The truth is that I liked the Champions as it was, and the changes sound very wierd to me. But the fact that this is going to help out more people around clubs across the continent after a pandemic, and also allow more clubs from far flung places into the European/global spotlight, it’s a win for me. And if Arsenal get to join from 11th, it’s a compromise I am willing to make, but shutting the door? I will never defend such. It is the worst thing that could happen to continental football. Comparing the two makes no sense for me, outside of saying that the big clubs still benefit. Them benefiting is not the issue here, clubs will always look for that. It’s in the how they look to benefit and who is affected that is important.

        *I can assure you Tim, European football, and princely the Premier League, is not the end all be all of the football world. Football remains the working man’s sport because you would have to turn Africa and South America, along with the rest of Europe into EPL levels of rich to change that. And it won’t happen. Most people around the world do not support these top clubs as you would assume, they “ALSO” support these clubs as their second, third, fourth or fifth teams. The rest of the world has it own clubs that they are passionate about, even more so than these European sides.

  7. If in fact this does fall apart, as seems to be happening right this minute, I’m happy.
    But that doesn’t mean I don’t also recognize that there are still some big issues.
    The new CL format is not as bad as the ESL, but it’s a step in the wrong direction. It too plays favorites, and it introduces even more matches, which is not a great thing.
    Hopefully this whole fiasco causes some serious rethinking across the football world.
    Salary caps would be a decent idea, but my understanding is that it was thought they wouldn’t be allowed under EU labor laws.

  8. Hi – one can be strongly opposed to the Super League and still dislike the UEFA proposal for a restructured CL. Keeping in mind that Agnelli and Woodward sat on the committee that came up with the restructuring, the new proposal was constructed in large part to make the “super clubs” happier. Now I would not see the need.

    I never understood Chelsea and City being interested in this and apparently they’ve pulled out, with Barca and Atletico to follow tomorrow, if not sooner. It’s more or less dead, how JP Morgan will agree to fund. We’ll have to see how stubborn the remaining 8 are. I’ve read that the American coterie is hardcore, in which case I’m ecstatic, we may be seeing the Americans bailing out if they end up blinking first. We may finally be at the beginning of the end for the Kroenke era.

    Jonathan Wilson raised some great questions for me – would this Super League have been playing regular season games in Beijing, New York and Mexico City to build appeal across the world? What would prohibit an owner, if they’re a franchise now, from pulling up Arsenal say, and relocating it to New York?

    1. I can’t see how they could play mid-week matches on the other side of the world and also regular league games on weekends. The players wouldn’t put up with the tiredness, stress and injuries, and the quality of play would degrade. Something would need to give if they were going to go down the route of regular matches in far away countries. It’s one thing to have the occasional European match in Russia or the Ukraine. Having matches in China or Mumbai would be a whole other deal.
      Seems like that’s one among many things that they didn’t think through very well.

  9. 100% categorically and emphatically agree with every word Devlin has written.

    How ironic that we are thanking the Sheikh and the Oligarch for being the ones to force the plug-pull.

    Deduct 20 points off each of Chelsea and City. And relegate all 4 of the others.let’s be honest, 3 of us will be back up in one season. It will add a bit of spice as to whether it’s us, Spuds or Manure who stays down a second one

    1. Thanks for posting this, Devlin.
      I haven’t seen The Great Man so animated or upset in quite some time. He needs a a big glass of Cabernet. We all do.

  10. Hi Tim,

    Long time reader, but first time commenter here. The situation is so bad that it has caused me to come out of the shadows and say something.

    I’m glad to see that you are openly saying that this is bad. In your previous post, I wasn’t so sure that that is how you felt. Here is why the Super League is worse, even than UEFA, in every way.

    There is a local book store, in a local community where there are laws favoring local book stores over corporations. The book store does well, and grows until it becomes a major corporation. When it does, it does not like the state of affairs, the rules that favor local book stores over corporations. So it joins forces with 11 other major corporations (that also began as local stores and benefited from the same rules) to lobby congress to change the rules, making it illegal for local book stores to expand beyond their current locations.

    That is what this is. The clubs have taken advantage of the systems in place to climb the ladder and become successful mega clubs, and then once at the top, are trying to pull the ladder up so that no one else can join them. It is anti-competitive, not only in the sporting sense, but in the business sense as well. Which is what makes me think that the recourse for other clubs, leagues, and UEFA is to file an anti-trust lawsuit and get regulators to intervene on the basis of anti-competitive business practices that will harm consumers (fans). (UEFA against anti-competitive practices harming fans? Oh, the irony). I am not a lawyer, so I don’t know if that will work. But the Super League calls itself a company, which has formed from a kind of quasi merger of all the major clubs, with the goal of eliminating the threat of relegation or exclusion from the Champions League (i.e. eliminating the threat of competition), and the money that comes with it, while having more games amongst themselves and make more money.

    The difference between this and the American model is how it is starting. I am not a historian of American pro sports, so I may be wrong, but my understanding of how the current major sports leagues came about was not by abandoning competitions that were already in place. There was not much in place to begin with, so the founding clubs created something new to try to make money for themselves. That is not the situation here. As in the analogy I made above with the book store, the clubs became successful through the measures that are in place. They benefited from the current “football pyramid” to get where they are now. To all of a sudden decide you are going to take the ball home when it wasn’t really your ball to begin with is dishonest. If they want to do that, they should start new clubs and build from the ground up. Oh wait, that wouldn’t work, because no one would watch start up clubs instead of the existing ones in their existing structures. It would only be an MLS 2.0. They are leveraging the history and traditions that have been built up by the current structures to destroy the current structures.

    None of this is to say that UEFA or its latest proposals are good. But realistically, what could they have done to prevent THIS? The clubs aren’t breaking away because UEFA is corrupt and not giving everyone their fair share. They are breaking away because UEFA is not corrupt enough and not giving them even more than they are already getting at the exclusion of others. If UEFA had been doing more to ensure fairness, distributing income more fairly, do you think the breakaway clubs would be happy with that? No, they would have broken away sooner. That is what the latest UEFA proposal was supposed to prevent. It is supposed to be a compromise to the big clubs, trying to get them to stay, by giving them more assurances than they had before. And it wasn’t enough. As much as we all hate the new UEFA proposals because of its anti-competitiveness, it wasn’t anti-competitive enough for the breakaway clubs.

    So what now? If this goes through, what should the other clubs and leagues do? I am of the opinion that the Premier League should kick the clubs out of the league. I do not think that would mean the club would dissolve. They would be solely dependent on the ESL for revenue. And if the figures that are being touted for that league are true, they will manage. At least for a few years. I do think the entertainment value will eventually diminish, Arsenal will become the Charlotte Hornets of the ESL, always in mid-table with no real way or incentive of climbing up the table. In the meantime, the leagues should market themselves as more entertaining, precisely because they have relegation and promotion, and qualification for European competitions. I think they will be able to put out a compelling product, if the last few years of the Premier League have shown us anything. The closed league will only have space for 450 or so of the most talented footballers, half of whom will have to be satisfied with sitting on the bench for most games. I believe there is a larger pool of super-talented footballers than that, enough for competing leagues to be able to put out a compelling product, and may be some will even prefer to be stars in the domestic leagues rather than sitting on the bench for the breakaway teams.

    Will this be unfair to the players who are currently on the teams? They are employees of the clubs, and if the clubs are operating in a way that makes exclusion of the clubs a necessity, than the employers unfortunately have to suffer. But that is how it is in the world of businesses as well. You cannot put sanctions on a company without its employees suffering the consequences. But may be there is a legal case to dissolve their current contracts for breach and bad faith, and those who want could be released from the clubs and free to join any others. While this may sound drastic, the measures put forth by the breakaway clubs are more so, and require drastic measures to counter. (I don’t think the clubs should be stripped of past achievements).

    Sorry for the long post, but I needed to get that out somewhere.

  11. All six English clubs have pulled out of the Super League. Can’t a future for it now.

  12. Not sure where I stand with the reality of a Super League, but was quite OK with the threat of it. The current structure also leads to a fair bit of abuse that comes with concentration of power. Be it in the scheduling of games or referring bias (I still believe that Wenger’s teams were consistently hard done by). A shock to the system would have been no bad thing.

    P.S. while Arsenal does not have the strength of position in the league table, it certainly has the weight of eyeballs to be in a Super League.

  13. What a CRAZY DAY!

    ESL formally announced on Sunday, all English teams withdraw on Monday. Mourinho is sacked before a cup final, Ed Woodward resigns, Liverpool players revolt against their own club in solidarity with the fans, Arsenal FC posts an abject apology falling on their sword, Petr Cech confronts Chel$ki fans to try for calm and to actually park the bus that was trying to get through, and my kids brought me my favorite – 70% Dark KitKat (munchies).

    Who needs to smoke on 4/20?

    1. Masterful, 1Nil! I hope you enjoyed your day as much as I enjoyed reading that! 😂😂😂

  14. Psychology long ago worked out that if you want to boil a frog alive, you need to crank up the temperature slowly (The real lesson to take from this should be that psychologists are monster, but I digress…). The ESL failed because Perez et al. wanted all the goodies *now*, like the toddlers who, no matter what reward they are offered for patience, cannot resist grabbing the candy (seriously. Psychologists, wtf is wrong with you?!?).

    The real threat has been bubbling since the nineties, and yes it includes UEFA, but also the Premier League, Sky, and every other ‘stakeholder’ who tried (and succeeded!) to fence off a little piece of the beautiful game for themselves. I’m a hibs fan really, but drifted towards the English game in the nineties simply because the Scottish League is so crushingly *dull*. Rangers and Celtic win almost everything, because their inflated TV revenues make their position unassailable (unless, y’know, they get caught running illegal tax avoidance schemes to pay players and have their club dissolved…).

    The secret sauce of English football was never Beckham Branding, it was the sheer competitively of the league. But every year that passed erroded that, and the haves and have-nots separated, just like every other league.

    And now we have more of the same. Yes, the new Champions league format is an abomination. Hopefully the football community have been jolted awake by our brush with the brink, and meaningful reform can be achieved. I’m not holding my breath, though.

    1. The big clubs owners completely underestimated the fans reaction. They thought: ” We will give them their fix of bread and games, we will give them the membership card of a very exclusive club and they will be happy and silent.” But the fans hated it and made it clear. So much so that it threatened the financial gains that were part of the business case. My first reaction when I heard of this closed superleague was that I wasn’t going to watch the games as “religiously” as before. (I used the same word as giantcalgunner, above). I would be disengaged. I guess that all those who felt like me, and obviously, we were a multitude, killed the business case. And the plan failed. This shows how disconnected those owners are from the fans, the game, the sportsmanship, the competition.
      I am with Devlin (and others) on this: the UEFA is bad but at least they don’t really intend to close the group of participant: every club is still entitled to dream of joining the big boys.
      The superleague was eliminating all risks for the big clubs and were turning football into a meaningless show, an absurd choreography like a catch match: impressive athletes doing entertainment rather than competing.
      Good riddance. Let’s ensure now that the UEFA don’t think they have a free rein.

      1. I don’t disagree, the ESL is easily the worst scheme seriously pushed forwards in european football to date. But the point I should perhaps have emphasized further is that the current structure of broadcast income and champions league revenues have *already* created at least partially closed shops in the vast majority of European Leagues, and barring oil-state buyouts that would include the premier league too. If the ESL would have set structural inequalities in stone overnight, the decades long trend of ‘reforms’, breakaway leagues, competition seedings and all the rest have been a steady calcification towards the same end state. A death by a thousand cuts is death all the same.

        The new Champions League scheme contains exactly the same fundamental problem as the ESL: entry to clubs based on their history, not on their performance in qualification. It may take a more dilute, less immediately grotesque form, but the essence is the same. Furthermore, it will ensure that the biggest teams stay in the competition for longer, with more high-profile matches along the way. All this means more money for the elite (who will still find way to spend themselves into crippling debt regardless, of course) and less for the rest. The yawning gulf in quality and ambition between top and bottom will stretch ever wider.

        And what will the big clubs ask for next time the champions league is reformed? Because there *will* be a next time, unless there is a fundamental rethink of the regulation of the game. And here’s the real problem: I can flag up these issues, but I don’t really have a good solution to offer. Fan ownership in Germany seems positive – it stopped any German clubs getting on board with this nonsense – but it has not stopped Bayern winning 6, soon to be 7, Bundesligas in a row. Revenue based salary caps can help slow the inflationary bubbles that threaten leagues, but they still reward the biggest clubs and stifle competitivity.

        An important battle has been won, but I still feel very gloomy about the future of this sport (I haven’t even touched on the world cup literally built on bribes and corpses. What a time to be alive).

  15. i’m ashamed to say that when this was initially introduced, i knew it was the american owners at the heart of everything. these guys don’t care about football, they care about money. it’s very difficult to become an owner of a professional sports franchise in the u.s. even donald trump tried for decades but couldn’t get into that fraternity. however, this is not the u.s. the rubber met the road when the american owners didn’t respect the culture of the world’s game.

    therefore, it was no surprise that the first english clubs to pull out of the esl idea were chelsea and man city; more specifically, two clubs not owned by americans. that’s not insignificant. likewise, david dein was right to oppose stan kronke. dein wasn’t just a money guy but a true football guy. it’s always been blatantly obvious to gooners that kronke doesn’t give a damn about the game. however, he’s showed his hand to the entire world and this pet project has blown up in his face. uefa will likely past legislation that strategically prevents this “super league” nonsense from ever threatening the football world again. hopefully, kronke decides to sell the club to someone who cares about this club and this game of ours. what’s likely is that he’ll hold onto the club, hoping for another opportunity to disrespect our game; the potential earnings are just too big to ignore. meanwhile, arsenal may drift off into football mediocrity. we’ll see.

    1. well, liverpool owner john henry (american) has come out and accepted responsibility for the entire esl idea and issued an apology to the liverpool fans. even though it wasn’t kronke’s idea as i’d initially thought, i still want kronke gone.

      i never really cared much before who the arsenal owner was as long as they didn’t interfere with the business of football. however, it’s one thing for folks to think ill of you but quite another when you show your true colors and blatantly disrespect the culture of the game. could i consider an apology similar to the one issued by henry? i don’t know but it doesn’t matter; i’m fairly certain the arsenal fans won’t get such an apology directly from stan kronke. the board has issued an apology, pretending they were trying to protect the club. it takes a class act to hold your hand up and apologize for getting something so wrong. that’s not the owner of this club.

      1. Henry and the Glazers were widely reported as the main protagonists. Kroenke just went along with it as ‘get rich quick scheme’ cos he’s that kinda guy. The Spanish clubs are financially up sh1t creek so didn’t require much persuading.

        Once the anger, indignation and noise settles down is football or Arsenal in a better place? Most likely not. Trust, if there really was any, has been irrevocably broken. My key concern is that greedy bullies don’t like losing. Kroenke really doesn’t give two fvcks for Arsenal football club but it’s not like there’s a queue of folk with $2Bn spare change waiting to step in.

  16. Having stood back from the entire imbroglio these past several days? Taking it all in from an observers perch? It’s been the most interested I’ve been watching anything all season!

    Bottom line now? The entrenched– have become unmoored. Honestly? There is no other set of circumstances that might have occurred– which could have a greater upside for the sport.

    No predicting all of the ramifications– or even some. But this injection of pure adrenaline into the core of the sport’s base of fans? Has the potential to drive decision-making– on many levels– for a long time to come.

    What’s not to like?

  17. We shouldn’t be surprised or shocked that a group of individuals are trying to milk football for as much as they can. Wasn’t the formation of the Premier League a step in that direction? Forming a distinct division, which is treated separately from the 92 league clubs? Admittedly, at least there is the possibility of relegation and promotion, but the principle is the same. Some clubs are different and more important than the masses. They therefore deserve a different level of remuneration.
    Meanwhile UEFA and FIFA are basically fleecing the system and rolling in cash from their various activities.
    The mentality is no different.

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