European Super League Mega Thread

[hellava_tough]

Looks like this is leading to the whole thing collapsing. We will then not escape punishment. I don't think we'll be relegated for obvious reasons but I can see all 6 English clubs being docked a certain number of points as well as having transfer embargos applied for a certain period of time. I think 12 points for each team and a season's transfer embargo would be fair. Not fair for the fans of course, but should serve as somewhat of a deterrent for future behaviour.

This is going ahead buddy, with or without the clubs playing in the PL.

You look at the owners of these clubs; they're serious people who don't mess about. Venture capitalists, Kings and gangsters; they come from a world where you don't back down and you don't go soft.

Plus they've got the REAL power backing them up; JP Morgan Chase. A giant organisation with assets of over $3 trillion, who could buy every club in Europe (literally!!) and not break a sweat.

If Fifa, Uefa, the PL, Sky and the fans want to fight this, then they better bring nuclear weapons, because the other side aren't taking 'no' for an answer.

 

[rossdapep]

I was thinking that this whole situation is very much 'carrot and stick' for Levy.

Carrot: he's going to be more than happy to make a ton of money and take the club into (potentially) the biggest and most prestigious club competition in the world.

Stick: he's kind of being forced into it. If he doesn't go and say an Everton or whoever takes our place, how is he going to repay the stadium debt without regular CL football? Worst case scenario, the big clubs (plus Everton or whoever) leave the PL, the PL collapses and there's no CL money AND there's no tv money. Tottenham, with a massive stadium debt, go bankrupt.

Obviously there are lots of twists and turns and variables in these scenarios, but the fact of the matter is that Tottenham has a stack of debt and has leveraged it against the certainty of regular tv money. Well none of that is certain anymore, but he's obviously thought that ESL tv money is more certain that PL tv money.

That's what I'm thinking.

It may be better for him to stay quiet and see where it falls and maybe thats why he's thinking.

But yeah, I know people feel they should have been consulted, but if it went ahead and we declined there's a really high chance we get much much less TV money and lose that extra income that helps pay off the stadium debt and allows us to live forward at the same time.

I mean we can't accuse Levy of recklessly spending or deliberately putting the club at risk like the Glazers and Perez, nor are we owned by a state. We have the most to lose out of the club and we are not a strong voice either.

However, once the dust settles it's important the club are transparent and explain their position and why they took it.

 

[shelfboy68]

Bloody hell!! Surely if that is true then what a clusterfuck - how do they go back from there?

They don't

 

[spursfan77]

Scudamore involved at PL headquarters to earn his £200k from each club golden goodbye. Probably been brought in to help mediate with the 6 not there I would think.

 

[MassadaTom]

It's despicable and disgraceful for Spurs to join a league that utterly disrespects "smaller" clubs - a league that is just based on money and power! I had not expected Spurs to go so low!
I was not surprised that Joe Lewis was open to it but I have lost my respect for Daniel Levy for condoning such a decision.
Spurs are known to be an "honorable" club with high stands on and off the pitch (f.ex. while clubs like Arsenal, Chelski & Man. Utd. were and are still known for their cheating tactics and never condemned all the "divers" at the clubs, Spurs were a club that did not tolerate such tactics and always condemned such players).
Football today is already running low on "spirit" and this new league will deplete football for even more "spirit".
The only way to stop this is for the fans to totally boycott the new league by not buying any tickets or club merchandise and not subscribe to the TV channel that will be broadcasting the games.
That would send the message that the fans are still in charge.
But will it happen...?

Bit late to complain about Premier League.

 

[C0YS]

simply not true, most fans of other clubs hated us anyway for some reason and you only need to look at all the “hilarious” memes going around about us over this to see just how much they actively dislike us.

Than fan bases of every club in the thinks this. A lot of the memes are funny, the fact we've been invited to this is funny. But there are just as many jokes on Arsenals expense. Some people care too much and are far too sensitive about these things.

 

[cjsimba]

Only a handful of places out of 36. It wouldn't have saved all the underperformimg teams. Or even most of them. It's irksome that this point keeps being made as if the two are remotely equivalent.

And again, it was only done because these mafia clubs were threatening to secede.

Yes but the teams at the top of the coefficient table are very likely to finish in Champions League places as their leagues aren't as competitive. Eg. Bayern, Madrid, Barca, PSG etc. Therefore, given its 2 extra places for the highest coefficient teams, it's always likely going to fall to the 2 English teams given we tend to have a 6 horse race for 4 spots each season.

So it will affect the Premier League more than the other leagues in my opinion.

I agree it was only done to placate the mafia clubs. Don't see what this has to do with it. I'm saying the proposals are bad and anti-competitive. Doesn't matter who came up with them.

 

[jimbo]

We’re already miles behind them and they would be receiving the same cash injections as we would be ( actually in reality a bigger slice of the pie than us). So there would be no gap closing.

The only gap would be between us and the rest of the English clubs left behind.

I'm not in favour of it for competitive/merit reasons but I don't agree that the gap wouldn't close.

We'd be receiving the same amount of money as Real Madrid with the same restrictions on how it can be used (which is why City are luke-warm I think). Madrid need this to stay where they are, whereas for us it would push us further forward. I think that while we're not a super club right now, we would be in about 10 years if all this does go ahead as planned and promised. It would close the gap massively in my view.

 

[SamR]

I was thinking that this whole situation is very much 'carrot and stick' for Levy.

Carrot: he's going to be more than happy to make a ton of money and take the club into (potentially) the biggest and most prestigious club competition in the world.

Stick: he's kind of being forced into it. If he doesn't go and say an Everton or whoever takes our place, how is he going to repay the stadium debt without regular CL football? Worst case scenario, the big clubs (plus Everton or whoever) leave the PL, the PL collapses and there's no CL money AND there's no tv money. Tottenham, with a massive stadium debt, go bankrupt.

Obviously there are lots of twists and turns and variables in these scenarios, but the fact of the matter is that Tottenham has a stack of debt and has leveraged it against the certainty of regular tv money. Well none of that is certain anymore, but he's obviously thought that ESL tv money is more certain that PL tv money.

Totally agree.

I'm going to be interested in what more players have to say about it. At the end of the day, Agents and Players are looking for the best financial deal available. I might be wrong, but a majority of footballers are still getting full whack salaries even though clubs have been significantly damaged on the finance front. Covid will affect revenues for a good while yet and you can't blame Levy for chasing a huge revenue opportunity to help balance the books.

Will the players revolt if their pay checks come under stress soon?

As fans we are still expecting Spurs to spend a significant amount in the summer to improve our squad too.

There are so many perspectives here to consider.

 

[Matthew]

PERSUADE LEVY? yeah, right! .... i jest, hopefully they do.

 

[teok]

Six snakes ranked: Which is most likely to pull out of Super League...

Which of the dirty half-dozen is most likely to come to their senses and reverse ferret on their Super League commitment?

www.football365.com

 

[wrd]

Actually some of the biggest BSoDL have been the most strongly against this idea. @SecretLemonadeDrinker @RichieS @wrd

You assume their support of Levy was based on dogma but it was based on evidence and as the evidence changes so do their views.

I doubt any of this changes their views of the myriad other untainted positives Levy has brought to the club. And I can even understand why he wants to be on the inside looking out...

I'm far from a BSoDL I'd be interested to know what viewpoint of mine gave you that impression.

I'm actually biting my tongue a bit in regards to Levy and this situation because I think what I'd like to know before casting judgement is if he was one of the drivers of this situation or there was a threat of being left behind. I understand why he agreed to this but yeah before I go further I need a bit more information.

What I will say is that up until now, as much as how he approached things frustrated me, I understood the process we were going through and was proud that even though it was difficult, we were going about things the right way and that our time would come, this has gone a far way to destroying that sentiment.

 

[hellava_tough]

Scudamore involved at PL headquarters to earn his £200k from each club golden goodbye. Probably been brought in to help mediate with the 6 not there I would think.

Fair play, he was very successful for the PL, but he majorly dropped the ball by not setting up "Premier League Netflix", or whatever it would have been called.

A cheap, monthly, global subscription service would have quadrulped the money coming into the PL and basically killed any notion of break away leagues, or the like.

That time has come and gone now, and the PL will probably go the way of the dodo over the next 15 years (probably sooner).

 

[stov]

The people who say they won't watch Spurs in the ESL will be watching like this:

View attachment 85759

Nah. I've had my fill of money grabbing fuckwits. I'll probably look for the spurs score but I'll be apathetic to any success they may have in the future.

Hopefully someone will make a tottenham phoenix club like fc United or afc Wimbledon. Maybe disenchanted spurs and arsenal fans can start a new North London club. Walthamstow wanderers or seven sisters fc

 

[Ashley1974]

I haven't read any of the previous pages on this thread, but here's my tuppence worth....

Having read up on a lot of what's gone on, I have to say that I am on board with Spurs being in the ESL. Obviously we need to participate in the premier league as well (as is the ESL teams' plan), AND I would want different clubs to join the ESL every season to mix it up (which is also part of the plan)

The richest clubs have the most outlay and the most to lose when they don't have the right European football. Yet we have to play as many games as UEFA and FIFA dictate, yet they do not disclose how much money they make from us. No one knows what the UEFA president earns. No one knows what any FIFA member earns. What we do know, is that they are corrupt - that is a fact as both Blatter and Platini can atest.

They (UEFA and FIFA) keep asking the richest clubs to dance more and more each season, so that they earn more money for UEFA. When the rich clubs ask for changes, they have been repeatedly ignored and told to dance even more! This is incredibly flawed. And the richest clubs have had enough.

England's top 6 teams are all in the the richest 11 teams in the world. So when UEFA decided that the English FA can only have the same amount of CL spots as Italy and Spain, they are putting the financial burden of failing to make the CL on those 2 clubs that miss out. This is not sustainable and is dangerous for the future of the club involved.

I am so glad that somebody is finally giving FIFA a taste of their own medicine.

 

[hellava_tough]

Bloody hell!! Surely if that is true then what a clusterfuck - how do they go back from there?

Like my post above alludes to, billion dollar law suits are child's play for these guys.

It's par for the course.

You think that the likes of Henry or Glazer have never faced a billion dollar law-suit?

They don't care.

 

[spursfan1991]

It's despicable and disgraceful for Spurs to join a league that utterly disrespects "smaller" clubs - a league that is just based on money and power! I had not expected Spurs to go so low!
I was not surprised that Joe Lewis was open to it but I have lost my respect for Daniel Levy for condoning such a decision.
Spurs are known to be an "honorable" club with high stands on and off the pitch (f.ex. while clubs like Arsenal, Chelski & Man. Utd. were and are still known for their cheating tactics and never condemned all the "divers" at the clubs, Spurs were a club that did not tolerate such tactics and always condemned such players).
Football today is already running low on "spirit" and this new league will deplete football for even more "spirit".
The only way to stop this is for the fans to totally boycott the new league by not buying any tickets or club merchandise and not subscribe to the TV channel that will be broadcasting the games.
That would send the message that the fans are still in charge.
But will it happen...?

Boycotts, not buying tickets, merchandise, not subscribing to SKY etc should have been done when Chelsea were taken over. It is too little too late now. The game has been broke for too long and even the cancellation of the super league won't make things better as the new Champions league format is a shambles and that will probably get adapted so it effectively becomes a super league anyway.

People keep blaming these owners for greed but fans are just as much to blame. They could have prevented the rot a lot earlier. People keep demanding better players, criticise Levy for not spending money etc.

Fans, pundits, sky, need to have a good look at the mirror before going on their high horse.

 

[Stamford]

They've literally been the worst culprits for the past twenty years by buying their success. They're no different from what is being proposed whatsoever. I cant take them seriously at all.

 

[spursfan77]

Burnley's response was an interesting one, blaming weak governance by the governing bodies in this country has contributed to this happening.

 

[C0YS]

I just read the CL reform and Good Lord it is horrendous - it's actually a mess lol it's obviously designed to keep the rich clubs richer, just like FFP was.

Kinda depressing that we have these governing bodies in charge of running football and a new proposed body trying to breakaway with an equally terrible idea.

The last time, the groups spilting were part of the CL changes. The CL changes were mostly designed by Agnelli who represents the big clubs in negotiations with UEFA, UEFA has essentially tried to work to appease the money clubs for a very long time. It's not that they came up with an equally terrible idea, the ideas themselves come from the same people.