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Der Spiegel Football Leaks revelations

Rocksuperstar

Isn't this fun? Isn't fun the best thing to have?
Jun 6, 2005
53,290
66,758
See, those saying that it would be a disaster for the remainder of the premier league, i'm not so sure. In the short term, maybe, as the clamour for the gravy train kicks off, and the high profile sponsors who throw money at it because it's shiny and new, but look at the teams involved - would you really want to be involved in an even smaller feeding pool for the top-top clubs? The scam artists would still continue to scam and draw money away from the smaller teams, give it a few seasons and it would just become another, smaller premier league.

The only way it would work would be to elevate it to another level above, with even more high investment, even more huge wages, etc. which would, in turn, cost more to the fan and put the clubs at greater risk - if it goes ahead it will be a league for the top 1% of "fans" - membership of the league will be the football equivalent of a residency at a Vegas Casino.
 

Mattspur

ENIC IN
Jan 7, 2004
4,885
7,257
I don't see a European Super League working because all the teams involved are commercial giants due to their success on the pitch. In a European Super League only one team will be successful, meaning that most teams won't be. How long before sponsorship deals decline because sponsoring a team regularly finishing 8th to 14th in the ESL is not as attractive as sponsoring a team regularly competing at the top of a domestic league. How long before the best players at these same clubs move on to the best teams in the ESL leaving the rest with no chance to compete for the title. I think it makes terrible sense for the English teams to leave the EPL as they've got it all already. The only clubs which will benefit are those from less affluent leagues like Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
 

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
46,680
104,957
some Back pages have got klopp saying that man cit should be heavily punished if it’s true they’ve broken rules. Good to see someone poking their head up and saying something public even it was just probably a vague answer to a press conference question.
 

Johnny J

Not the Kiwi you need but the one you deserve
Aug 18, 2012
18,124
47,903
some Back pages have got klopp saying that man cit should be heavily punished if it’s true they’ve broken rules. Good to see someone poking their head up and saying something public even it was just probably a vague answer to a press conference question.
The fact that they can break the rules so deliberately and blatantly, and then get only a nominal fine to settle the matter, shows where the power truly lies in the game. And it's not with any of the regulators.

City are essentially funded by a fucking country - same as PSG - but STILL felt it necessary to cheat the rules. If FIFA had any power it would impose something that would genuinely hurt the club, like a long transfer ban or a ban from European competitions. But that would never happen, because City would take the matter to CAS with their legions of lawyers and bottomless pockets. It's the same story with most sports: the governing body has no real power. Remember the Tyson Fury drugs case? That settled, in Fury's favor, because it would have bankrupted the governing body if they fought and lost the case.

Things have come a long way since we were deducted 12 points (reduced to 6) in the 80s for financial misconduct. Imagine if the authorities tried that with City now.

What's particularly distasteful about this whole thing is that City didn't do this by accident - they deliberately broke the rules and tried to conceal it. And their cheating contributed, in some way, to them winning things over other clubs. Yet this will be glossed over in the media, who won't call them what they are: cheats.
 

BehindEnemyLines

Twisting a Melon with the Rev. Black Grape
Apr 13, 2006
4,574
13,161
Financial doping has probably hit Spurs more than any other team - we'd have been Champions League for the majority of the last 20 years if it wasn't for Abromovich and the oil slavers.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
The fact that they can break the rules so deliberately and blatantly, and then get only a nominal fine to settle the matter, shows where the power truly lies in the game. And it's not with any of the regulators.

City are essentially funded by a fucking country - same as PSG - but STILL felt it necessary to cheat the rules. If FIFA had any power it would impose something that would genuinely hurt the club, like a long transfer ban or a ban from European competitions. But that would never happen, because City would take the matter to CAS with their legions of lawyers and bottomless pockets. It's the same story with most sports: the governing body has no real power. Remember the Tyson Fury drugs case? That settled, in Fury's favor, because it would have bankrupted the governing body if they fought and lost the case.

Things have come a long way since we were deducted 12 points (reduced to 6) in the 80s for financial misconduct. Imagine if the authorities tried that with City now.

What's particularly distasteful about this whole thing is that City didn't do this by accident - they deliberately broke the rules and tried to conceal it. And their cheating contributed, in some way, to them winning things over other clubs. Yet this will be glossed over in the media, who won't call them what they are: cheats.

We didn't get a points deduction in the end because sugar threatened to go to court. We got a £1.5m fine. No ban from europe or the fa cup either
 

Danners9

Available on a Free Transfer
Mar 30, 2004
13,998
20,756

mano-obe

Well-Known Member
Mar 2, 2005
4,238
7,518
Didnt the BBC mention they had already got a fine so they got punished already? All that has come to light is why they got fined.

We need an American intervention again
 

Johnny J

Not the Kiwi you need but the one you deserve
Aug 18, 2012
18,124
47,903
Didnt the BBC mention they had already got a fine so they got punished already? All that has come to light is why they got fined.

We need an American intervention again
They settled it by agreement behind closed doors for a paltry amount.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Didnt the BBC mention they had already got a fine so they got punished already? All that has come to light is why they got fined.

We need an American intervention again

They got punished for what uefa knew they did wrong. Seems it was a lot more.

If someone admits assault and gets sentenced then later you realise they have killed people and buried them under the patio, you might think a harsher sentence is warranted.
 

Saoirse

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
6,143
15,550
Arsenal have been in the CL for the majority of the last 20 years. Without dodgy money no City or Chelsea, that leaves Liverpool, Arsenal and United, basically less competition.
Equally though it might have meant, for instance, that Leeds got a couple more Champions League seasons, never went bust, and cemented themselves as a major power. Indeed similar could have happened at Newcastle, especially if they'd attracted a better owner than Cashley, or more into the mid-2000s Everton or Villa who were very much up there with us. And even if we had qualified a few times, we likely wouldn't have done as well as Chelsea - it would take a sporting miracle, for instance, for our 07-08 squad to have reached the Champions League final and gone to penalties. The consequence being that England might have dropped below Italy and Germany in the rankings and just lost the fourth spot altogether.

While looking back on these hypotheticals is fun, I don't think it's wise to assume that everything would have turned out in the most obvious way - there could simply have been a different twist. At the end of the day we're in a remarkably improved and healthy position, and I'm happy whether that's in spite of Chelsea and City as it seems or, counter-intuitively, because we rose to their challenge.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Equally though it might have meant, for instance, that Leeds got a couple more Champions League seasons, never went bust, and cemented themselves as a major power. Indeed similar could have happened at Newcastle, especially if they'd attracted a better owner than Cashley, or more into the mid-2000s Everton or Villa who were very much up there with us. And even if we had qualified a few times, we likely wouldn't have done as well as Chelsea - it would take a sporting miracle, for instance, for our 07-08 squad to have reached the Champions League final and gone to penalties. The consequence being that England might have dropped below Italy and Germany in the rankings and just lost the fourth spot altogether.

While looking back on these hypotheticals is fun, I don't think it's wise to assume that everything would have turned out in the most obvious way - there could simply have been a different twist. At the end of the day we're in a remarkably improved and healthy position, and I'm happy whether that's in spite of Chelsea and City as it seems or, counter-intuitively, because we rose to their challenge.

Nope. If city and chelsea hadn't had oil billions pumped into them they would not have been as good. Everyone else would have been similar.
 

allatsea

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
8,865
16,054
Nope. If city and chelsea hadn't had oil billions pumped into them they would not have been as good. Everyone else would have been similar.
Both were on the point of financial collapse and in Chelsea’s case may have been closed down as a professional club.
 

Everlasting Seconds

Well-Known Member
Jan 9, 2014
14,914
26,616
Leaks are bad enough, but the real atrocity is hidden in plain sight, and it affects all of us. Football is dead. They've killed it. As far as a pure, innocent and fair way of enjoying some PL footie with your family, It's game over. We, normal fans, have been deprived and stolen from. There's been a burglary, robbing a longstanding tradition of honour, and glory.
All that's left, is money. And they, the simple thieves, are asking common men and women to pay a day's net salary only to be able to maybe steal a peak at the game, from stands so far away from the action that binoculars are matchday accessory number one.

And that's from somebody who is not a socialist with an agenda driven, ideologic misconstrued sense of fight. I'm not another Jeremy Corbyn wanting to prohibit everything I personally don't like and make everything I do like a free to the public.
I'm just a football fan that's fed up. Football is my ideology.

Go five years back, selling our most priced possession for 80, 90 or 100 million euro (depending on sources), it wasn't a bad deal. Only five years later, and if the same amount of money had been offered today, Levy would say "sounds good, and what would you like to pay for his good leg, and how long is this loan contract you want for?

And then they ask me for 100 pounds for a freaking replica t-shirt, which is not even close to the same as they use on the pitch, looks exactly as the shirt of any other team out there and is made of plastic.

I've had it. It's enough now. But that's the real travesty. Not some behind-closed-doors "super league" agreement. At this point, who cares if Real Madrid plays in Madrid or in Munich. It's all for naught, football died.
 

Lilbaz

Just call me Baz
Apr 1, 2005
41,363
74,893
Leaks are bad enough, but the real atrocity is hidden in plain sight, and it affects all of us. Football is dead. They've killed it. As far as a pure, innocent and fair way of enjoying some PL footie with your family, It's game over. We, normal fans, have been deprived and stolen from. There's been a burglary, robbing a longstanding tradition of honour, and glory.
All that's left, is money. And they, the simple thieves, are asking common men and women to pay a day's net salary only to be able to maybe steal a peak at the game, from stands so far away from the action that binoculars are matchday accessory number one.

And that's from somebody who is not a socialist with an agenda driven, ideologic misconstrued sense of fight. I'm not another Jeremy Corbyn wanting to prohibit everything I personally don't like and make everything I do like a free to the public.
I'm just a football fan that's fed up. Football is my ideology.

Go five years back, selling our most priced possession for 80, 90 or 100 million euro (depending on sources), it wasn't a bad deal. Only five years later, and if the same amount of money had been offered today, Levy would say "sounds good, and what would you like to pay for his good leg, and how long is this loan contract you want for?

And then they ask me for 100 pounds for a freaking replica t-shirt, which is not even close to the same as they use on the pitch, looks exactly as the shirt of any other team out there and is made of plastic.

I've had it. It's enough now. But that's the real travesty. Not some behind-closed-doors "super league" agreement. At this point, who cares if Real Madrid plays in Madrid or in Munich. It's all for naught, football died.

Dunno. I enjoyed watching messi sissoko drift past 4 players last night controlling the ball with his shins. I'm looking forward to going to barca next month. I wont be buying a plastic shirt and can't afford a season ticket but it isn't dead yet. I hate the way it's gone and detest the way it's going but it's been going this way since the introduction of the premier and champions league.
 
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