Waking up the day after the news of the Super League and it still feels odd.
Spurs have sacked Jose Mourinho, a story I’d normally be basking in, but are they doing that because they want to gear up with a proper manager for this Super League windfall? They’ve gone from being able to attract Nuno, to now being able to attract a rockstar. They’ve gone from a certain Harry Kane exit, to now possibly keeping him.
I’ve spent 5 years writing about Stan K needing to do things the hard way, and in the space of one pandemic, he’s shortcut 5 years of pain and taken us back into guaranteed Champions League football. He did it all without spending his own cash. He brought us the Arsene Wenger FFP dream. We have the edge without the effort.
It’s a lot to take in.
Amazon and Disney are looking at stumping the $4b for the TV deal. That’s game-changing money. $350m just to sign on.
There are some lawyers doing the rounds that basically say UEFA have no say in this and the Premier League wouldn’t be able to stop it.
Some are saying the league might suspend the teams. Don’t be stupid. The 6 teams leaving are the 6 teams that matter. All of them are clubs that can make a super league on brand name alone. The Premier League likely won’t have much power in this.
One possible hope with this is that there is European Union or British government intervention. It’s been trendy for countries to get involved in big business to protect industry. We’ve seen moves on 5G, TikTok in America, medicine. Question, is football worth protecting? This is a culture wrecking move. There’s also not a lot of love for billionaires. Boris Johnson won with the little guys last time around, would he go against his elitist instincts and step in? Is Macron action-oriented or just hot air? Would Merkel accept this from yet-to-be-confirmed German sides? Where is the politics on this?
There’s not really a counter to creating a closed league, hence the botched PR launch. However, human nature is all about the in and out club. We’re programmed to want to be on the inside. In caveman times, if you were in the out-group, you didn’t eat. Well, shock horror, my DMs were firing on all cylinders this morning…
‘Awful… but’
Clear-eyed, this move for Arsenal, is hard to argue. David Dein led the first break away league way back when. We are crippled financially, there was no plan for the pandemic, clubs want to take back control of their destiny. Arsenal have turbo-charged the future with this move.
I suspect the calculation on this is that fans are easily won over. Morals didn’t stop human rights abusers taking over clubs. No one cared about blood money if it was being spent on big-name players over the last decade. It won’t take long for fans of the in-club clubs to sail over to the idea that this is actually a good thing because Arteta’s transfer budget just grew 10x inside a day.
The other part of this story is that there’s going to be a networked effect on the fan multiplier. The biggest clubs, with the most fans, always in the biggest competition, will grow their fanbase at the expense of outsiders or plucky upstarts. Where are the kids going to spend their $80 for football shirts? The clubs where the stars go every season. Wednesday night football will be a global spectacle that diminishes smaller ‘outsider’ clubs chances of moving forward.
Think about the shape of our summer now. We’ve gone from a hard sell, to one of the easiest.
I spoke to some people yesterday that had a ruthless mindset on the matter.
Why not change?
When you start at a new place of work, your first job is to look at how they do things and ask questions. You will always find something that is baffling, inefficient, and counter-productive. When you ask why… ‘we’ve always done it that way.’
Human nature is routine. Football is routine because it works. Change doesn’t have to be a bad thing. This could be the start of an ideas race. Rory Smith, who I’m sure will have some excellent thoughts on this, said that football without competition is content. Do fans want content? Or competition? Can a truer competition exist for the purist? Does that purist spend more money than the casual? So many unanswered questions.
I was speaking to Matt Kandela from the podcast who has been shaped by New York to be one of the ruthless business people I know. He asked why European football was only for the top 7 clubs in each country. Is that interesting enough? Is that exploiting all the opportunities there are? Why can’t we create European avenues for Championship teams? That’d be interesting. Norwich vs St Pauli? I’d watch. Monday and Friday nights are free. Is there such thing as too much sport? Baseball has 180 odd games as season. So not in America. What is the capacity for fans?
Why couldn’t the alternative Champions League be an awesome spectacle? In the current Super League, you have a shite Arsenal, a shite Spurs, a fairly meh Chelsea team, and a Liverpool in decline.
Super League vs Champions League. Let’s make this pure WWE.
Football fans go where the hype is.
The main losers here right now are the fans that will have to spend money on all these experiments.
… but football only dies if the others don’t fight back.
What I will say is that I have absolutely no interest in supporting UEFA and FIFA in this. Two of the most corrupt organisations in the history of sport. Fuck them. They’ve allowed this into the game. They failed to enforce FFP, they failed to get a grip on disgraceful schedules, they gave the World Cup to a country using slave labour to build their stadiums. They have no moral high ground on this.
… and that’s the rub in this. It’s like a Tarrantino film, everywhere you look, there are bad guys. You don’t know where to place your allegiances.
The big loser is the game and as a result, the fans.
The billionaire class moved in on our culture and they are ripping it to shreds.
Being on the winning side is better than being an outsider, but don’t enjoy it too much, if something is too good to be true… it’ll bite you in the pocket eventually.
For now, tell me what you think in the comments below. Gonna try and get a podcast fired up a little later today about it.
Welcome
2nd position
3rd position
Trophy. that may not be valuable because of ESL
I don’t really understand this post at all, it seems like you can’t decide what exactly you’re trying to say.
This Super League is an absolute joke, and anyone suggesting we should get on board with it just because it happens to benefit us is not a true fan of football.
” he’s shortcut 5 years of pain and taken us back into guaranteed Champions League football.”
Is this meant to be sarcastic? He has done the exact opposite..
Its a slippery slope now…..
What a truly horrendous take..
Reposting to counter the ignoramus opinion that the ESL is akin to ‘Friendlies’
Why would clubs suffer or not suffer in the ESL? Does suffer only entail relegation? Why would clubs not try to make the Quarters or beyond? Why would clubs not make the best attempt to win the thing? If they suffer a bad season and end up close to bottom, why would they not try to improve next season?
No one is shedding any tears for FIFA, UEFA or the Premier League, but this idea breaks the game in half and the current state is better than what is being proposed. The game cannot have clubs guaranteeing their position in the tournament on balance sheet alone, it’s the antithesis of competition. It’s clear that it’s the American owners that have pushed more than others for this model and they have done so based on the US sport structure. But much like US and UK politics, whereas the US built checks and balances in from the beginning to ensure the… Read more »
Jim, maybe you should take a read of what is happening before saying that Stan K short-cutting us back to the elite is not a correct take.
“short-cutting us back to the elite”
More inane buzz words
Pedro, what a rambling self centered post ??
Rambo In football terms it’s winning trophies, participation in European competition at the top end, and relegation/promotion at the bottom end. In the ESL 15/20 clubs never have to worry about either. It’s fucking basic why that’s anti-competitive and lacking the possibility of suffering. Arsenal won’t make any moves to win the thing under Kroenke, he’s securing European money for 23 years and will put his feet up in absolute comfort the gravy train will continue. Guaranteed top 4 money was always his aphrodisiac. What incentive is there for him to actually make us number 1 amongst genuine giants? He’s… Read more »
@Charlie –
Spot on
“Hi son, I have some great news for you! You know how for the last ten years you’ve had a dream that you want to be accepted into the Gold School of Musical Arts? You know all those countless hours upon hours of practicing you’ve done? The weeks of locking yourself in your room, studying? The months of anticipation to see if you’d done enough on your tests? And the disappointment when you found out that you hadn’t quite made it this year, but the hope that next year you will make it? Well… I’m pleased to tell you that… Read more »
@Pedro
Good post. The day the yanks got involved in ‘soccer’ was the death knell for this sport.
Ok so there’s a massive injection of money into the system for ESL members.
But can the US sports franchise model work:
– alongside existing domestic competitions?
– without a player salary cap?
Wiglaf,
The lie Arsenal were sold and hedged their bets on was FFP. From UEFA and FIFA right?
What took Arsenal further and away from the elite was those dumb values that you still speak proudly of. The Arsenal way, No agents, Self sufficiency or whatever.
While every one else moved on.
You adapt to changes or get left behind
“The big loser is the game and as a result, the fans.“
Super glad Arsenal’s financial future is secured in the balance of that.
Instead of rally against the inept ownership we’ve witnessed for a decade or more we’re actually having to digest the fact he’s letting himself off the hook by signing us up to a Rotary club.
Football is by far the most popular sport on the planet in terms of reach. Save for massive population hub countries such as China (where a lot of money and effort has already been pumped into growing the game in the last decade), India, SE Asia and the USA it is the most popular sport by far. It’s not in need of a complete revamp in order to bring in more interest. It is already the most accessible and visible sport around the world. If people aren’t interested in the game they aren’t likely to start watching this ESL. And… Read more »
Americans ruin everything.
The idea that the club will never have another night like the game vs. Villarreal is fucking disgusting.
Having seen the proposals from UEFA as to the re vamped CL it really isn’t any surprise that clubs want a change. The proposals are that there will be on league comprising 36 teams. Each club will be guaranteed 10 games against different opposition The top eight teams will qualify for the knockout stages then clubs from 9-24 will then have play offs over 2 legs to see who joins the top 8 teams in the knockout tournament. It will obviously mean that there will be less money for the clubs also how on earth is that a better proposal… Read more »
Shocking take by Pedro tbh. I can only assume he supports this travesty.
Football has flipped in 24 hours.
Insane stuff
So if this were to start next season why are arsenal even bothering with winning Europa or any remaining games?
Not to state the obvious here but theirs nothing “Super” about a league that invites Spurs as a founding member.
You don’t need allegiances. It doesn’t make it a good idea just because it goes against UEFA and FIFA. Can’t we just admit it’s transparently driven by owners’ greed and is a stupid competition format? Maybe it makes loads of money but it devalues the excitement of the actual games.
ET Explain to me how a competition is a competition when a team no matter how poor they perform do NOT face any consequences like relegation.It doesn’t matter if Arsenal or Spuds or any other team accumulate 0 points in the group stage. They will STILL have the luxury of genormous financial incentives. It is utterly unfair to teams like Leicester and Villareal and Lille who have been growing their clubs organically and legally with hopes of getting CL football consistently and one day competing for the big honours.With the ESL it becomes impossible because majority of the football money… Read more »
Really looking forward to the new era of modern football where Arsenal finish 14th in the super league but our players and staff coast into the next season because the money is guaranteed and the ambition completely lacking.
Gone from not giving a fuck about Tottenham in the grand scheme of things to them being the only remit for the season. The finish-above-Spurs trophy to be unveiled now the top 4 money is guaranteed.
Cant wait, exciting times. Statue of Stan imminent.
Charlie, okay what’s the alternative?
When will we start to rip it up in the PL under Stan? When will the romanticised story of steady growth, up the ladder into Champions elect come to fruition?
Look at the cringeworthy story that DM has written, mixing some hard work inspirational father son family story and projecting that into how a football club should run. How embarrassing.
Also if we are supposedly on this path to improve, what stops us doing the same in ESL?
And re money dictating everything in the game, simply not true. Leicester winning the league is most commonly cited but how about Porto and Ajax winning Champions Leagues, Atletico Madrid winning La Liga, Klopp’s Dortmund winning back to back league titles, our own Invincibles/early 2000’s team overcoming a much more financially powerful United to win titles, teams like Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen all winning the Bundesliga in recent history, the French League having new winners nearly every season up until the PSG takeover and even after that you had that Monaco season and Lille this season are still top… Read more »
~Champagne Charlie –
Yeah, but don’t forget about the insane halftime shows..
Statement from Arsenal Supporters Trust:
“We are working urgently and closely with supporter groups from the so called ‘Big Six’
@MU_ST @AST_arsenal @THSTOfficial @WeAre1894 @ChelseaSTrust @spiritofshankly and with
@WeAreTheFSA & @FansEurope to fight these Superleague proposals. Despite our clubs’ behaviour we are unified in opposition & will continue to do all we can collectively to stop these plans. This includes seeking joint representation to Government and all relevant football authorities. We will issue an update in due course”
The day this league starts is the day I throw out any aresal gear I have and end a half century supporting this club. Brentford are closer to the home I grew up in, so on that day shall become a supporter.
The idea is a two sided coin. Yes, the participating teams would get a huge revenue but would it have any difference on someone like Stan K? That is not a guarantee that he would invest on Arsenal as a team. Arsenal with the kind of players we have at the moment cannot compete with the other elite team.
Stan K need to tell the fans what his plans are aside joining the super league.
“When will we start to rip it up in the PL under Stan? When will the romanticised story of steady growth, up the ladder into Champions elect come to fruition?”
We have done it once, we can do it again, organically.
“Stan K need to tell the fans what his plans are aside joining the super league.”
Increasing the value of his investment. That is it.
Does anyone remember how a team qualified for Champions League football or even care ?
That’s the question behind this, big teams just want to be a part of it and fans just want to see their team in it,
Fans are fickle and it won’t take long for the vast majority to come round and start paying and watching it.
FFP was a massive failure and didn’t stop clubs abusing it and UEFA did nothing, they only have themselves to blame.
CT
Suggesting that Leicester have grown the club “ organically “ is probably a mis representation.
Leicester defaulted on significant debt when they went into administration, they have had huge injection of capital from their owners, paid a settlement because they broke FFP rules.
“That’s the question behind this, big teams just want to be a part of it and fans just want to see their team in it,”
Yeah, we can look forward to 23 years without a trophy, fucking brilliant. can’t wait.
And who the fuck wants to see teams like Dundalk in the CL anyway ?
Pedro No way should the Super league happen in its currently planned state. Every club should be open to being relegated and promoted. That for me is key. I too dont give 2 damn about Fifa and Uefa. They have been a corrupt organisation from way back when. They have allowed certain entities to break FFP rules while fined other clubs for breaching the same. They have essentially made up their own rules as they go on. But what the ESL is planning is not just anti-fan its also anti-football and anti-sport. The definition of sport is an activity involving… Read more »
Good one, Pedro. In one stroke Arsenal re-join the elite come 2024. That makes me very happy. In fact I am licking my chop’s at the prospect. No sanctimonious sadness from me. Just imagine if we’d been left out of the English Six. Perish the thought! Boris may wave the flag but he will not intervene. Nor will Macron when PSG climb aboard. Nor will Merkel when Bayern M get off the fence. No doubt someone will complain to ECJ . A waste of time . It’s gonna happen, one way or another. The ESL is a life-saver for the… Read more »
Rambo
We have literally pissed 300m up the wall in transfer fees since Wenger left.
Are you saying that is not enough money to be competitive nowadays? Just because of the staggering incompetence being displayed in the club’s recruitment does not mean that it is impossible to compete in the future.
Liverpool with similar money spent went from a team that finished closer to midtable into one that made two CL Finals in three seasons, winning one as well as putting up two 95+ point PL seasons winning a title.
JL,
When was the last time we won the CL or European Cup ?
Terra
Leicester is just one club among money.
There are many many other examples.
What the fuck is this blog about?
The biggest sea change of opinion from one blog post to the next in the space of one day ever seen.
“Clear-eyed, this move for Arsenal, is hard to argue.”
Correction: This move for *Kroenke* is hard to argue. He’s securing perpetual European paydays without the pesky need to compete for them.
Arsenal should mean more than that.
@Bergkamp63 –
You probably don’t remember but we have come close a number of times over the past two decades.
We also won a European cup in 1994.
Pedro It is clear that Arsenal are still considered by most of our competitors a major draw even though we have not performed at that level in recent years. As a long term supporter and season ticket holder that is precisely where I expect us to be. It should not be forgotten that Arsenal have played continuously at the top level of English Football since the First World War and no other club has been continuously there before the 1950s. So I find it annoying when I read Le Grove just how many so-called supporters choose to belittle the club.… Read more »
Once ! In 2006 ?
Not THE European cup !
@Bergkamp63 –
We have been to 3 finals, two semi-finals and, a number of quarter-finals. All without the need of some shady monopoly.
Fuck off with Kroenke the money leecher.
Those that are going along with this are not football fans.
They are purely tribal only.
Pretend football fans.
And I am still utterly flabbergasted at the change of opinion on the blog reader post within a day.
Staggering.
Fuck off into the soul less land.
Disney funding this? So apt.
Mickey Mouse.
So many fans completely abandoned for the global tv audieces in Asia etc.
You are not supporting a football club now. You are supporting purely a brand.
Be proud of yourselves.
I don’t share the antiquated moral high ground merchants,
Either move with the times or get left behind, that was our choice, and we weren’t alone.
A storm in a tea cup.
Protectionism never works
Protectionism produces higher prices, less consumer choice, poor service, and no urgency for anyone to innovate, because they’ve wiped out the competition, which ultimately leads to stagnation and regression
Corporate protectionism and state protectionism always produce the exact same results
Free markets only work if they’re based on fair competition
Creating a competition that isn’t based on competition, is completely at odds with what football is all about
No consequence for poor performances and poor decision making
Is there any wonder that Kroenke is right at home in this sort of environment?
Pedro selling out already – fastest u-turn by anyone’s standards.
Let’s be clear. This isn’t great for Arsenal, it’s great for STAN F*cking KROENKE!!!
Where’s the money going? Stan’s Pocket. No relegation, money keeps rolling even if he fields a team of geriatric amputees and gets thrashed week in week out.
No sporting merit, just pure unadulterated greed.
All it took was Pedro’s mate Matt to see Pedro switch up so dramatically from I am ashamed and ashamed at my club and this has to stop to we must be in it and this is the way of it.
Pure tribalism.
Nothing to do with the love of football.
Pedro, I usually find some agreement with the majority of what you say-however,I can find nothing to agree with about this blatant cash grab by the greedy owners. I have supported Arsenal since the 70’s and will happily leave them behind if they go into the rich boys club. A closed competition with no relegation or promotion?I cant wait to see us getting walloped by Madrid,Barca,AC Milan and probably Spurs-now they will probably get a coach in to take them forward. I see this as akin to when the darts split and you had two different organisations with different champions.… Read more »
Since when has entertainment been fair competition ?
That’s what football basically is !
Fucking crazy.
Biggest u-turn on this blog ever seen in history I would have thought.
Ad so dramatic from one extreme to the other.
“Pedro is either bought out, has been Americanised, or is just so steeped in the phony pretentious marketing world that he’s lost his humanity.”
All of the above.
Rambo What’s the alternative? A better owner would be an obvious one. Arsenal have drab ownership for a decade and you think a remodelled football landscape is the answer? Our failures aren’t based on the football system in place. We’ve failed to move the needle because from the very top it’s been hands off and poorly driven. Stan collects valuable sports teams, he’s not a winner. Liverpool chased away shit owners and better ones landed, they reaped the benefits. In the ESL those guys have the pedigree to compete, based on history. Our guy does not, not even close. “Also… Read more »
Absoutely awful what as occurred on this blog today.
B63 & EB – What a surprise, selling your soul and screwing the rest of football in the name of pure self interest. And you two have the bare arsed cheek to condemn others for being plastic fans?
Staggering how a people have a knee jerk reaction to something that has been happening for several years ?
Not sure where everyone was, it’s not like we didn’t know this was coming ?
Matt Kandela’s take would be the pragmatic, rational approach if you were a senior employee or shareholder in the business: you’re capturing a guaranteed, risk-free rent in perpetuity, having secured access to a cartel. To turn down or be locked out of the cartel likely would begin the slow drip, drip towards the end of your business as a going concern, as the English football pyramid collapses over the next 10-15 years as the trickle down of money from the top ends. The Stroller’s take, similarly, is Darwinian: you’re either in or you’re out, and if you’re out, then God… Read more »
I love the cognitive dissonance of pundits, one minute it’s “Lacazette is surplus to requirements” next minute it’s “Lacazette’s injury could be season-defining for Arsenal”
The most annoying part of the big six clubs joining the ESL is that none of these clubs involved fans in the deliberations.
Not sure why posts aren’t being accepted on this thread, but we’ll try again.
This new ESL is nothing to do with competition or playing with the best it’s about money. It’s about making money for Kroenke and the other owners.
Legacy fans such as us don’t matter any more to Kroenke et al. Why on earth would I support a club when it no-longer wants any connection with me other than my money?
Not plastic, just backward thinking.
It’s happened and it wasn’t a surprise.
Pointless crying over spilt milk once it’s out of the bottle.
Get over it !
It is going to take governments to stop this. Pete’s right about the rot in football – it used to be about sport and the local community. Owners were rich folk who didn’t mind getting poorer. Now it’s all about the money and that attracts rich folk who want to get richer. So government has to move the financial goalposts. Capping foreign ownership of clubs at 25%. Mandating fan ownership and fan supervisory boards. Basically making football clubs an unattractive investment class. Does Boris have the balls? We’ll see.
Champagne
That “better owner” argument doesn’t meet this moment.
Liverpool have good owners and they are one the drivers of the ESL.
“… and that’s the rub in this. It’s like a Tarrantino film, everywhere you look, there are bad guys. You don’t know where to place your allegiances.”
And it’s a 50/50 crap shoot if the movie (superleague) turns out good, or I’ve wasted my money again.
Rory Smith, who I’m sure will have some excellent thoughts on this, said that football without competition is content.
I don’t get this statement. Football is a competitive sport and the competition is what delivers the content. Many will leave if it stops being a competition and becomes more WWE-like.
The ESL will have 12 teams with guaranteed places. Where is the competition there?
“Super League vs Champions League. Let’s make this pure WWE.”
Quite an apt comparison really sports entertainment, not sports. Which is exactly what the ESL will be. A traveling sideshow.
‘Most Leagues in Europe are frankly uncompetitive beasts. ”Does anyone believe that the French or Bundesliga are competitive? Indeed I would venture to suggest that also applies to Serie A and La Liga as well. When was the last time that a club outperformed PSG, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Real Madrid or Barcelona?” Emiratesstroller you posted this on the last thread. I don’t know if you’re aware but with 5 games to go in France, Lille are top of the league. Monaco and Lyon are both also within a result of the top. With 7 games to go in Spain, Atletico… Read more »
Dissenter
“Liverpool have good owners and they are one the drivers of the ESL.”
Because they won stuff previously and good stuff under their ownership.
This doesn’t matter now and won’t matter to many Liverpool fans either if the intention all along with these owners was to pull this one on the home based fanship.
It deletes all they did previously.
Bergkempf63 does have a good point.
There’s a lot of emotional outpouring to the ESL story
It’s almost like a ginormous asteroid just struck the planet when in fact this day was slowly building up.
Some clubs are just massive global entities with foreign followership that’s outpaced domestic fans
Sorry London fans, globalization has whittled down your influence.
Dissenter You’ve not read what was written. Liverpool absolutely do have better owners than Arsenal, it’s not even a debate. They’re interested in Liverpool being the best in England and Europe, and they facilitated both of those with actionable effort and investment. Nobody is commenting on their moral compass or self-interest. They’re all the same as far as that goes, looking after themselves financially above all else. My point is very simple, Liverpool will adapt to the ESL with the obvious ambition to win it. Arsenal will take our place as a middling nothing, happy to have a big cheque… Read more »
WengerEagle
Juventus are only 2 points ahead of 5th place Napoli so they might even miss out on next year’s UCL.
Wait until the audiences for the new ESL start to drop as the franchise becomes stale and can’t attract new wallets.
They’ll start changing the game to get more excitement and drama into it. Before long it won’t have much resemblance to football as we know it.
DissenterApril 19, 2021 16:22:23
The most annoying part of the big six clubs joining the ESL is that none of these clubs involved fans in the deliberations.
Sounds exactly like the formation of the Premier League ?
gunnerman
They are also behind Atalanta (who beat them at the weekend) whose entire squad’s salary is less than Cristiano Ronaldo’s.
They must not have got the memo that you must be stinking rich to compete.
Weagle,
See for me the starting point for the Arsenal decline was the Values and houlier than thou attitude( not dissimilar to a lot of turn your nose up commentary I’m seeing here today)
Roman and the Sheikhs changed the game. We could have adapted but didn’t and from there we’re always playing catch-up. Mistakes are costly when you are already behind, the hole just gets deeper.
We are at that crossroads again now. If we go for class and indignation again, we will be left further behind languishing permanently with mid table teams
WengerEagle
This is exactly the kind of drama we will lose with automatic qualification to ESL bullshit.
Ishola 70 You imply that those who believe that Arsenal should join the ESL are not true supporters. Please enlighten me what are exactly your credentials for being called a genuine Arsenal Supporter? I have been an Arsenal Supporter and Season Ticket Holder for over 50 years. I enjoy going to watch them and unlike most of the moaners and so-called fairweather posters I accept that there are always going to be ups and downs in our performance level. There is no guarantee for success. However, what I do like to believe is that my club are respected as one… Read more »
Cazorla
The wind is blowing up your arse
WEagle, I’m afraid that Stroller is more likely to have his eye on the latest market prices than the league tables across Europe. Money being king and all that.
All this talk of being left behind all the time.
Many will take the view that they would rather be “left behind.”
In the future this ESL could very likely be seen as some freak show that exists purely for it’s own purposes and these clubs in their own remote ivory tower completely detached from the rest of the real footballing.
This ESL that we must be in could be viewed in the future with scorn and ridicule.
Dissenter
“Some clubs are just massive global entities with foreign followership that’s outpaced domestic fans
Sorry London fans, globalization has whittled down your influence.”
Then fvck off with the Arsenal name and brand, move the franchise to Dubai or Singapore, Disneyfy the whole thing to monetise the global audience, and leave us alone to rebuild a football club from scratch within the existing structure.
Business is business… I’m glad we are in the inside not the outside because I would like the best players at our club…. The format needs a rethink to give the illusion of an open house as football competition currently does but I’m not going to shed a tear for UEFA on this one.
I mean there definitely is a cultural divide here. European Vs American. Americans having grown up with this sort of format are likely going to be more open to it. I mean, it is exactly who this sort of league is targeted towards.
“There’s a lot of emotional outpouring to the ESL story
It’s almost like a ginormous asteroid just struck the planet when in fact this day was slowly building up.“
So an asteroid hitting the earth isn’t a disaster because we’ve known of its possibility for years, got it.
What a bellend hahaha
Bergkamp63April 19, 2021 16:16:52 Since when has entertainment been fair competition ? That’s what football basically is ! Football is only entertaining if it’s competitive, watching the same teams win 5-0 every week is boring The success of the PL since 2013, has been 5 different winners Barca + Real have won 16 out of the last 17 La Liga’s Bayern Munich have won every title since 2011 Celtic have won 10 in a row PSG have been toppled once in 8 years Juventus have won the last 8 or 9 The way we distribute the money in the PL,… Read more »
“we are being recognised as one of its founder members on merit.”
Absolute crap ES.
‘Merit’ in sport is only in terms of sporting performance, not financial clout. When they formed the Premier League did they invite teams based on financial performance or performance on the pitch (league position)?
You know the answer, it’s people that think that money trumps ethics and fair play that are destroying not only football but the prospects of billions of people around the globe.
We need to set up a protest now