The biggest heist in football history is underway and the more you look at it, the more you speak to people in the game, the more you realise the reason there’s no PR counter-point is the clubs don’t need one.
It’s happening. You’ll have to suck it up. There are very few options available to anyone.
Rich people get away with bad things because money solves most problems. All manner of shady owners get a pass from fans if there’s an investment on the pitch. This Super League is the future clubs have been looking at since the David Dein era. The big owners hope you’ll forget when you see the riches it reaps on your team every season.
I spent most of my day speaking to people in the game. Most are thinking about this very differently to you or I. They see this as an inevitable next step in a game that hasn’t been for the people for 30 years. The thread of conversations generally had three points.
- Clubs don’t make much money out of the game.
- The pandemic fucked their average business models and they want control back.
- UEFA has massively under-valued the value of the ‘content’ the big clubs produce, this is the consequence of their negligence
The big owners don’t make any money from it. Everything is hoovered up in wages and average business models. You are doing well if you turn a profit. Those profits are pitiful by big biz standards.
The pandemic exacerbated this issue. No fans. No say over TV rights. No control over schedules. No ability to move fixtures. No control over survival. It was a nightmare that hit everyone hard.
The big push is that they feel their content is massively undervalued. Their numbers show that their ‘brands’ drive the most eyeballs and value. They are business people who care about nothing else bar profit and growth, and to their minds, the piece of pie they are getting isn’t big enough.
UEFA haven’t helped themselves. Look at the money they’ve left on the table.
Champions League winner gets £74m (if they win all their games)
Just the signing on fee for the Super League is £310m.
Minimum prize money each season is £130m up to £213m.
Clubs have to win 6 Champions League medals to make the cash delivered in year one of Super League.
Gary Neville, fan appointed slayer of this idea, to people in football, is a laughing stock. The guy that played for the richest club in England, lecturing them whilst he financially dopes a League 2 club, doesn’t fly with them.
The notion of competition to a lot of people I spoke to is also in question. How have things worked over the last decade in Italy, Greece, France, Germany and Spain? In the European Cup right now, 97% of the tournaments have been won by founding members. Is the competition good content before the quarter-finals?
It’s all quite elitist and grim to listen to if you are a romantic like most people who read blogs and listen to podcasts are.
However, as Matt on our latest pod points out (below). How did you feel after we became the best club in Europe at Highbury, only to have our hopes and dreams dashed by Russian blood money? We weren’t left behind based on merit, it was because billionaire backers swept the board in the Premier League and financially doped.
UEFA was supposed to rescue Arsenal and they didn’t. FFP was not the great hope Ivan G promised. Now they’ve been fucked because they let this get out of control.
There is also a belief that this deal is going to work out better for everyone. A stronger Premier League, because we have even better players, will make the Premier League even more appealing. That’ll raise the revenue of other teams in our collective bargain. It’ll also create a load more tax, that British clubs pay, to support a better grassroots system.
This also won’t be the last big shift. There will be a better second-tier competition, that will likely take the elitist approach of making sure there aren’t filler games with bland teams. It’ll focus on quality, because clubs can’t afford to be left behind.
That’s the thinking anyway.
What makes all the above worse is all roads point to this being pushed through without much resistance. Below are some questions I had answered by various people on the potential roadblocks being discussed.
WE’LL BAN PLAYERS FROM INTERNATIONALS
Firstly, we just lost our captain to malaria, I’m not sure clubs care too much for the schedule that ruins their talent. Secondly, UEFA and FIFA simply can’t do it. International duty is an honour, but it doesn’t put food on the table. There is no situation where the 500 best players in the world are not invited to the international tournaments, why? Because there’s no product unless the best players are there.
Imagine the options.
$500k p/w at Arsenal. No World Cup.
$100k p/w at Crystal Palace. Average Europe if you are lucky. World Cup.
No brainer.
PREMIER LEAGUE WILL EJECT BIG 6
A lovely thought, but Sky are not going to have that. It takes more than 14 votes to make a decision at Premier League level. Also, the other clubs don’t want it. The absolute last thing Steve Parish needs is the gravy train of the big 6 exiting the league. No one is paying to watch a top of the table clash between Leicester and Crystal Palace.
There’s also an alternative if they did do a madness. The Premier League is a separate entity from the Championship. The Big 6 could join forces with them and maybe the SPL. They would absolutely jump at the chance.
PLAYERS WILL PROTEST
Highly doubtful. Players will know this new deal means more money if you make it to the top. They will also soon learn that better players in the Premier League mean a bigger TV deal which means more money for them. Remember when it was an actual conversation whether players would go to shit clubs with no history for money? If you don’t, it was a real conversation.
Super League means a bigger retirement fund for everyone. Players aren’t going to vote for something that lowers their earnings potential.
REBEL TEAMS WILL BE BANNED FROM EUROPE THIS FRIDAY
How can you cancel the Champions League? How can you make the Europa League spectacle Roma vs Villareal?
Moves like that wouldn’t fly with TV or sponsors. They would also push clubs right into the Super League. UEFA and FIFA need to negotiate, they’d be foolish to go nuclear on this season.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION
This sounded like a good idea to me yesterday morning. It’s a populist move, it could be politically advantageous for someone like Boris who courts the working-class vote. However, it’d be quite the move for democratic nations to tell private business what they can do. It’d also be problematic to demand less money come into the country via payroll tax. Every nation is reeling, they need to pay loans back, footballer revenue is a big, big contributor.
MURDOCH INTERVENTION
This Super League move is an attack on his empire. You’ve seen the seething pundits he’s rolling out. Every newspaper in his portfolio will rally against this. He is the darkest of media moguls. I read a piece about his relationship with Zuck. He basically told him to course-correct on media payments or he’d go after him. His relentless attacks wear the powerful down, his channels make you nightly news, his sycophants get airtime on his shows parroting corrosive talking points over and over. If he gets his teeth into this, he could use the basic premise of populism to create a divide between fans and their clubs. How much stomach do CEOs have for his crew rummaging in the metaphorical bins of the past? Vinai didn’t have the stomach for a fan Q&A Sunday.
FAN POWER
This is a legitimate form of action that could be interesting. Fans could protest. They could activate social media. They could clog switchboards. They could be a real pain in the arse.
Problem? CEO Daniel Levey isn’t driving this move. CEO Vinai isn’t the decision-maker. It’s Stan, who is sitting in a £100m ranch in Colorado. You know what he’s thinking? £12 billion over 23 seasons, minimum.
There are rumours some British clubs are losing their nerve, so let’s see… but my point stands, owners of these mega clubs make the decisions. They aren’t in the stands or on twitter. They reside in palaces, ranches, and mansions where the rabble cannot bother them. Bottling it after 2 days would be a surprise.
FOOTBALL FILLIBUSTERING
The biggest weapon against all of this is time. CEOs and owners know this. If they can’t get this agreed for next season, the weight of the fans, the media, and government might be too much. Someone has to find a big wrench and slow the momentum. If you can give the fighters of this battle the weapon of time, it might be stopped.
They’re trying to go warp speed on this because once it’s done, fans in the stadium can’t do much about it. It’ll be as effective as Green & Gold or the Wenger Out protests. But clog it up, target a weak owner, and who knows?
THE GERMANY EFFECT
PSG are not committing yet, but let’s be real, no team needs this like them. However, Germany has been quiet. They are fan-owned. This is not a fan-owned vibe. Germany is not a country that readily indulges the big man taking away from the little man. A strong statement of rejection from Bayern and Dortmund would add real pressure to the other clubs.
So to conclude. This is a desperate time for those of us that believe in football the way it’s currently shaped. The meritocratic nature of the game that we love has become a squashed business model impediment. We’re now on the path to something far more stable and controlled. I don’t like it. It’s a miserable end to a journey we all knew we were on for years.
Football looks like a WWE drama from the 90s, but less fun. We’re looked at as a category of content, not a community institution. We cater to the globe, not the faithful. We now represent the worst of privilege and entrenched power.
Rooting for UEFA or FIFA is like choosing a root canal or an eye infection. Hoping a media mogul that has divided the world comes to our rescue is literally doing a deal with the devil. Praying fan action will do anything after watching it fail over and over again feels naive.
This is not the game I fell in love with, but it’s the game I love. What do you do?
Let’s see where the drama takes us.
P.S. We dropped a spicy podcast about the touchiest subject we’ve ever covered on The Arsenal Opinion. Johnny, Matt and myself were joined by Venture Capitalist, Daniel Cardenas (long-suffering Gooner).
Ernest I knew that ‘green’ implied jealousy. Just don’t understand how any criticism I made has anything to do with jealousy. You might disagree with my comments or think I was being unfair to Pedro but that’s got nothing to do with jealousy. I enjoy the blog but have never had any desire to do anything similar. As for Pedro’s claim that I was attacking his character. I clearly wasn’t. In fact, I said it wasn’t right to imply he took money to be pro-ESL. That’s clearly nonsensical: Maybe I was a little harsh and he might know some people… Read more »
@ Guns;
Nope, on Arsenal.com the official line is: “We have joined 11 European clubs as founding members of a new midweek competition, the European Super League.”
Headline is “The Big Thomas Partey Interview.”
I just don’t see how anyone could look at a sport with 100 years and more of tradition and fundamentally change the way things operate.. and be like yeah… people will understand.. No relegation, is not Football.. and earning your right to play in a tourney.. whatever you call it Cup or Champions Cup or whatever,. is not either. Apologies to the MLS which is barely football. but nobody likes it’s tournament here either with playoffs and 2 divisions..it gets terrible ratings. I don’t think anyone could tell you who won the last 3 years. They have talked about adding… Read more »
Kroenke thought that the ESL would allow his franchise to be back in with the big boys without him having to put one dollar in to backing the club. This whole thing is an American idea where relegation and promotion does not exist. Interesting that the ones that have not pulled out are all American owned, and the ones that have have owners who actually “get” football and what it means to people.
I hate what Kroenke is doing to Arsenal.
Pedro-why would I want to go anywhere else? I like it here. The last time I got binned was by Geoff. If I think you exaggerate your inside connections a little, it’s just an opinion not a character assassination. Why get so sensitive about it?
need to earn it. That is the honest way….
Fuck Stan… bastard
As bad as this SL scheme was its collapse is the triumph of Qatar, new master of World Football. Fully expect them to “win” the CL now… football is coming home …to Doha
Good ebening !
Cazorla
Exactly. If your team doesn’t earn it, what else is there about being a fan. No joy at all.
Kroenke saw this as the perfect opportunity to get the club back with the big boys without having to put one dollar in to the club. No promotion or relegation is an American thing and they have no idea how the football model works. Interesting that the American owned clubs are not pulling out at the moment and the two clubs that have baled are not American owned and have owners who “get” football even if the do financially dope.
How I hate Kroenke and what he is doing to Arsenal.
Middy That’s my point entirely, the greed has completely took centre stage and fucked their ambitions. There was room for a reform, but the key ingredient was the product you were going to market as new and better. It was terrible and the whole community shit on it and then the audacity to arrogantly challenge. Incredible how bad an idea you can foster when you’re blinded by money and petty grievances already within the game. Fact is the guy leading the charge was a man who failed with the Galactico dream at Real, the second he was put on top… Read more »
Maybe some chief execs might realise that handing a half.a billion contract to 1 player isn’t necessarily a great idea (even if he is a very good player)
Midwest 21:46
That was a great post mate.
Look, Stan and those billionaires and football executives who backed the ESL are not very bright.
They miscalculated, and overestimated their strength relative to other constituencies: fans, players, other clubs, politicians, FIFA, UEFA and existing broadcasters.
“Anyone who spends any time inside football soon discovers that just as oil is part of the oil business, stupidity is part of the football business.”
The lawyers and investment bankers will get their fees.
The ESL backers will lose what little remnants of goodwill they ever had.
And whilst we’re.on the subject of change…can we replace Auba as our captain?…maybe gently at the end of the season.
It’s really hard to fathom how these 12 organisations mis-managed this concept so poorly.
I’m half waiting for the revised to drop.
Meanwhile Arsenal twitter still rocking the Proud to be a founders tweet, which pretty much sums the state of this club up.
Somebody above(can’t remember who, apologies) wrote that you don’t get a bunch of billionaires planning a ESL one day and bailing out meekly the next, that it was fishy..
I can’t agree more. Something doesn’t sit right with that..
Could it be there is a deeper plot, where this was suggested whilst knowing it would fail to rein football back in a bit?
The failure to implement the ESL would scare off billionaire owners, wage caps, FFP that actually works. More unity and cohesion in the game, a chance to reboot the game.
Kroenke out.
CC- Yep… Would be shocked if we did hear from Stan.. but this thing has his fingerprints all over it.. not sure how he can just claim ignorance, He could blame the Glazers or Perez or somebody else was the leader.. I suppose. I understand we couldn’t just sit idly by.. if it was happening but it seemed like we were in there leading the charge. or at least that’s my perception of it. Not informing the players or managers before the announcement is embarrassing as hell. Will be interesting to see what exactly the fallout is… just want it… Read more »
CC
“Incredible how bad an idea you can foster when you’re blinded by money”
Nail on head.
This was panic stations driven by Perez and the serious financial situation Real are in. No coincidence those not desperate for the money were the first to pull out, Abu Dhabi & the Russian Oligarch. As far as Kroenje & the Americans were concerned, they saw it differently, an opportunity to franchise and cash in when the ESL became fully established.
Great result for Brighton but they should have won at Chelsea who were poor.
This is why our league is the best and why the ESL was doomed to failure.
Chauvin better get used to prison grub.
Monumental day-ESL looks like collapsing and now Chauvin guilty on all counts.
Jamie thank God…
Last thing we need was riots all over on top of this shit show ESL
Mid I’d love this to be the start of his demise as owner, I’d also be very keen to see the current powers make counter moves to protect their governance in the form of massive pushbacks toward external investment and ownership. Maybe imagining too much, but I could see the Premier League being very uncomfortable with the willingness of the top 6 to disband the league. They’ll understand why that is and want to put blocks in place if possible for future efforts. UEFA/FIFA have a burden to provide a real reform now though, they’ve been made to look very… Read more »
@Jamie
A good day for justice all round I’d say.
Jamie
Some decent news at last. If he was found innocent, they very notion of law and order would have gone. The constitution would have been null and void.
So we await the big apology from Kroenke and Arsenal FC for tarnishing not just the reputation of the club, but of English and European football. And then promising to redouble their efforts to build bridges with the ‘legacy’ fans. Big fucking lol. Kroenke and the American owners were driving this, and now we know exactly what they think of us and what the clubs mean to them. They should be thrown out, if we had any halfway decent regulations and laws governing the game. But we threw all that away in the gold rush of the PL. Germany is… Read more »
Big #Kroenkeout protest planned for Friday, 6pm at the Emirates before our Everton game. Need a good turnout.
Let’s hope this is an opportunity to reset & find owners who want to give our great club what it needs to be successful.
The*
Wenger at least gives me some pride in his unshakeable belief in the values of football and his long association with Arsenal. Whatever happened towards the end, his ethos and love for the game is something that the new owners will never, ever understand. What a shame they threw out the baby with the bathwater.
Next move:
Boris J introduces the German 50%+1 model into the UK and the billionaires and hedge fund vultures sell half the shares of their heavily indebted, poorly run and unprofitable “franchises” to the victorious erstwhile “legacy fans” at a vastly inflated price.
Ha ha!! So now the blind finally see, Kroenke Out!!!!
Couldn’t be happier about kronke going but it’s delusions to think he will . Protests on Friday ? He won’t even see them
Kroenke can never talk about Arsenal values
He’s shown the fan base what he expects of Arsenal; a money churning uncompetitive entity spinning aimlessly.
Can’t think of an owner more disconnected than Kroenke.
Oh and JP Morgan are employed as the investment bankers who manage the sale of half the shares in Arsenal FC and Tottenham Hotspurs to their respective fanbases, whilst Clifford Chance manages the legal aspects of the sales.
Posters on Le Grove crow that Arsenal FC is valued more highly and has a higher share price than the Totts.
What an accelerationist move the ESL has been kudos for that ahaha.
Funny isn’t it how both our captain and our club have been stricken by a disease causing parasite.
andy1886
Luckily the malaria parasite is manageable and not as voracious as the Kroenkaria variety.
I don’t believe for one second that JP Morgan are daft enough to give put those sums of money that were bandied about. That’s why I kept telling Emirates that this ESL idea was unworkable.
Amazon has come out to say count us out.
No business entity is going to piss off fans of the world’s game in an era where the cancel culture is prevalent
Can you imagine fans organizing boycotts?
Anyone else listening to Gary Neville going on about fair play feel sick to the stomach? This is the bloke that kicked lumps out of Reyes with his ugly brother and had corrupt match officials in his clubs pocket. Absolutely nauseating.
Kroenke out and take that underperforming hireling with you.
I hate cancel culture and the attack on our freedoms – but I love it for stopping ESL.
Don Unnaii
Bet the animals outside the courthouse will still riot and loot though.
You just had to throw that one in . lol
Animals?
I beg to differ with the poster above who said the NFL and NBA are global phenomena. They’re not. What are kids doing in the wastes of Mongolia, in the middle of the Amazon, in a park near you in every major city in the world? Kicking a round ball. The mistake our owner and the others have made us believing that they were a bigger deal than football. They are transient drops of p**s in comparison. If you could find a textbook example of out of touch rich people living in Ivory Castles this would be it (The difference… Read more »
AFC
“Anyone else listening to Gary Neville going on about fair play feel sick to the stomach? This is the bloke that kicked lumps out of Reyes with his ugly brother and had corrupt match officials in his clubs pocket. Absolutely nauseating.
It’s funny how people sought strange bedfellows in the ESL fight
I couldn’t bring myself to listen to Neville, the guy who failed at his only coaching job and would rather sit in Rupert Murdoch owners studio criticizing real managers.
Dissenter, I worked many years for Investment bank, I can tell you that you overestimate the intelligence of investment banker and underestimate their greed. JP Morgan does not have a direct retail bank in the UK, so who is going to boycott them? Other financial institutions, I don’t think so. The only way they could be affected would if ISA and shares holders were to suddenly drop their shares causing a massive fall in value. But even that would have no direct impact on the investment bankers themselves. If there is money to be made by lending at an inflated… Read more »
AFC/Dissenter
Doesn’t matter how nauseating and hypocritical Neville is: he did a job and played his part in getting rid of an even more nauseating plan.
Valentin
Not dissing your work experience but JP Morgan isn’t going to put one penny towards a league that has zero followership that the sponsors and broadcasters will be harassed by hundreds of millions of people.
Wouldn’t they conduct a market analysis before funding it.
Tweet of the day right here from the 4x winners of Europe, not invited to be in the Super leauge
https://twitter.com/AFCAjax/status/1384608703211524097?s=20
BBC:
“All six Premier League teams involved in the European Super League are set to formally withdraw from the competition.”
And they were only 9, Arsenal left the ESL project.
I wonder if Kroenke is now calling Arteta to tell him that he has no budget for this summer.
AFC
Anyone who holds Neville as some sort of beacon needs to take a long hard look at themselves . Without everything already mentioned about him but his revelling in playing for the most corrupt club and manager ever and got away with it and playing some moral high ground I find repulsivly nauseating
The thing this most reminds me of actually is when there was an attempted coup from Soviet Union communist leaders against Gorbachev. in 1991. A public outcry and Yeltsin (in this case, Gary Neville!) stood on a tank and the leaders of the coup quickly folded.
The only problem with this analogy is what happened since the coup was repelled. Pedro might be right that this might be the beginning rather than the end of the takeover attempt. All the 12 breakaway clubs need is a Putin-like figure driving this instead of the clowns currently in place.
Arsenal withdrawing!!
The first of the American owned clubs.
Kroenke out!
Your plan failed!
Silent Stan!
shhhhhhhhhhhh
Sell the club Stan…. its too much of a headache for you.
Go tend to your cattle and Wal Mart stock
Not a single club thought that it was necessary to consult their managers, players and of course most definitely not their fans. So 12 people assumed they had the right and the power to completely change football and use it for their own empire building businesses – despite the fact they are mostly billionaires already. And not tell a soul about it until they thought they had a fait accompli. What a sorry tale of the modern world and the role of vastly over privileged, entitled wealth held by a miniscule fraction of the population, along with what they think… Read more »
Peckobill
Exactly. He is also financially doping Salfordbwitj , you really couldn’t make it up.
Wiglaf-pretty misguided comment from you talking about the ‘animals’ outside the courthouse.
Have you actually been watching the coverage?
There will be a demo in front of the stadium Friday at 6 pm local time. Kroenke is an enemy of Arsenal fans.
Arsenal statement:
As a result of listening to you and the wider football community over recent days we are withdrawing from the proposed European Super League.
We made a mistake and we apologise for it
Arsenal FC
It’s ok trying to score points off your lesser billionaire mates and all those below – but when your actions may lead to government loosing face then you’ve got a big problem. Ask the US Bunker Hunt brothers who in the mid 1980’s tried to corner the world silver market – a great idea except it had the added problem of causing issues for Uncle Sam. So Uncle Sam and the Fed changed all the rules retrospectively and stoped the coup in its tracks. Wholly unfair – but no problem to execute. I can tell you that all the UK… Read more »
Oh, it was just a stupid mistake, not something they have been working on and plotting for a number of years in league with each other in secret. Of course, sure thing Stan, just a silly error. What’s you next ploy?
Oh – on cue just seen the news as I was writing the post – I was aware how hard the government were briefing the clubs today and they had no chance……
All 6 English clubs withdrawing from ESL…
Funny from Richard Jolly:
At least, as disastrous 74-year-old presidents who have tried to stage a coup in 2021 go, Florentino Perez isn’t quite the worst.
Wonder how UEFA, the Premier League & the 14 other clubs will react after being lied to & stabbed in the back.
This is not the fault of the club’s, players or their employees who knew nothing about it. It is down to the scheming owners & their CEO’s.
The LMA want heads on poles.
I told you this would get messy.
made a mistake?
LOL- like you signed on the wrong line or something?
puhhleaeseeeeee
#KroenkeOut
Hopefully the FA does us a massive favour and demotes us and all other parties down to league 2. Might be the way we get this parasite out of our club.
Arsenal The last few days have shown us yet again the depth of feeling our supporters around the world have for this great club and the game we love. We needed no reminding of this but the response from supporters in recent days has given us time for further reflection and deep thought. It was never our intention to cause such distress, however when the invitation to join the Super League came, while knowing there were no guarantees, we did not want to be left behind to ensure we protected Arsenal and its future. As a result of listening to… Read more »
Sky journalist:
“One of the owners of the big 6 clubs went to a game to watch his side & was sitting in the Directors box & had to ask what colour shirt his team was wearing that day!
A process of elimination suggests this is likely to be Kroenke.
In bloody believable.
Honestly, this one is not on Vinai, Edu or Arteta They shouldn’t have to defend or apologize for the misdeed.
This was something done at the ownership level.
Pedro, man you got like a degree is reading shit wrong
– Gazidis
– Silent Stan
– Arteta
– Now ESL
You should give out stock advise, I’ll short ever stock you recommend.
AFC
Eff the LMA
If they want heads on pole
They can head down to Kroenke’s mansion or ranch in America.
Too many clubs are free loaders in the premier league. There’s a reasonable conversation to be had that foreign TV money shouldn’t be shared equally but now that will get thrown away with the bath water.
@rockyroe
😂😂😂😂
The accuracy
All six English teams are out
Mourinho is gone
What a week
Hwo exactly do fans think they will get kronke out of the club? By waving banners? You think he gives a shit?
@Rockyroe
A forced relegation by the FA might help.
Pedro please don’t ever become a gambler, you judgement is very suspect
The only thing I don’t get is that – apart from the fact that US.billionaires think they are invincible – why non of them – or indeed all of them – didn’t think to hire a good PR company to tell them where this would land. Mind they probably did and are all so arrogant as to ignore the advice – it doesn’t take a genius to work the outcome which was blindingly obvious an hour in……
The entire episode has been revealing and uncomfortably so. Many commentators conflated issues and confused themselves and others. Pedro’s posts were typical of this. Einstein once said that if you can’t explain something simply then you don’t understand it well enough yourself. That’s why bacary was critical of you Pedro, not attacking your character, rather your pretence to be itk. What happened in simple terms was foreign investors presumed they had the right to take the english clubs that they owned and move them (literally and metaphorically) to a place where they would become more profitable. Whether or not you… Read more »
It is on the .com now. A little too late. Kroenke needs to go. A half hearted apology saying “we feared being left out” is not enough. They don’t know what they represent. We need better leadership and ownership.
Spurs statement:
“We regret the anxiety & upset caused by the Super League Proposal.”
Now that is typical Levy arrogance, no apology to the fans whatsiever. A hurried message, shocking. They don’t give a toss about the fans. Always been a deluded, shit club.
Arsenal protest on Friday 6pm at the Emirates. Kroenke Out!
Let’s not lose momentum and drive this parasite out of football!!
I won’t say I told you ……but I did… this is the trigger we needed, Stan has only one direction to go and thats out.
I can confirm that Arteta was not involved at all……..it was decisive, swift and managed at all stages, all hallmarks of no Arteta involvement!! ……..and no sign of Willian either!!!!
On the Arsenal’ website An Open Letter to our Fans The last few days have shown us yet again the depth of feeling our supporters around the world have for this great club and the game we love. We needed no reminding of this but the response from supporters in recent days has given us time for further reflection and deep thought. It was never our intention to cause such distress, however when the invitation to join the Super League came, while knowing there were no guarantees, we did not want to be left behind to ensure we protected Arsenal… Read more »
Pedro you are having a rough year. Never gamble for yours and Le grove’s sake. Because we like coming here to complain.
Dissenter, If the ESL has a reputable broadcast deal in place, they will not care about the boycott. With Sky, BT, Amazon out of the loop and Netflix not interested in Sports, the only other major possibility is ESPN from Disney, Apple+ and Google TV. The worry for the remaining parties is that none of them have publicly declared that they are willing to deal. Without a global deal, the project is toast. Also with just Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, ManUtd and Liverpool, as real draw I can’t see them attracting enough people and paying subscribers to justify the money… Read more »
Fam power wind the day Kronkes out
I’m totally cool with Pedro
100% satisfied. He was playing the devil’s advocate for the most part. He tried removing the emotions from a vexatious issue to write about it.
Some people got so angry they were just storming around looking for someone to slaughter. It was obvious this stupid idea was no ready for prime time.
Proof read you Muppet lol
Fan power wins the day
KRONKE OUT
Hope they’re still listening, because it’s Kroenke the fans want held accountable. He needs to get out the club, he played his hand and there’s no defence of him.
You achieve “financial stability” by focusing efforts on building the football potential at the club and not sitting idle as you hoover up top 4 money. The second it’s dried up the terrible leadership has been laid bare.
This ESL nonsense was the nail in the coffin for the silent cunt.
The Arsenal board need to make up for this by giving us 200m to spend
I like to think that Stan hand-wrote that press release himself, finger still wet with ink.
Lol.
Here here CC well said
From a TV broadcasting perspective, why would any broadcaster or commercial partner get invested in a project that is derided by the local communities in England.
You ought to know from your time in banking that all sorts of lofty projects get proposed, are processed and thrown to the scrap yard without.
This was just an idea that wasn’t fleshed out properly, maybe they had meaningless unenforceable verbal agreements.
Bottled it after a mere 48 hours. Could barely make this shit up.
Safe to say that the Billionaire American owners did indeed completely misread the room then.
Mr Serge
Dead right. And they should give Arteta money to buy players also.
Surprised at Perez though who was practically the head honcho behind it for being so out of touch although for him it was likely just a desperate attempt to bail himself out of the club’s debt mountain.