THERE MUST BE CONSEQUENCES FOR SUPER LEAGUE FARCE (LONG READ)

by .

The collapse of the Super League on day two marks one of the most spectacular fails in business history.

Owners and their exec leaders spent the pandemic scheming ways to make the most of a bad situation. As I wrote yesterday, they thought they had every base covered. They believed ‘big club energy’ would make the rest of the football world bend to their will. They hoped they could ride this out with the fans.

It did not happen.

Some thought on the tipping points.

Early morning, The AST said that Boris Johnson was not only horrified, he was actively seeking to stop the Super League from happening. Politically, as the top boy, he has a lot of power. He could have interfered with taxes, messed with player temp visas, and most importantly… toy with the residences of billionaires taking up camp in England. If Boris can sniff out political opportunity with his base, you are in trouble. He is the world’s number 1 when it comes to breaking up European alliances. It’ll take a few days to find out what tipped the scales, but I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that the political system turned some screws. I also wonder how the JP Morgan piece played into this. Did someone in the government tell the bank that this was a no-go? That Boris would drag it out and make it deeply unpopular? Watch this space.

Bayern Munich said no, with Germany politely saying fuck off to the proposal. That was followed by the news that PSG wouldn’t play ball. There are rumours they were the inside man on this deal, back-channelling to UEFA where their owner is a big deal. Regardless, how can you have a Super League without those two teams?

The third and most important impact was the wall to wall vitriol spewed in the papers, social media and the sports channels. No one had a good thing to say about the Super League. Everyone hated it. It spoke to greed, it was the antithesis of what makes European sport popular, and it shone a bright light on the characters of those engaging in this act of treachery.

Chelsea bailed first. Then City. Then Spurs, United, and Arsenal. Now there is no Super League.

Ed Woodward was the first big name to resign. He’s out at United. That is huge. He burnt all his capital with the fans and his position was untenable. There are rumours doing the rounds that the Glazers are looking to sell because football doesn’t have a high enough profit ceiling and they want out.

I wrote yesterday what people inside the game were thinking about the possible threats to their ghastly vision. A few gave me pelters suggesting the post was wrong. Not sure how people came to that conclusion. The plan was built to deliver the Super League, the 12 clubs thought they had safety from all the counter-punches. Some of those execs spent yesterday trying to sell those counter-points I wrote about.

Ivan Gazidis on why it works for the little guys.

“The Super League will provide value and support to the whole football pyramid with greater financial resources.”

Florentino Perez on the lack of power to control the big 12.

‘They won’t throw Madrid out of the Champions League, for sure,” Perez said. “Not Madrid or [Manchester] City or anyone. I’m completely sure. Or La Liga either.’

Perez on ‘content’ and the new style of fan.

‘Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to the wishes of the fans.’

Barca on how they could convince the governments the influx of money would improve infrastructure (grassroots support).

‘Those clubs in power will share €3.5billion “solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the covid pandemic’

What ended up unravelling this buttoned-up plan?

EVERYTHING.

Government intervention.

The fans.

The pundits.

The sponsors.

The players.

The explayers.

The staff.

The papers.

You can’t even call this misreading the room, because I don’t believe these execs thought this was ever going to be a popular plan. They just shit their pants. Chelsea fans literally rocked their bus and it all came crumbling down.

It was a dastardly plan, enacted by folks disconnected from fan culture, who messed their pants after TWO DAYS.

I think football fans are shocked at how easy it was to win. Fan FC, gegenpressing masters, tried to win the game inside the first 10 minutes and scored 7 goals. It was over before there was an official hashtag or a banner to fly over the stadium. We were at the mean tweets phase. I thought this would go on for weeks. I thought the billionaires would plough through like they do with every other change they bring to the game.

They bottled it.

Now what for Arsenal?

Vinai is the face of this move though not the decision-maker. Regardless, he’s lost the trust of the fans, players, sponsors and the staff in one hit. How does that affect his ability to lead us this summer? How can he ever talk about our class again after trying to slip this out the door at 11pm on a Sunday night? If he stays, he’s damaged goods, if he goes, we’re starting AGAIN. It never stops for Arsenal. There is always something terrible to deal with that is of our own making. It’s not just him. Tim Lewis, Gooner on the ground, would have been part of this as well. Plenty of people who love football at Arsenal, went along with this regardless. At least the players and staff didn’t know. Auba deleted his twitter account.

The club apologised, the only one to do so, which is at least a start, but the tone was purposefully naive and misleading.

The system needs to be fixed. We must work together to find solutions which protect the future of the game and harness the extraordinary power football has to get us on the edge of our seats.

We know it will take time to restore your faith in what we are trying to achieve here at Arsenal but let us be clear that the decision to be part of the Super League was driven by our desire to protect Arsenal, the club you love, and to support the game you love through greater solidarity and financial stability.

The miscalculation was the big clubs thought their global fans were different to the noisy rabble in London. They believed the new ‘casual’ fan was engaging with football like they would an algorithm suggestion in Netflix. They believed football was just another type of content like video games, TV, or music. They were not prepared for the commoners to see stability as a collective issue. They believed their own greed and desire to be part of the elite insider group would be the same for the fans. They were all wrong, the values local fans have is part of what makes the game appealing, and they want to be part of that… and are. For Arsenal to be talking about stability after they tried to spoil the game for the many, to preserve privilege for the few, makes this statement so off-key. Values our leadership talk about are marketing gimmicks, this debacle is a proof point to that.

The open letter said a few times they were trying to protect the club and its future. A great soundbite if we were Dagenham & Redbridge. We’re Arsenal. We have a billionaire owner married to into of the most successful families that has ever existed on this planet. He is supposed to be our protection. That was the point of a billionaire owner. If we weren’t getting his investment, we were better of being run privately like we were when we were successful.

Vinai said this when he started.

‘Together we will work tirelessly with the extraordinary staff we have at Arsenal to respect and enhance our unique history, heritage and values; with the overall objective to bring success to our millions of fans all around the world and make them proud of their club’

Protecting the future of our club by eliminating competition was the plan to make us proud? Sacking Gunnersaurus? Firing 52 members of staff before signing a 32-year-old on a 3 year deal for £250k a week? This ‘proud’ strategy needs a rethink because it has never been less believable.

As for ‘mistake’.. come on. This was no mistake. This has been on the agenda for longer than Vinai. No one can be shocked Ivan spoke up about it on Tuesday, this was part of the reason he moved to Milan. Imagine what this would have done for his stock options? This was a premeditated attack on European football culture. It required deep thought and planning. It’s something they knew would distress fans and they just did it anyway. The only regret Arsenal has on this is that everyone else lost their nerve and the stress and embarrassment wasn’t worth a penny.

So what becomes of Arsenal? How does this mess affect our standing in the game? How does it affect the dressing room? How does it impact our appeal this summer?

There was a rumour that Chelsea and City pulled out of this because it levelled the playing field. They exit this debacle winners regardless because they didn’t ever need the money. Arsenal? We’re back to £20m summers in a sell to buy cycle. That felt bad before, now, it feels even worse.

If the Super League is dead, why would Stan continue to keep a club that is bottom of that power league? Isn’t it time to hand it over and admit that this little stunt was the last roll of the dice for a guy that has absolutely no vision or ideas for a game that has passed him by? Isn’t it time for him to be the bigger man and end this. Give the club to someone that likes sport. Do something fair for the fans. Last time I checked, there are 150,000 people tweeting #KroenkeOut. Cash-out. A group repping a very rich family told me they wanted to buy out Arsenal for £2 billion 3 years ago. There are buyers out there. Maybe this mess might offer them a way out as they struggle with costs and focus with The Rams complex. I’m dreaming, this is about as likely as JP Morgan leaking ‘Stan is selling’ to Talksport.

Outside the consequences for Arsenal. What are the consequences for the idea? What stops this from happening again? Who intervenes? Government? FIFA? UEFA? How can the fans be secure in the knowledge this near miss will be avoided… forever. Who will protect the sanctity of the game?

This was a coup. It failed. The lessons of history tell you that if harsh consequences are not meted out, the bad guys come back for the prize again and again. Football cannot allow this culture crime to slide. UEFA let this happen by not enforcing rules, by bungling TV deals, by being average. Time for them to get tough. Time for some accountability. Time to secure the game.

Before I go, Johnny mentioned an important point on the podcast and so have plenty of people that tweet me and contribute to the website. If the big 12 can plan a breakaway during work hours in a pandemic, don’t tell me they can’t do something big on racism in the game. We just played Slavia Prague and everyone in Europe was hoping we’d beat them because of their abhorrent behaviour that goes unchecked. If we can use the might of Arsenal to cut a mega deal at the expense of our soul, then we can use it to fix something that is still stinking out our game.

The fans won. What a moment. The biggest farce in business history and a win for the little guys. Unbelievable. Have a great day, I hope you’re smiling.

P.S. Special shoutout to the immense work Tim Payton and the AST Team has done on this. If you want to put your money towards a force for good in football, sign up to this link and add your voice to their growing membership.

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Peckobill

Guns
Don’t worry about salary caps and all that nonsense jump on the bandwagon with the media , ex players and deluded fans who beat the greedy clubs today , while the financial doped are moving they power even more forward

AFC Forever

Peckibill “…loyalty they stuck in after the Qatari World Cup bribe and everyone thought the removal of blatter ended all that the naive fool” Football has always been corrupt. Blatter and his cronies had been openly taking bribes for literally decades, Jack Warner didn’t have the brains to hide the excesses, yet nobody did anything about it. UEFA is no better, they have allowed corruption via financial doping, years of clubs organically growing through success and good practice wiped out in an instant. History made irrelevant, as the yo-yo clubs throw away the string. Appointing the Qatari to lead the… Read more »

Peckobill

AFC
What are you about man the fans won today man 😉

AFC Forever

Guns

“Need a salary cap and spending cap. this is out of control”

Need something mate. The great reset. Fans don’t deserve this, the game belongs to us. Fuck, the money we’ve spent we really do deserve so much better.

Ishola70

Peckobill I don’t know where you live or where you come from but it seems you don’t know or are playing dumb as to what the ESL would have entailed when you keep mocking those that opposed the ESL.. The EPL would have been taken away from England. The “rebels” were purely banking on pay per view away from England from Asia etc. It was basically over for the “legacy supporter” Is that what you would really want to see? And it’s not all about being the winners. The EPL is competitive overall throughout the league even if you get… Read more »

AFC Forever

Ishola

Absolutely, the ESL was batshit crazy lunacy of epic proportions. It fire in the face of everything we live about the game.

My gripe is the fact that nobody has picked on the fact that we need major reform and thus failed ‘coup’ is the ideal trigger to do that.

With the Qatari appointment combined with the fact we have 4 doped clubs lo get in the CL, things are getting worse not better.

AFC Forever

*everything we love about the game.

AFC Forever

*With the Qatari appointment combined with the fact we have 4 doped clubs left in the CL, things are getting worse not better.

(Apologies for poor typos!)

Emiratesstroller

I want to make some final points about Arsenal’s involvement in ESL following some of the adverse comments made to me by supporters of Arsenal and other clubs. 1. I doubt that Kroenke or the Senior Management of Arsenal were the architects or organisers of the ESL Project. I am pretty sure that project was suggested elsewhere most probably by Real Madrid. 2. Whilst I was not an enthusiast for the concept I would not have wanted Arsenal to be excluded if it had gone ahead. It is inconceivable that any club would have turned down the offer if their… Read more »

Ishola70

ES

In good enough time Chelsea and Spurs would not have be indentifiable to you and me playing in the ESL from what we had indentified them as before.

Do you not care at all about club identity.

It seems like a few others the small minority that your only narrow viewpoint in this is about Arsenal having a better chance to win. To win big.

Ishola70

At least at the end there you say you are glad that the ESL didn’t happen.

That’s all we need to know.

AFC Forever

ES

The kingmakers for the ESL were Real Madrid, Man Utd & Liverpool. Woodward was a former senior banker at JP Morgan and was involved in getting them on board.

gnarleygeorge9

Pedro has been baring the brunt of some contrary banter on here lately. I must admit I’ve been a tad feisty too. But can I say, in a more positive note, how much better the banter environment on his site is these days. Full credit to the author, it’s a pleasure to come on here again. Well done to all who post on here.

So in passing, don’t forget The Arsenal has a fixture on against the ‘Yellow Submarine’. COYRRR. Kroenke Out!!!

AFC Forever

Ishola/ES

There has to be reform, it’s a financial basket case caused by the uncontrolled spending of the doped. It will happen but it wil be harder to implement when you allow board members of doped clubs, like this Qatari, to have influence in the European football organisations. That’s a recipe for disaster and potential for massive corruption – because we already know the Qataris are partial to a backhander.

AFC Forever

Gnaroeygeorge9

Yes it is a lot better lately. Pedro does a good job generating interest. He is a bit of a magnet for the hardliners who he seems to trigger for some reason.

We need to sink that submarine and take Kroenke down with it George!

Emiratesstroller

Ishola 70

Chelsea, Man City and to a lesser extent Man Utd are all clubs which have achieved success
through financial doping

Arsenal could never be accused of that even under Kroenke.

My personal view is that football clubs do need to be restructured and there should be as is
the case in Germany a significant local involvement in the ownership of clubs.

Also there needs to be a more level playing field with “financial fair play” How that can be
achieved and regulated properly is of course the million dollar question.

bacaryisgod

Emirates All good points. In fairness to Arsenal, even though we’ve plunged in the league in the last 4 seasons, our overall 10 year track record is not that terrible. -6 out of 10 years in the Top 4 and one runner-up finish (unfortunately no Top 4 in the last 4 years) -Europa SF in 2018 and Finalists in 2019. Currently in this years’ SF. -Always advanced out of group stage in the 6 years we were in Champions League -4 F.A Cup wins, all occurring in the last 7 years -1 EFL Cup final -4 (out of 4) F.A… Read more »

HerbsArmy

Lots of talk about the German model in terms of club ownership, but even though it looks great on the surface, it hasn’t made the Bundesliga competitive. There’s no point in being majority shareholders if you still have to surrender your best players to another competitor. It would be better for the rest of Germany if Bayern were put into a super league, they have suffocated German football. I hope the protests against Kroenke resonates across the pond, but folk like him have no conscience, so we are clutching at straws if we’re expecting him to sell up and put… Read more »

Guns of SF

we can only hope that something positive changes come out of this mess.
What will UEFA and FIFA do?
The money trail needs to be clear. The teams on top should get more of the pie, but there needs to be transperancy with all budgets … for all to see.
UEFA can make positive changes too. They just need to act… they need to try and get fans to believe in them.
I mean, its one bad guy or another it seems…. but shit, we need a good guy to emerge

Dela Mere

Emiratesstroller is too fond of the regime to protest as his pathetic attempts to justify himself are there for all to see.

TheRoyalArsehole

Kroenke the Wal-Mart Cuck queen has finally crapped the fuck out. I cannot wait to see the zero transfer kitty waiting for us this summer. He will probably not give two shits about us in any way shape or form and want us to choke on it for stopping the move. He felt he had played a business master stroke and drove his shares through the roof. Would have spent next to nothing on a club and let their history alone place them in the category of super league. Karma is such a sweet sweet mother fucker. His deep heart… Read more »

Guns of SF

Stan was exploiting our club and its history and reputation for an easy pay day. What a great sportsman and business man. Taking a hand out for the elites.
This fool needs to sell us

Tony

First off don’t shoot the messenger – give Pedro the respect he deserves for trying to navigate through this mess. He was in a no win situation and tried to deliver facts as they were appearing. Remember all the times previously you have read Pedro’s pots and told him how good they were and how much they made sense. Just cut him some slack on this lads. Now if Pedro resumes his Arteta is the generational one tact, then still keep the bantz respectful, but consider hunting season open again. I know I will. A super league is coming; it’s… Read more »

Tony

posts not pots*

Sid

The ESL is a missed opportunity to move football to the next generation, the same way today we dont have the model we had after WW1 when i was a young man back from the war.

Habesha Gooner

I am very late to the post apparently. But Pedro, I have never seen anyone flip flop between two ideas in 3 days like you have. Either you thought the super league was great as you hinted in your last post or it goes against the sanctity of the game. Which is it.

China1

I bet if we’d have been given a 340m dump of cash artetas transfers kitty would’ve grown from 30m to 70m.

If we’re lucky

China1

Sid which regiment were you in? Pretty sure I walked past you in the trenches by the Somme???

I was that guy with the rifle and helmet and soggy boots

Guns of SF

And that soggy cigarette….. lol
drunk most likely

Sid

@China1, your memory must be failing you, you spent most of your time in old compton street brothels during the war.

Dark Hei

Ishola70

Absolutely agree.

Even if you are eating processed food everyday, the solution isn’t virgin plastic.

China1

Sid no no you’re thinking of my twin brother.

I was definitely there. You don’t remember seeing me? That guy in Europe with a helmet and soggy boots?

jwl

Habesha Gooner – read yesterday post again, “grim” is in title and first sentence starts “The biggest heist in football history is underway”. All Pedro did yesterday was tell us what senior football people are saying.

Tony

Kroenkephobe Kudos to you for your diplomatic career for 30 odd years. Certainly goes to your strength of character here where in some ways not surprising. Would have thought what you’ve witnessed there’s enough for a novel or biog? A Dutch friend here was in bomb disposal and has stories of utter wow factor to abject stupidity. If he ever sobers up, he could write a fascinating book. Shame because he’s a real character. We’ve run out of ways to help him so just keep an eye on him. He has to admit to his problems before he’s ready for… Read more »

Habesha Gooner

Jwl
I meant the one before that titled “Super league impacting decisions already”? Look at the context pedro wrote that piece at.

China1

I blame Xhaka and Pedro for the ESL and I’m personally expecting reparations for the distress caused with whatever money JPMorgan wired to Pedro

China1

I suspect bellerin was in on it as well. Using that JPMorgan wonga to pay for third world slave children to make him a new silly pair of clown trousers

The absolute fiend

Tony

JWL/Hebesha I’m curious what you expected from Pedro? A post that matched your thinking? I don’t know about you guys, but when the news broke my brain was spinning trying to see pros and cons for both sides of the argument. In the end I had the luxury of wanting more information over the next few days before pleading my allegiance to either side. Pedro didn’t have that choice. What would you have said if Pedro wrote a sitting on the fence post? This issue isn’t whether we should fire the generational one, it’s the biggest plan for change since… Read more »

jwl

Tony – i dont have any problems with Pedros last few posts, i agree pedro was just trying to figure out what happening.

Habesha Gooner – i think we disagree about tone of posts? Pedro not a bomb thrower unless he talking about Emery while i think you wanted something more with blood and thunder about scoundrel kroenke.

Terraloon

Tony

A truly remarkable post

Congratulations

Sid

I think supreme leader was given false info by Bellerin, they share the same awful barber.

Tony

Terraloon
Thanks, strange as it may sound it was kind of cleansing writing it.

Tony

Cool JWL.
Most of us know where the line between banter and disrespect is here even if it is difficult keeping the right side of it.

I’ve certainly been hovering over the line over the years.

Pierre

Looking at the stats for our strikers for this season on whoscored, this is what they show in the Premier league and Europe ( they do not show detailed stats for fa Cup and league cup) Eddie 133 mins per goal Aub .199 mins per goal Laca 141 min per goal Martinelli 456 mins per goal (Martinelli has only played 456 mins this season)… Pass percentage Eddie 80.7 Aub 77.5 Lacazette 77.3 Martinelli 75.1 Assists Eddie ..an assist every 802 minutes Aubamayang an assist every 1,198 minutes Lacazette an assist every 1,135 minutes. Martinelli no assists in 406 minutes So… Read more »

Arsnil

The German clubs don’t get involved because fans by law have to own a 51% stake of the club. Greedy leecherous owners at most can have 49%

TR7

Pierre ‘Taking into consideration that Eddie hasn’t started in the league or europa since December, and we can all remember how our creativity was Zero during the period when Eddie played, then it is quite remarkable that Eddie’s figures are better in every area than our 2 main strikers , who cost the club 110 million..’ Laca with his overall game brings the likes of ESR, Saka and Odegaard in to play something Nketiah is not capable of, at least not as of now. Nketiah has good movement off the ball but doesn’t have the overall game to complement other… Read more »

Terraloon

Tony As you say change is inevitable be it wanted or not it’s coming. Having read your comments not just once but twice it’s your reference to how the billionaire owners don’t lose is so true so the question that keeps coming into my thoughts is did this play out near enough as they anticipated? I can’t but help think that in terms of personal attacks they probably don’t care and all won’t shed one tear if some of the execs at their Football clubs are sacrificed . Big business relies on focus groups or the like and the owners… Read more »

Kroenkephobe

Hiya Tony Good piece again. You’re getting up a fine head of steam mate. I was intrigued by your linkage of Orwell (presumably 1984) and Rollerball. Simon Hattenstone wrote a fantastic piece in the Guardian last week suggesting that Orwell’s forecast of never ending conflict involving 3 rotating superpowers was on the verge of becoming reality (China, US and Russia). The plotline of Rollerball was similar in rhat it was warring cities as I recall. James Casn was almost as good in that film as when he played Sonny Corleone. I love a bit of dystopian literature. Orwell wrote a… Read more »

Kroenkephobe

* Caan. Wonderful actor

Valentin

How to improve football in Europe: + Force every professional club to be registered as the new European Sport Entity. Set the accounting rules under which they must operate. + Impose to have at least 1 fan representative advocate sitting on their board. + Set restriction on what a European Sport legal entity can and cannot do. For example no Dividend, higher structure or direct owners in the case of operational loss. + Implement strong FFP: for example Ban from spending above 55% of their revenue onto football matter: salary, players fee, agents fee + Obligation to buy and sell… Read more »

Ishola70

For those that wanted Arsenal in the ESL you need to hope that the planning of it is carried out better in the future. It has been a fiasco from them.

Then you will be able to celebrate Arsenal’s entrance into the elite along with the final shot in the head for football overall.

Kroenkephobe

Hi Valentin

Some good ideas there. In Ingerland, many of those proposals would go against Pedro’s new friend Bojo’s right wing instincts. On another point, what do you think about the idea of a salary cap? I know there is a downside but a cap would cover off some of your ideas.

A weird old week, possibly the weirdest since I first became addicted to this fuckng sport. I was almost (almost! ) feeling solidarity with the burghers of N17 and the other four for a while. Glad that’s now passed.

Ishola70

Reports from Iraly that Gazidis is going to chuck it in at AC Milan.

So some good came out of the ESL fiasco.

Terraloon

Valentin Most of your suggestions are sadly already in place . For instance agents already have to be registered ,have maximum fees set, but the one thing that needs to be changed is that the clubs should not undertake to pay players fees they should fall squarely on the players and not be added in as a benefit in kind. The PL and indeed UEFA license requirements deal significantly with academy and % of income paid in wages. All transfers and fees already are cleared through the FA and of course UEFA all under the control of FIFA. Most people… Read more »

Valentin

KroenkePhobe, The 55% limit is in effect a variable salary cap. It is proportional to the size of the club. A fixed limit is kind of bad tool. Too low and it is unfair to bigger clubs. Too Great and smaller clubs will see that as a target that will later drown them in debt. If a club is able to increase his commercial revenue in a fairly manner, which means no fake contract with companies linked to the owner, then it does make sense to let them spend more money than smaller clubs. It forces them to try to… Read more »

Tony

Kroenkephobe That was my 1984/Orwell intended thinking. I hadn’t read the guardian piece you mentioned, but I agree with what you’ve said. Was a great movie for its time and James Caan was superb in it and radically different character from the 1992 Godfather 1 as Sonny. In Rollerball Caan proved he wasn’t a one trick pony only suited to mafia movies. Have to say Caan’s son is wooden in Hawaii 5.0. Only watched 5 minutes and left the room it was on TV. Hervé Villechaize )Tattoo from Fantasy Island had better acting chops. Football wise I know how you… Read more »

Aussie+Gooner

One thing that this European Stupor League debacle has confirmed is that our owners regard Arsenal as a brand to be sold and exploited at will. It is like a long established independent family brewery producing award winning beers being taken over by a multi-national conglomerate; the brewery is closed, workers made redundant and brewing moved to a mega keg brewery in Europe. The beer names still appear on the pump clips but it is a very different, inferior product. Welcome to the new Arsenal! Cheers!

Terraloon

Valentin

Again clubs in the UK already have to do much the same but it’s far more dynamic than once a year . I believe it’s six monthly forecasts and proof of funding but alas most of those forecasts are based on revenue from others and if those others go ping then there is a domino effect

Valentin

Terraloon, Most of the rules regarding agents are suggestion not necessarily legally binding. Mino Raiola regularly breaks the rules, get a small slap on the wrist and continue working even when banned. I would also ban the payments of transfer intermediary services, unless actual work can be proven. If somebody provide a scouting report that lead to the purchase of a player then it make sense. But often it is just a way to bypass agent restrictions. For example Jia is not a registered agent, yet Arsenal did pay for his services as transfer consultant to bypass the rules. Payments… Read more »

Valentin

Terraloon, No, completion rule was never fully implemented in England. It exists retrospectively in the sense that club are warned that they will be punished and dodge points. Look at the number of clubs especially in League 1 and 2 who know that they won’t be able to pay the salary without extra cash injection or an extra long televised run in a domestic cup. The system I am suggesting is in advance. BEFORE the season every club has to provide financial and accounting statements proving that under normal circumstances they will be able to fulfill their financial obligation and… Read more »

AFC Forever

Tony, Terraloon, Valentin Very interesting comments I am pleased so many agree with what I have been saying for days, that football needs massive reform. The great game has been turned. Into a closed shop where competition for the top honours is decided by who spends the most. Barcelona & Real Madrid are in so much debt trying to keep their place at the top table that they face bankruptcy. Owners like Kroenke are never going to do that so we will be also rams while the oil states continue to push up transfers and wages. This creates a massively… Read more »

Valentin

Terraloon, Also a tax system can be implemented in a way that the burden of proof is reversed. For example if you have an expense and no paper to back it up. The government can say we believe that it is a fraudulent payment, you then have to prove that it is a legitimate payment. That’s the way most companies behave toward employees when they attempt to claim back expenses, especially on company credit card. A friend of mine while in Indonesia for work had to have his PC repaired by a company called Tittiesbar Inc, his expense was refused.… Read more »

AFC Forever

Anyone see the proposal on a graded transfer system? How it works: Clubs are restricted on the number of ‘top graded’ players they can have in their squad. This is combined with a home grown and academy incentive to ensure young players have opportunity. In other words it prevents a club from having the 11 best players. The reason for the grading was because spending limits based on turnover was easy to fiddle with sponsorship arrangements & of course the wealthy could buy anyone. Players are graded on ability or transfer value with limits in place. So, for example, Man… Read more »

Aussie+Gooner

“Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham has reportedly spent Wednesday phoning Premier League chiefs to apologise for his club’s actions with regards to the failed European Super League.”

Vinai’s grovelling apology – oh to have been a fly on the wall! He should be the first one thrown under the bus by the Krankies!

Dissenter

Pedro
It’s shameful that you’re setting up Vinai to take a position that you endorsed
The ESL was a move by the owners, not the club’s employees.

Before you say Bob Woodward, he wasn’t just another CEO so don’t compare him with Vinai.

It’s a classless move to be pushing Vinai to the exit when you know this has little to do with him.

Dissenter

Regarding Pierre’s renewed passion for Nkettiah

If you had bilateral cataracts and a tumor in your visual cortex, you’ll believe Nkettiah is as good as Pierre is peddling.

We’ve see enough of Edie to know he;s too limited to make it at Arsenal.

China1

Haha dissenter harsh Tbf to Eddie irrespective of the fact I’m not expecting him to make it at arsenal, it takes strong character to get binned off like that come back for a few mins and steal us a draw from the clutches of defeat as a young player. Credit to him I’ve always said I suspect Eddie is going to have a very decent career but because of his physical limitations at the moment he will be a late bloomer at senior level. He will be a 15-20 goals a season player every season for a mid level PL… Read more »

China1

Aussie they will sack Vinai only after he’s finished doing his round of apologies so they don’t need to

Classenal

China1

AFC who determines the grading of a player tho

Transfer value is subjective and statistics are often highly misleading. Compare vanishing act assist king ozil with legendary playmaker Bergkamp to see evidence of that

But look I don’t have a problem with the idea of principle I’m just not sure if it can be really well created. But if they can and there’s less doping and more chances for home grown and youngsters fine by me

China1

Pedro was bigging up gazidis’ work at Milan when arguing with me a few weeks back

Much like an elephant Pedro, I am tall, ugly and never forget.

China1

Eddie is a poacher through and through

But I think as he gets older at this level he’ll become smarter and add a bit more to his game as it’s not enough in the PL unless you’re a 30 goal a season poacher which he’s nowhere near for now