West Ham Online

"Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur all agree to plan. Five English clubs are among 11 European teams who have signed up to a breakaway Super League in an extraordinary development on the eve of Uefa's announcement of a new Champions League format. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/sports/soccer/super-league-united-liverpool-juventus-madrid.html"

"The European Cup was fine as it was until 5 or 6 clubs didn't like the fact that the likes of Red Star could get to a final. So they came up with the Champions League format that is full of absolutely meaningless games...and now propose a new format that will see just as many pointless, meaningless games only it would've featured the same clubs in them. The Champions League might have benefited by the massive growth in worldwide interest in the game, but that interest did not manifest because of the switch from knock-out European competition to the mini-league structure."

"El Scorchio 1:10 Wed Apr 21 Agreed. They made a definite strategic error that season Liverpool won the Champions League but didn't qualify the following season due to their poor domestic form. Uefa should have told them tough shit, but instead acted like they'd screwed up somehow and quickly bent the rules to let them back in. That decision certainly contributed to the entitlement mentality we have now."

"Deep down, despite all/any words/spin that may come from this, how can anybody trust whatever the founding (Ha Ha Ha) clubs and their owners say ever again? OK, you want to be best mates again, but for how long?..."

The maximum sentence for attempted murder is the same as it is for actual murder. Clubs should be hit just as hard for attempting to kill football as if they actually went through with it.

"even if there's no punitive action, the threat of a breakaway league is something that the big clubs have been using to load the dice for a generation now. don't underestimate what it means to have that threat defused."

And the super league people thought those in the far east may lap up there plan...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3X8CeVq8UM

how about the PL redistribute the prize money this season? take the money off the big 6 and spread it across the others.

Did Levy (or Perez) actually explain how the extra money would help anyone but themselves? I haven't seen anything to quantify that statement and I really can't see how they can make that claim with zero explanation. I bet it was something like they'll agree to give 1% of their huge inflated revenues to some sort of 'help the needy' (i.e. the rest of the footballing world) fund like you'd give a quid to a tramp when you walk past in your tailored suit.

"I feel in the long run the UK govt will have to legislate here.Now that the UK is out of the EU our big industries need to be protected. The EPL being one of them. In my mind the reason it didnt work is because they were so arrogant that they didnt feel the need to lie about what they were doing. If they had said there was relegation and promotion in this new league and then removed it 5 yrs down the line, they would have got it done. The top clubs misread the room (i.e. the fans and the players). No one cares who ""owns"" the competition, whether it be the FA, PL, UEFA, SL etc.. what people care about is that it is fair. The minute you remove that it isn't what we are about. They could have easily wrestled control of the CL from UEFA doing this and they basically over reached and got shot down. I suppose greed does that."

"Given that UEFA were already bending over backwards to appease the big clubs and protect their precious revenue streams to keep the a closed shop by including past performance in qualifying for European competition and the clubs spat back in their faces, I hope UEFA scrap any idea to ever do that again. If Arsenal are mediocre now? Tough shit. Its their own fault for not running their club well enough. If Liverpool don't finish high enough this season to qualify? Tough shit. They should have played better. If West Ham or Leicester dare to put together a team one season that is good enough on merit? Tough shit. Work harder next year. This should always only reward current merit. Not historical performances. God knows that through the years most of these clubs have breezed into Europe they should have enough of a significant financial advantage they should never be caught by anyone else from the outside. They are afraid of the competition and can't look inward to see where they might have gone wrong in running their own club to let that advantage slip. I'd love to see the cսnt 6 get some hefty sanctions, but they aren't going to. As someone said with the relationship analogy, the FA/PL/UEFA will be so glad they are back, they'll just forget the betrayal and just take it when it happens again in another guise."

"UEFA, the PL and, probably, FIFA are going to have to accept a hit on this while their global media gravy train is laid up in the sidings being repaired. They allowed - encouraged, even - this situation to develop by waiting for something like this to happen then reacting rather than preventing it from ever happening in the first place. Lets see how ""transparent"" things really are as the situation evolves."

"Simon S...no, Levy didn't apologise...what he said was along the lines of thanking the various fan clubs for their thoughts (as if that was a fucking consideration) and also how it was a bit of a shame, as the extra monies generated by the Super League would have benefited the wider football pyramid (don't know whether that was said with a straight face, as there was no camera). What I can't get my head round with all of this is there is a fundamental flaw with the whole concept. With pretty much every other business you can see why one or two huge businesses will want to rab as much of the world market as possible and destroy the rest of their competitors. Football is and always will be though a different proposition. If you destroy the rest of the competition, then you end up eventually with a wholly diminished 'product' that hardly anybody will be interested in...the competition and the unpredictable nature of football and the rivalries which have been in place for 100 years plus in some cases IS THE 'PRODUCT' Their super league might work for a few years, but give it time and even punters in the far east will get bored shitless by it."

"People like Perez of Real Madrid talk utter bullshit Games are 'boring' in Spain because you and Barcelona take all the tv money so then play against teams with minimal resources. They are 'saving football' by pocketing even bigger amounts! Perhaps if you didnt pay Gareth Bale £600k a week net not to even play for you your finances might not be under such strain. Yes, the 'Big 6' seem to want to sneak back and be treated as heroes despite spending months and years plotting to destroy the Premier league. My sanctions for these WEASELS would be: All 6 owners declared unfit and forced to sell 50 point penalty in the current season £50m fine 3 year transfer embargo"

"Pub Bigot 12:26 Wed Apr 21 Yep, have to go along with that, not just to dig them out but their fans certainly haven't been against it like most of the fans of other clubs. I think they're actually over the moon they were considered one of the 'big 6' The wonderful irony in all this is that it's probably fucked them all, as UEFA were no doubt going to structure things to favour them all, surely now there will be pressure on UEFA to reverse that trend? They won't want to, but ALL eyes are on them now."

"I think it was the absurd inclusion of a joke team like Tottenham that really set the alarm bells ringing and sealed the fate of this sorry venture. Classifying them as a 'big team' exposed the ignorance of the organisers, and proved idea clearly wasn't thought up for footballing reasons."

"Try telling your wife you have agreed with her sister that you'll sleep with her, then after 48 hours let her know you've changed your mind. See how that goes down?"

"Try telling your wife you have agreed with her sister that you'll sleep with her, then after 48 hours let her know you've changed your mind. See how that goes down?"

"It's really interesting how even the fans of the splitter clubs have so quickly defaulted to a mentality whereby they think they've saved us all and that there should be no punishments for their owners/clubs. The self-congratulatory bullshit coming from Chelsea and Liverpool is a sight to behold. People saying they are ""proud"" of their club for withdrawing. Do they have a clue what just happened? This was a plot by the six richest clubs in the land to destroy not just the finances of remaining English football clubs - but also any sense of competition within the world's biggest sport. and any sense of third-party administration/oversight of them. It was a failed coup d'etat. You don't just say ""oh well, naughty boys, come back and all is forgiven..."" The six clubs need to face some sanctions - or they will do this again in an instant."

"Stubbo 12:24 He knows what he's saying is bullshit though. It's the only thing they can possibly think of to try and justify what they are doing to anyone not associated with the clubs. Young people aren't too lacking in attention to watch a football game. The crowd at the London stadium will tell you that. No-one is under the illusion that expensively assembled teams playing each other will create better games. Some of the most boring, negative 0-0 or 1-0 games I have ever seen have been Chelsea vs Man U etc. and we've all seen 90 minutes edge of your seat stuff played between two bottom of the table or even lower tier sides. I expect he might mean 'even our own Real fans are tired of us stuffing everyone except Barca and there's no point in watching La Liga any more outside of about 6 matches a season.' That's a problem of their own doing though, by hogging all the TV money."

"This won't go away. Lessons will have been learned and the next time steps taken to pre-empt creating the vitriol created this time around. The only way around this is to have a clearly defined set of immutable rules in place for all who want to participate in the sport of professional association football. They will have to be created by an independent group though as for the most powerful in the current set-up, it would be a ""Turkeys voting for Christmas"" moment. This has to be done very quickly, too - before the start of next season at the latest."

"A bit embarrassing for JP Morgan's image too,"

Hopefully SuperLeagueCo will sue each club that leaves for breach of contract for £100m each.

"I don't think they cared, if it had paid for their new shiny stadium"

"zebthecat 12:13 Wed Apr 21 In fact, it's a perfect example of successful businesses using their money and power to grab more and more market share and more and more wealth to the point that they can create a cartel and end competition altogether."

"Spurs support seems the least remorseful and most receptive to the idea of the ELS. It blows my mind because Sours and the other two London clubs would end up the whipping boys. In such a closed league, the best would almost always pick Liverpool, Man United, Madrid, Juve and Barca of them. From a supporter point of view, I can't see any logic behind it, and it would seem most agree. Then there are Tottenham fans."