Hypothetical European SuperLeague: Good or bad for MLS

Discussion in 'MLS: General' started by pc4th, Aug 27, 2007.

  1. pc4th

    pc4th New Member

    Jun 14, 2003
    North Poll
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...le_id=477925&in_page_id=1951&in_author_id=260

    The massive overseas investment in English clubs always implied that those tycoons had identified riches beyond the current structure of our football.

    That threat to the status quo has been revealed by indications from Liverpool's American owners that they want to negotiate the television rights to their games independently-from the rest of the Premiership. That has been the unspoken ambition at Chelsea and United, among others, for some time.

    This is the forerunner to a Super League, where the broadcasting revenue potential is vast beyond even the Sky, Setanta and BBC deals.


    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...all.html?in_article_id=471566&in_page_id=1779

    The Celtic manager claims the various foreign owners of English clubs will be considering every option as they look for a return on their investments.

    And he can see a scenario where Premier League giants and Europe's biggest clubs launch a breakaway league, even if that was in defiance of UEFA and FIFA.

    "That's just my idea," he said, "that you might get the top 50 clubs saying, 'Right, that's enough, let's all make the cash and we'll break away, make our own leagues, and UEFA and FIFA can do what they want.'

    "You've got to remember there's people from all around the world getting English clubs now - they're big businessmen, where do they make the money?"


    Why it might happen one day?

    TV REVENUE

    Premiership international TV rights: $400 mil a year
    Premiership domestic TV rights: $1.1 billion a year

    An European SuperLeague might get $1 billion a year in international TV rights and $3 billion a year in domestic (England, Scotland, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Russia, Netherland) in TV rights.

    Total: $4 bil a year.

    Equal revenue sharing of TV rights: $4 bil / 22 clubs = $182 mil a year for each team. I'm sure Glazer, Abramovich, Hicks/Gillete, Arsenal PLC would love to break away and have their club value skyrocket. Hmmm...maybe this is why Kroenke is willing to pay some $1.2 billion for Arsenal. The potential of HUGE EARNINGS from an European SuperLeague. (Kroenke bought 9.9% stake for $130 million from ITV). He is trying to buy the rest.


    ----------------------------------------

    Anyway, if this European Superleague is formed, what kind of effect would it have on MLS? Good or Bad?

    I think it might have some positive effects since without the Big Four Clubs, the Premiership, La Liga, Series A would decrease in quality. They wouldn't be that ahead of MLS. In 10-15 years time, MLS have the potential to be the second best league after the European SuperLeague.
     
  2. DoctorD

    DoctorD Member+

    Sep 29, 2002
    MidAtlantic
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Good. As long as European labor laws are dictated by the EC and not individual countries, this is the only logical outcome.

    Any Superleague would be structured a lot more like MLS than the existing individual FA's. No salary caps perhaps, but no relegation at all.
     
  3. pc4th

    pc4th New Member

    Jun 14, 2003
    North Poll
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Potential 24 teams:

    Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Celtic, Ranger, Bayern Munich (+1 more German team), Lyon (+1 more French team), Ajax, PSV, Porto, Benfica.

    + 4 other teams [1 from Russia, Poland, Turkey, Greece]

    ----------------------

    Of course, the second tier European Clubs could form an European Superleague 2 (with pro/rel) with the SuperLeague 1. Just imagine Europe as one big country.
     
  4. IlliniOnFire

    IlliniOnFire Hostile AND Abusive

    Oct 8, 2006
    Southern Illinois
    No they won't.

    This has absolutely nothing to do with competition, its all about money.

    G-18 clubs want to pull a powerplay and claim all of europe for themselves, they won't consent to giving up any piece of the pie.
     
  5. DoctorD

    DoctorD Member+

    Sep 29, 2002
    MidAtlantic
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    On second thought this can only be a tremendous benefit for MLS. The quality of MLS internationals will go way up as TV revenue for the non-SuperLeague teams dries up (or reduces to a level similar to MLS), and salaries for their players accordingly declines to that affordable by MLS.
     
  6. IlliniOnFire

    IlliniOnFire Hostile AND Abusive

    Oct 8, 2006
    Southern Illinois
    yup, a euro superleague does 2 things:

    1.) Create a league that no nation in the world can possibly compete against.

    2.) destroy professional domestic soccer in europe. You are talking about ripping a LARGE chunk of the revenue out of most european leagues. In england for example, I see the loss of the "big 4" as enough of a blow to possibly make England lose a whole professional league further down the pyramid, along with reducing the quality of play in each tier of professional soccer.

    This means that players who can't get G-18 contracts will find America MUCH more appealing...
     
  7. drahnier

    drahnier Member

    Aug 18, 2007
    Sweden
    This would be an effective way to ruin europes domestic leagues as well as fan-support of the clubs and the atmosphere, in favour of casual fans and businessmen even more than big money has already done.

    Seriously, when the REAL fans of clubs like Liverpool are told that "no we're not gonna play in the premiership anymore, we're gonna join an artificial superleague along with the richest clubs from Italy and Spain instead so some Russian and American multi-millionaires can make some more money", i sure hope they stop supporting the club and leave, because at that point they have gone too far.

    Of course the clubs would still make huge profits off of all the casual fans and kiddies buying merchandise because "woo we're playing Barcelona every week now!!!", but i would encourage anyone with a serious interest in football to ignore the whole travesty.

    It would pretty much de-value and cheapen football over all on all levels.

    Sure maybe the MLS would benefit from it, but i assume you actually like football as a sport and not just the MLS, so plans like these really shouldn't please you.
     
  8. Kazuma

    Kazuma Member+

    Chelsea
    Jul 30, 2007
    Detroit
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Leave things the way they are. It's pointless like the G-14 and it would piss off a lot of hardcore fans. I'm also sure FIFA wouldn't allow it at all.
     
  9. DoctorD

    DoctorD Member+

    Sep 29, 2002
    MidAtlantic
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sadly, most American soccer fans already only like the G-18 teams. That's why MLS, with admittedly lower quality, is not as popular as it could be. So there would be little difference from this side of the pond in terms of "football as a sport".
     
  10. Hansadyret

    Hansadyret Member

    Feb 20, 2007
    Bergen, Norway
    Club:
    SK Brann Bergen
    The way it is now the CL is allready destroying domestic competition in the different leagues with the cashflow to the same clubs each year(top 4 in England). The rich clubs only get richer each year passing by. I can't realy see a superleague happening in the near future, the different leagues has to much history behind them.
    I don't think Scotland would be getting the same number of teams as Germany and 24 teams is to few teams i think for a continent of 500M.
    I can see 32 clubs devided geografhically in 4 groups. All clubs with individual domestic TV-right. International TV-right is shared equally among all clubs. All clubs would have to have top modern stadiums from season 1.

    5 clubs from England, Spain, Italy, Germany
    ManU,Liverpool,Arsenal,Chelsea,Tottenham,Real Madrid,Barcelona,Valencia,Sevilla, Atletico Madrid,Inter,Milan,Roma,Juventus,Napoli,Bayern,Borussia Dortmund,Schalke, Stuttgart,Hertha Berlin
    3 from France
    Lyon,Marseille,PSG
    2 Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Holland
    Porto,Benfica,Moscow,Zenit,Rangers,Celtic, Ajax,PSV(Feynoord)
    1 Turkey
    Fenerbache

    Some kind of promtion/relegation system would be the best to give the clubs on the outside some hope but it would be difficult to set up. But again i don't think a "superleague" happening for many years.
    Competiton from MLS and Asia in the future over the best players could help push it to become reality:)
     
  11. narduch

    narduch New Member

    Apr 14, 2005
    Any person who is a fan of the game should be against everything the G-14 stands for.

    This talk of a European Super League makes me laugh sometimes though. If this ever did become reality, the teams involved might be careful what they wish for. What happens if the Super League only has 2 or 3 teams that always win. Nobody is going to care about the Arsenal v. Juventus game in Week 32 of the Super League if both teams are mid-table and have nothing to play for (just giving these two teams as an example, I have nothing against either). Eventually the teams that don't perform well in a 'Super League' will begin to lose a lot of their gloryhunting fans.

    All the G-14 clubs are the big fish at the moment. In a Super League, they can't all be the winner or runner up.

    As for the original question of this thread, I think it would actually benefit MLS's ability to obtain talent if a Super League ever did happen.

    But as a fan of the game, I don't want to see it happen.
     
  12. BBBulldog

    BBBulldog Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 25, 2004
    Dinamo Zagreb
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    more G14 circle jerk, like champs cup wasn't enough of a playground for them
     
  13. skydaddy8

    skydaddy8 New Member

    Aug 5, 2007
    norman,ok
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    i believe what you all are looking for is the uefa champions league.
     
  14. DCUdiplomat96

    DCUdiplomat96 Member

    Mar 19, 2005
    Atlanta, GA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States

    i dont see a problem with it as along the teams are trying to earn money and not just giving money
     
  15. DCUdiplomat96

    DCUdiplomat96 Member

    Mar 19, 2005
    Atlanta, GA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    divide the Super league to two Conferences and play Home and home within the conference and within intraconference and then have a playoffs mix it with the champions league add 2 teams from each of the leagues and make champions league a all knock out tourney.
     
  16. narduch

    narduch New Member

    Apr 14, 2005
    And you will still have have mid- and bottom-table teams with nothing of note to play for. You will also develop a system were the top-level teams start to leave the lower-level teams behind, even in the Super League.
     
  17. DCUdiplomat96

    DCUdiplomat96 Member

    Mar 19, 2005
    Atlanta, GA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    then the lower teams if in the reg zone can play a end of season "last chance" playoffs with like the bottom 4 can play the top teams from the domestic leagues winner takes all like a round robin ....
     
  18. narduch

    narduch New Member

    Apr 14, 2005
    But you will still have a lot of meaningless games. And meaningless games don't sell well, no matter how glamorous the contestants are.

    Plus the G-14 aren't interested in relegation. They want to copy the North American franchise system. That's part of the entire point of their plan.
     
  19. DCUdiplomat96

    DCUdiplomat96 Member

    Mar 19, 2005
    Atlanta, GA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    thats another thing why u should have playoffs in europe. yeah your team might not make the top two or four but if the can make that 5-8 in a 8 team playoff it would be intense. i say the G14 should expand maybe to 20 teams to 10 team conference( to maintain a semi single table for each conference) each team will play 9 teams twice(within conference) = 18 games. then they play 20 games(the other conference team twice) = 38 games. Relegation each conference will drop 2 teams each, the 4 teams can play in a round robin 4 group round where the top four in each group will win top flight status for the next yr. example the lower team will be seated in in thier own groups. the remaining slots can be fielded from the domestic league champions. have a world cup group style elimination where its 4 teams pergroup that means 3 games each team. tops points get promoted.:)
     
  20. DCUdiplomat96

    DCUdiplomat96 Member

    Mar 19, 2005
    Atlanta, GA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    if thats the case then they will have to have Playoffs to determine the Champion for the super league because thats how it works. 20 teams split on to conferences top four in each conference make the play offs done.:D
     
  21. sharkeyca

    sharkeyca New Member

    Aug 24, 2007
    Los Angeles, CA
    The Champions' League is the blue-print, prototype for an American style soccer league. All they need are more games in the "group" (conference) stages, inter-group games, and playoff seeding, and voila, you have European soccer as conceived by American businessmen. Guess what, it's almost inevitable b/c the courts and governments treat clubs as capital investments, not social institutions. Some teams had that social contract (owned by the fans) and they sold it away. That's your own damn fault.
     
  22. DirtyJerzey

    DirtyJerzey Member

    May 30, 2005
    Harrison, NJ
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't think FIFA could technically stop a SuperLeague from forming, but I do think FIFA would do something drastic to discourage it like banning players in the SuperLeague from playing International football ... or even banning the countries that are supporting the SuperLeague. That by itself would make the creation of European league difficult.

    I do think that FIFA will have to allow some sort of compromise, like maybe the combining of larger leagues to the smaller neighboring leagues (i.e. England + Scotland, or Portugal + Spain).
     
  23. RichardL

    RichardL BigSoccer Supporter

    May 2, 2001
    Berkshire
    Club:
    Reading FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I don't think clubs further down would be affected too much. It doesn't make too much sense to suggest that a fan who watches Barnsley will be put off for life by the big 4 quitting. The clubs outside the premiership only make a very small part of their income from tv money as it is, and those deals probably wouldn't be a casualty anyway. What would happen to the other premiership clubs, particularly if the breakaway was announced in a season when the tv deal is up for renewal (as it's highly unlikely that SKY would be able to unilaterally cancel their contract just because the big 4 have quit), would be rather more "interesting".
     
  24. pc4th

    pc4th New Member

    Jun 14, 2003
    North Poll
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    For those that voted 'BAD' for MLS. Please explain why?
     
  25. Bluebirds Boyo

    Nov 26, 2006
    Bangkok, Thailand
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    Wales
    A 'European Super League' will never happen.

    These big clubs are only big because they dominate their respective leagues. Joining this league will mean there is the possibility of losing regularly. The glory hunters will then lose interest.

    Unless at least three of England's Big Four dominate this league, all that will happen is that Everton will grow in Liverpool, Tottenham and West Ham will in London and Man City will in Manchester to replace the missing clubs.

    Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United weren't always the big clubs in England and the latter three have even spent time outside the top flight in living memory (1984, 1962 and 1975 respectively).

    The Premiership survived without a dash of the eyelid when big clubs like Leeds, Forest and Sunderland were relegated; English football doesn't rely on a handful of clubs and will continue without the 'Big Four' with relative ease.
     

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