Man, I wished the Superleague had been started already. It would have killed those moneyhungry clubs instantly. Their wage bill would even be higher than it is now and that SL consortium without revenues wasnot going to be able to pay those 16 clubs the money they were going to make. Given the clubs wanted more than what they now make in their league plus CL (Barca and Real close to a billion, Bayern etc around 700 million) a modest estimation would be at least 10 billion (but probably closer to 12 billion). If no revenues are coming in that consortium was going to fold faster than one would imagine. For sure if the matches are banned for more than a season. Would that consortium survive a hit of let's say 1.5 season and lost revenues of 20 billion? Demmit. I should have endorsed the lunatic SL.
https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2020/03/30/5e81c9af46163f579b8b45ca.html Transfers will lose 28 per cent of their value Pogba's value set to drop to 35 million euros https://en.as.com/en/2020/03/30/football/1585563951_163078.html CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus: Football's transfer market values have plummeted CIES have published a study that says team values have dropped by a staggering amount with Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona affected. Market value loss according to CIES Club Dropped value in euro % lost FC Barcelona -366 31.30% Liverpool -353 25.10% Real Madrid -350 31.80% Paris St-Germain -302 31.40%
I could be wrong, but I believe in some/most countries the clubs are legally allowed to cut salaries under such circumstances. In Spain I hear they can cut them up to 70%.
The contracts players sign have to conform to UEFA/FIFA rules. These rules include that a player has a right to what he signed for and when a club doesnot fullfill it's obligations to a player within 3? months the player is free to move on and the club loses all it's rights in regards to the player. Frankly I'm the opinion those laws that give the employer the right to cut pay are illegal in European context and these havent been tested in the Human Right Court of the EU. Freedom of contract is a sacred good and this cut law is in fact telling people to work for less money. I donot give this law a chance in court. Another thing is the opinion of people who get hit hard by the recession coming, of which only the severity is open for discussion. From a PR pov it would become a disaster for players to stick to their rights. The question is whether they care. I wouldnot care if I was Frenkie and I was being ordered to pony up 7 million€€. I would say gfy and if Barcelona fails to meet it's obligations move on to another club. The choice is for Barcelona to face the risk of losing 80 million in transfer value for that 7 million. They can cut the payment based on that law, but if ordered by FdJ lawyer to pay, the clock starts ticking away those 3 months and Barcelona cannot be sure they will win in a confrontation on EC court level. By then they're in failure to meet obligations after being summond to do so.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/barcelona-could-go-bankrupt-coronavirus-21857386 Barcelona 'could go bankrupt as coronavirus crisis and erratic policy takes toll' Barcelona have been holding discussions with players over taking a significant pay cut, while president Josep Bartomeu is under pressure following the resignation of six board members
A part of me wonders if UEFA will keep the new CL format that the COVID pandemic has led us to (i.e. single-leg, tournament style Final 8). In the short-term it would make-up for the late start that the CL will have next season. In the medium- and long-term, it would make it more feasible to expand the CL without having to increase the # of matchdays. And I am posting in this thread because it would make the idea of expanded groups more feasible (which is a step towards a 'superleague'). For e.g. two groups of 8, with teams playing home-and-away against each team within their group. That would mean 14 matchdays - same as the current number - before the end-of-season final 8 tournament held in a single host city. Alternatively, you can replace the round of 16 with 4 groups of four which would mean more head-to-head clashes between super clubs. This is similar to the format used about 15 years ago, but with the single-leg final 8 tournament at the end it becomes more feasible.
I doubt it. Part of the lure of the CL is the massive ticket and hospitality revenues from the home match. The UEFA never can compensate both teams for the lost home match revenues.
To be clear, only the final 8 would be held in a neutral venue in the idea I mention above. Teams would still get CL home matches throughout the CL season - 7 guaranteed home matches (more than double what they get now, in fact).
Well, the home matches of the superclubs against the non superclubs have a tendency to be not so great crowd pullers. The matches against the other superclubs are and taking those out of the equation is simply taking out the real money spinners for those clubs and transferring that to the UEFA, who are in fact then the hosts of the clubs in the by UEFA hired venues.
In both ideas that I mention in my post big clubs would have more home CL matches against other big clubs. I'm not saying I love the ideas. Just pointing-out that where before the ideas were often shut down because they involved too many matches, now with the final 8 tournament format at the end they seem quite feasible to implement.
I like groups of 4 or 6. I think groups of 8 are too big. Clubs that start in the Group Stage have 8 games before the Quarterfinals. Will they want that amount to go up to 14? Let's say there were 14 matchdays and then a final 8 at one site. The top leagues end within two weeks of each other, and some of them have cups ending one week after the league does. To have a final 8, UEFA might need to make the top leagues end the same weekend, which means each league gets less attention.
Theoretically, before they try-out a European or World Super League, or both, I feel adjustments will be made to the Champions League format first. I believe it's already been suggested from someone at Bayern, that the current format that they are utilising, because of the pandemic, could be used in future incarnations of the competition. Straight knockout over one leg, within the knockout stages would most probably increase TV ratings and attendances (once crowds are allowed back in). I feel they will milk the ECL cash-cow for all they can, then once it's dry, try to establish the long-anticipated/dreaded Super-League.
https://www.skysports.com/football/...er-united-in-talks-for-fifa-backed-tournament is titled "European Premier League: Liverpool and Manchester United in talks for FIFA-backed tournament." FIFA is involved, but neither them nor UEFA answered questions. Limiting England to five clubs would keep one of the big six out. I like that clubs from all countries get to play in CL and EL qualifying rounds and occasionally beat clubs from much better leagues. The article said that clubs plan on staying in their domestic leagues, but playing in 30 or 34 European Premier League regular season games and a domestic league is impossible. FIFA would have to decide how to award Club World Cup spots.
The key will be if UEFA was part of the talk or agreed to this - otherwise, there will be huge push back from UEFA. IF FIFA undermined UEFA, Infantino is playing with fire here. This would terrible for football
How can he undermine UEFA? In money terms it's about 80+% of the global football revenues. It's the European FA's that run and direct UEFA. So clubs that go into F.ck you UEFA mode will play a dangerous game as FIFA hasnot got anything to offer them while they lose everything if the European FA's/UEFA come down on them.
Remember to play soccer matches you need the permission of authorities, and be sure the local clubs are going to scream out loud to prevent such permissions. On top of that you need to make tax arrangements. Atm clubs operate in CL/EL tournements within arrangements between UEFA and the countries of the EU, if these are clubs from outside the EU. Especially for the epl clubs it will be a change from being a club that is an EU member state club, towards a status like that of Russian clubs. If that gets also the load of a brake away league that goes against the interests of the majority of the European clubs, you're in for some serious hurdles. On top of that I donot think the EU/members of the EU consider the FIFA a partner in soccer matters of Europe. Good luck with that effort. If it's the same American/Asian investors behind it I think they donot understand the EU is a different beast than the USA. The USA is one country where you can set up such a thing like they did with mls. The EU is a union of independent states, where you can't smack on top of it a cross border thing. I read in the article they can start tomorrow. Either it's whistling walking past a graveyard or plain ignorance about how things work in the EU. Well, I would summon those clubs as their FA's and demand them to sign a contract to stay away from any break away league plans or with immediate effect be thrown out of the leagues and the European competitions. Given this plan was unknown it's for sure they have to sort out tax and work permits issues with the countries involved. So de facto it would be instant death of those clubs.
The current UEFA competitions are subject to EU and domestic laws, and the UK as a EU member automatically are subject to them too. The Brexit aims to break away from EU laws and as such a SL out of the UEFA is on it's own, not part of the EU/UEFA partnership as it's described in this memorandum: https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/General/02/56/17/27/2561727_DOWNLOAD.pdf
I view this as an attempt by top clubs investors (who have a lot of foreign and American investors) to "Americanize" the sport in Europe. UEFA/FA aren't going to allow their main revenue to be challenged without a fight. No way...
These Americans are involved in the epl, which in a few weeks from now is on the wrong side of the Channel/North Sea. The UK gouvernment is making a mess of the Brexit and major league pissing the EU off by breaking international law, supported by the big idiot in the WH. Then you come as a couple of Yanks with a plan that intents to destroy soccer as we know it out of England. Good luck with that. It has been shown by Trvmp etc. from the States they have no clue about how the EU functions, so it will be interesting to see how much of that ignorance is absent within this investors group. I think going into the fight backed by FIFA will be a major mistake of that investment group. UEFA can exist without FIFA, but FIFA without UEFA is a meaningless organisation. So thinking you can use FIFA as a crowbar to break open the European market is simply stupid.
Another idea coming from pencil-pushers and greedy officials that have no clue that the interest in the sport is a function of how it is organized. Mid-table and lower table matches would hold very little interest, even if the two names involved sound "big". There's only so much money you can generate from a tournament that eventually only one team can win. Multiplying "big" games means each of them will have lower stakes and so also lower interest than the same fixture in a knock-out or a small group. They seem totally unaware of this. From a sporting perspective it's a disgrace, but even financially it isn't clear to me this is good in the medium/long run.
This won't happen as it is not logical due to the number of games these clubs would be required to play between the European Premier League and their domestic leagues. What likely will happen is an expansion of the Champions League to 36 teams. The rumor I have read is that every club will play 10 matches in one big group (a "Swiss-system") and then the top 16 will play a one off knockout competition in one-country. That would be really cool and add spice to the competition. It would also add the champions of a few of the middle-level countries adding variety. The big clubs would be fine with this because they get matches against other big boys.
Well, this is a turn of events: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/12994980/european-super-league-fifa-gianni-infantino/