An entertaining "Great British Matchup" at OT tonight. Leeds held Yanited to a draw, even though they had them 2-0 and looked confident. But they couldn't keep them out after they went more into their shell. But overall Leeds showed tons of intensity, tempo & desire... perhaps more than their opponent. To my eye it didn't look much different from what they'd been playing under Marsch, but they just had their finishing working today. p.s. And there was a rare sighting of a concussion substitution used in 1T where Struijk took a hard shot to the temple and to the credit of Leeds physio/medical staff they pretty quickly assessed him to be too mentally impared to continue.
Super League is back and probably will happen this time: https://archive.ph/2023.02.09-10573...e-new-tournament-to-replace-champions-league/ https://www.espn.com/soccer/uefa-ch...-launches-new-proposaleyes-80-team-tournament
Funny how all these plans to fix what is allegedly broken in European football involve ways to make the biggest clubs even more wealthier than their peers. A**holes, the lot of them.
I dunno if it is. The EPL is the default Super League, the only way the super league takes off is by swinging by the coat tales of colonialism and the accessibility/reach of "Englishness". I don't see why the top 8 clubs in England would care about a league to include let's be honest the tiny TV consumption Italy and French clubs.
Every single big club in England would join the Super League, if it was stable and they could shut down the Sky Sports anger.
More revenue will make players on super league teams marginally wealthier, but for the longevity of their careers players need fewer games, not more games. There are A**holes trying to fill their pockets with gold on all sides of this Issue, FIFA with their biannual World Cup, UEFA with their Nation’s League and European Competitions, and the big clubs who want all the gold from the UEFA competitions and undoubtedly want to be free of the financial restrictions imposed by UEFA and individual leagues, an immediate benefit for Barcelona, Juventus, and Man City. Finally, unless they plan to exclude Premier League teams from the competition, if they are going to play midweek games, while teams play their domestic league games on the weekends, I don’t see how this is going to level the playing field financially, The Premier League teams will benefit from both television contracts and any loosening of financial restrictions will benefit the teams with the wealthiest owners, ie, the oil backed teams in the premier league.
I just don't see how it's going to be successful if it ever launches. 80 teams in Europe gets you pretty ********ing far down in quality; who's watching Werder Bremen host Slavia Prague in the 4th tier of European football? People talk about how a Super League would host games all over the world or whatever. If you put that game in New York, it gets lower attendance than a US Open Cup match.
The problem is that levelling the playing field is what's needed but is the opposite of these intentions. It's merely the ruse to pick everyone's pockets. If they wanted more parity and greater financial security for more clubs they could have it overnight. Just make CL and EL payments to leagues for even distribution. Compensate the participating clubs for travel and insurance while paying players directly bonuses for each win, instead of giving clubs the excessive payments that allows them to restock and stay above the pack. Sure, it might mean the likes of ManU and Madrid have to lower their budgets a little, but given their revenues it's not like they can't field a decent roster. Point being the incentive to win will remain because of what it means to ticket sales, sponsors, etc. As usual, though, the owners of sports franchises feel the answer lies solely in increasing revenue rather than better cost management.
Isn't this just trading one dom for another dom? This just kinda seems like Brexit, where you trade your amazing deal for the idea of less of some abstract notion of ?outside influence?
This proposal sounds less like an elite super-league, and more like a replacement for the Champions League/Europa Leauge/Europa Conference structure. Basically cutting UEFA out of it and sending the profits directly to the clubs. I think this is the real motivation. I wouldn't shed a tear over UEFA losing their control over these competitions. But if the goal is to promote more reckless spending...wasn't the original Super League concept largely about cost control?
It was about putting more money into the pockets of Real, Juventus, et al. Three reasons for that: capitalist greed, eliminating self-incurred debts, leveling the playing field with the Premier League. The last of those points was why "cost control" was invoked, because it helped get people who hate the Premier League's dominance on board with the idea. IIRC the Super League had pretty high approval in Italy, and this was largely why. It's just bullshit PR spin though - these clubs don't care at all about cost control so long as they're the ones on top.
I believe they wanted a salary cap, which like the NFL and NBA, takes money away from players and puts it in owner's pockets. That's where it gets complicated for Juve and Barca, who want to spend, spend, spend without restrictions from UEFA, but they also want everyone else to stop spending on players so everyone can profit more.
I believe there was some speculation in the media about Salary Caps, but I don’t think it was part of the original proposal, it was mooted because of the number of American owners involved. it’s interesting and possibly related that we now see two of those owners bailing on the premier league, though another has been added.
Some of the clubs want cost control - that is why you saw the Super League teams split so quickly between City & Chelsea who don't want financial restrictions, and the US owners at Arse, Liverpool and Utd who are being killed by cost inflation Similarly Real, Barca Juve want cost inflation curbed. PSG do not.
This is what I was getting at, interests are not aligned on anything other than the fact they all don't like UEFA.
Up early to watch WHU-CHE. Pension Fund FC starting their most likely preferred starting 11 with all their new signings, and Loftus-Cheek back from injury. So far they look confident and in control, but so far still no dangerous scoring chances.
Well yes but there are themes - we now have it confirmed that this really was the exit ramp for the US owners For instance, for Arsenal, Utd, Spurs, Liverpool - the spiralling costs impacts the P&L and thus their asset price. Others are significantly over leveraged post Corona like Juve, Milan and Barca So for all these clubs, guaranteed revenue plus control of cost inflation matters a lot. Bayern and the German clubs don't care about that stuff so much - their problems are more internal
True, but imo Soucek had that Handball on Gallaghers “shot” that clearly went off his arm. I felt he raised it to make a play, but that could be my bias against CFC. Points dropped for them and we are 19 points above Pension Fund FC with 2 games in hand.
Conte in or Conte out, whoever the next manager is will inexplicably continue to start Eric Dier in defense, which will lead to their demise. He's going to hit 300 Premier League appearances next season and he ********ing suuuuucks. You love to see it.