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Post by mongolikecandy on Mar 17, 2009 13:54:19 GMT
Another nail in the coffin of the game...
UEFA ready to discuss European Super League
PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) - UEFA is prepared to discuss plans from European teams to create a continental league to replace the Champions League and UEFA Cup, its president Michel Platini was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
The European Club Association (ECA), which represents 137 leading teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid, talked about a "Super League" during a meeting last week in Nyon, Switzerland, France Football reported.
Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport said the project also had some backing from within UEFA.
The Super League would be made up of three divisions with 20 to 22 clubs in each tier, the two newspapers said. Promotion and relegation would occur between the divisions each season.
"Everybody knows my philosophy about European competitions...but the world is changing and we must be careful about that," Platini told France Football.
"If it was up to me, I would revert to European Cups as they were at the beginning, with just knockout rounds. But we must listen carefully to any suggestion. If (clubs) come and talk to us, we would listen to them and then decide."
Gazzetta said the global economic crisis had prompted the often-mooted Super League idea to resurface but gave no indication over when advocates wanted the tournament to start.
European domestic leagues would remain if a Super League ever got the go-ahead, Gazzetta said, but the number of matches in individual championships would have to be reduced so that top clubs could play in both competitions.
The UEFA Cup is being rebranded as the Europa League next season.
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Post by Will_75 on Mar 17, 2009 13:56:33 GMT
"If it was up to me, I would revert to European Cups as they were at the beginning, with just knockout rounds"
not THAT I agree with
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Post by JoeinOz on Mar 17, 2009 13:56:35 GMT
It's been discussed for twenty years and nothing ever happens
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Post by lordb on Mar 17, 2009 14:06:09 GMT
Euro super league div 2 or 3 instead of the prem wont appeal to the likes of Arsenal who wouldnt get in the 1st div of such a league right now.
wont happen
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2009 14:33:01 GMT
Translation:
Michel Platini: "We think Sky, Adidas, Nike etc would be willing to put up obscene amounts of cash for the rights to a single Super-Duper Euro League full of all the world's superstars. The proposal will make the rich clubs much richer and keep all the top stars under one media contract. We are being careful to make cosy noises of support to other clubs in each domestic league, but we will naturally drop them like hot toxic shit as soon as the Super-Duper Euro League clubs complain about fixture congestion."
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Post by Mr Jon on Mar 17, 2009 15:01:49 GMT
So the ECA represent 137 leading teams in Europe and there would be 3 x divisions each of 20 or 22 teams, so 60 - 66 Superleague teams in total.
How would the powers-that-be decide who's in and who's out? History, wealth, attendances?
If the latter criteria applies, for example, as of January 2009 the mighty Potters had the 51st highest average attendance in Europe (12th in Prem, 13th in England and 15th in UK), so would we make the cut? It shows what a minefield this conception really is.
Whether we would qualify or not I think the whole idea stinks and should be kicked into the long grass.
BTW Platini's right about the European Cup IMHO; a champions' cup for champions
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Post by wembley4372 on Mar 17, 2009 15:57:31 GMT
Three divisions of 22 only uses 66 teams, so that leaves 71 teams to rot. I suppose their are enough idiots around to get a majority vote! Mind you I expect manure have probably got 69 votes  |
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Post by captainchaos on Mar 17, 2009 16:28:43 GMT
If the champions league final is another all english affair then the French et al will definitely support a super league to try to end or reduce the dominance of the English teams
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Post by visunitafortior on Mar 17, 2009 16:44:20 GMT
It won't happen
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Mar 17, 2009 16:50:13 GMT
How small would the national leagues have to be for the top clubs to play in their national leagues AND the European Leagues? A 20 club Eurpean League would mean 38 European games. You'd end up with national leagues such as the Premiership with only ten teams.
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Post by steinovschmeichel on Mar 17, 2009 17:31:03 GMT
away support would be wank at these games. even rich manure fans wouldn't go madrid one week then munich then next then off to milan and moscow etc. would be good for watching on tv though.
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Post by scfclifer on Mar 17, 2009 17:38:55 GMT
this idea has come together to stop the premiership hogging all the tv money and battering the so called top european clubs on a yearly basis
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Post by mikeyb99 on Mar 17, 2009 17:53:53 GMT
I said it a few weeks ago, but I would love it if Manure, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea sodded off and joined another league, taking all the ridiculous SkyTV money, armchair supporters and Chinese football tourists with them!
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Post by walrus on Mar 17, 2009 17:56:50 GMT
22 teams? That means at least 21 rounds of games over the course of a season, when are they going to find the time to fit that in?
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Post by hamburgpotter on Mar 18, 2009 9:43:23 GMT
The big boys struggle now with 2 games a week so how would they go on with the extra fixtures ? Bring back the old Champions of each country into the European cup knockout basis and then depending on how big the relevant leagues were the next 5 or 6 into the Euefa Cup and each countries cup winners into the Cup Winners Cup....just like it was in the good old days !
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Post by Dr Oetcake on Mar 18, 2009 10:05:14 GMT
Hmm, Fixture congestion always comes second to wallet congestion....
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Post by Targaryen Stokie on Mar 18, 2009 10:08:48 GMT
Ridiculous idea, how could a team play in two different leagues a season?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2009 10:10:22 GMT
"But we can't play Middlesborough on Saturday, we've got Barcelona on Tuesday and need an extra day to recouperate"...you can just hear Fergie and Wenger's excuses being lined up already!!!
Never happen though....just think of their carbon footprints!
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Post by 4thMarch1972 on Mar 18, 2009 10:30:08 GMT
Bring it on. They would almost certainly have to leave their domestic leagues to make it happen + it would not strike the death knell for the Premier League as it would become a genuinely competitive league again. Attendances at places like Boro, Blackburn, Bolton etc struggle at the moment as fans are bored with mediocrity. Fans want to see their team challenging at the top of their league irrespective of what division it is (remember our crowds in games v WBA, Blues etc when we were a 3rd division side) and suddenly these 'lesser' games become meaningful again.
In the short term the TV revenue would undoubtedly reduce but the Prem would soon become the main attraction again as a top of the table clash between, say, Everton + Spurs holds far more interest for the public than another Arsenal v AZ Alkmaar clash. However, it is a hollow debate as it will simply never get off the ground.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2009 10:43:47 GMT
Bring it on. They would almost certainly have to leave their domestic leagues to make it happen + it would not strike the death knell for the Premier League as it would become a genuinely competitive league again. Attendances at places like Boro, Blackburn, Bolton etc struggle at the moment as fans are bored with mediocrity. Fans want to see their team challenging at the top of their league irrespective of what division it is (remember our crowds in games v WBA, Blues etc when we were a 3rd division side) and suddenly these 'lesser' games become meaningful again. In the short term the TV revenue would undoubtedly reduce but the Prem would soon become the main attraction again as a top of the table clash between, say, Everton + Spurs holds far more interest for the public than another Arsenal v AZ Alkmaar clash. However, it is a hollow debate as it will simply never get off the ground. I have to disagree simply because i don't see how attendances would increase and TV figures would also be sustained. No offence but most fans will go to the games, those who watch the TV (although i appreciate they are real fans who can't make it to the games etc. but this does not make up a massive percentage of the vieiwng figures) tend to be neutrals and if a neutral gets the choice of watching Arsenal play in Europe or Balckburn play at Fulham then i'm afraid it's the Arse that will win out there. And yes i want to see us challenge for a Championship but i'd much much rather be able to tell the grandkids in years to come that we did that in a divsion that was made up of the likes of Man Ure, Pool, Chelski etc. than "We came fourth in a league that had Fulham, Sunderland and Bolton in it. The reason we all love the Prem is that the division is the cream of the crop, the elite, the best in the country. If the top clubs go into a European league and leave the Prem (which Platini doesn;t want but i can't see how a club could be in both) then we won't really be in the Prem, it'd basically be the Championship again and promotion to this league would not be anywhere near as attractive a prospect either financially or aspirationally. You're right though,it's all academic as it won't happen anyway |
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Post by salopstick on Mar 18, 2009 11:17:48 GMT
i would like to see the four champions league places allocated as follows
prem champs
prem runners up
fa cup winners
leage cup winner
only if a cup winner finished in the top 2 would it be passed to the league. to do this is easy as the individual fa's allocate europeans as per their own criteeria as we found out when liverpool won it but never qualified by the league
this would make the league more exciting
make the cup competions more exciting
would give every team a chance to qualify
never happen though
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2009 11:29:28 GMT
salopstick so who would qualify for the UEFA cup on that basis?
As the two cups are usually won by teams in the top echelons of the Prem, the UEFA spots could end up being as low as 8th which would then devalue that cup
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Post by Lakeland Potter on Mar 18, 2009 11:42:58 GMT
salopstick so who would qualify for the UEFA cup on that basis? As the two cups are usually won by teams in the top echelons of the Prem, the UEFA spots could end up being as low as 8th which would then devalue that cup On the other hand mickmillslovechild - in some years the third and fourth placed teams in the Premier League would automatically be in the UEFA (Europa) Cup which would ENHANCE the status of that competition. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2009 11:45:37 GMT
salopstick so who would qualify for the UEFA cup on that basis? As the two cups are usually won by teams in the top echelons of the Prem, the UEFA spots could end up being as low as 8th which would then devalue that cup On the other hand mickmillslovechild - in some years the third and fourth placed teams in the Premier League would automatically be in the UEFA (Europa) Cup which would ENHANCE the status of that competition. fair point actually...although it's the Europa League now isn't it?? Crap name! |
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Post by lordb on Mar 18, 2009 13:30:09 GMT
UEFA cup has died a death courtesy of the Champions League
one point re The Europa League is that it will have,like The Champions League & The Prem,a
centralised TV deal instead of the ad hoc system now wherby clubs sell individual games.
In principle & probably in practice that should see TV income rise sharply overall for the new competition.
As such that should mean that the financial rewards whilst not comaparable to The CL will be
great enough to stop clubs from the richest leagues (i.e. ours) fielding weakend sides.
I think it was the M'Boro chief exec who said the they actually made not a penny until the semi-finals.
If The Europa League brings a decent income in then you wont see the likes of Villa & Spurs
practically throwing games away by fielding reserves on mass which has so devalued the UEFA Cup.
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Post by salopstick on Mar 18, 2009 14:59:31 GMT
my point about champions leage places for cup winners would be that the top 4 or at least two of them would field full strength squads to try and win
even if it was still the same 4 every year at least there would have been some competition
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Post by th05 on Mar 18, 2009 15:14:18 GMT
Don't try to fix what is not broken.
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Post by beagriestache on Mar 18, 2009 19:58:29 GMT
Shame that the greedy 4 still get to take part in their domestic league. I think we'd all be quite happy if they pissed off to Munich, Barcelona, Bucharest every week and left us to get on with a decent domestic championship which might actually revert to being interesting and open to new winners once more...
Just a thought like.
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Post by Olgrligm on Mar 18, 2009 20:24:52 GMT
Would any of you give a toss if ManUre, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all buggered off to some European league? I'd rather that instead of following Platini's idea of the teams competing in both the domestic and European league, the involved teams just entered the European league and left us to compete our domestic league on a more even keel. Could do us the world of good.
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Post by magicmanfuller on Mar 18, 2009 20:37:59 GMT
all he wants to do is stop the english teams from winning, and he thinks by putting us on a level palying field with the others dies this wont happen
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