Euro soccer teams intending to form a breakaway league (1 Viewer)

Fans and pundits are calling for heads to roll in club ownership. Jamie Carragher is calling for ownership changes at Liverpool.

Listen I loved Carra as a player but he spouts loads of nonsense as a pundit. This is the same Jamie Carragher that did nothing but collect his paycheck when Tom Hicks and George Gillette were running the club towards administration. He has a lot of fortitude to get all high and mighty now.

Beyond that who does he suppose they should sell too? FSG are probably the best of the lot in terms of running the club in a sustainable manner without putting excess debt on it to fund much of anything to do with the club. There's no guarantee that any similar ownership group would operate the same way and that would just have the pitchforks and torches out for them. The only realistic alternative is megarich sports-washing regime whether that be the Saudis (who're allegedly back in for Newcastle) or our very own Oligarch, etc. If Liverpool have ownership like that then isn't all the moral outrage for nothing?


Disagree a bit on the relevant part, just a few years ago Leichester City (who?), won the EPL, i agree it doesn't happen as often as I like, but it does happen (unexpected lower tier team surprises)....

People keep using Leicester City's fairytale run as some sort of proof of concept. That was the exception not the rule, more often than not the mega-rich clubs that can afford to essentially have 2 squads of players are going to be in for thing major trophies year in and year out. The only reason players really leave PSG is because the french league is a joke so they want the prestige of playing for one of the Spanish giants, in the Premier league, or sometimes for Bayern Munich and maybe Juve.
 
I mean, that's kind of the point, right? Chelsea and Man City were the equivalent of Leicester not that long ago and now they are two of the elite teams because they got bought by a Middle Eastern Oil family and a Russian Oligarch. It's an odd sort of Cinderella story.

Yeah for the most part. I think Chelsea and City had more success in their history (top league wins and FA cups) than Leicester, but neither was a regular top flight contender until being bought by international billionaires.

It is still cool, though, that your club - the side your family has cheered for years - can get bought by some billionaire and a few years later you're playing in Wembley for the FA Cup or something like that. I suppose there have been examples where success didn't come after being bought by international billionaires (e.g. Portsmouth). It's a pretty interesting dynamic.
 
Actually, you see more of these surprises at the Champions League, a smaller team giving a tough time to one of the elite teams.

Now, these smaller teams have to finish at least top 4 in their current league.

Here is where you get a chance to see teams like Wolves, West Ham, Sevilla, Atletic de Bilbao, Nantes, etc performing better than expected.

Have you seen the new CL reformation? It's basically the super league idea without calling it the super league. There's an illusion that UEFA and Sky can push that maybe your smaller clubs can still win it but written right there in the rules is that historically clubs may still get in even if they don't qualify based on their "UEFA Co-efficient".

I'm not saying the Super League was a great idea, but I'm definitely not having this UEFA, FIFA and the oil clubs have saved football from the evil and greedy Old Establishment.
 
I mean, it happens occasionally, but it's usually just luck that allows it to happen. Leichester has remained relevant and won then mostly just because Jamie Vardy wasn't the kind of guy that wanted the bright lights of London, Paris, etc. But, Leicester could just as easily be in the Championship in the next 5 years as stay in the Premier League. Anyway, I just think the exclusivity of the elite teams will grow beyond what it is now.

Well I did say I wished it happened more frequently....you very well could be right....we will see....
 
i've been surprised by the suddenness of all of this - but seemingly it's not very sudden at all
-- i tried to see if the Soccernomics guys had an update on this recent kerfuffle
seemingly one of the guys has a blog and has been talking about a Super League for a while (for added fun, he ties in Qatar to an early exploration of 'Dream League') (the below is from March of 2013)

It’s hard to know what to make of The Times story run this week on the alleged intention of Qatar to create a Dream Football League, involving 16 of Europe’s biggest clubs in a summer tournament in exchange for a fee of €200 million per club. The story has now been vigorously denied by the Qataris, and there have been questions about the sources used by Oliver Kay, the journalist responsible for the story. He may have been misled, or he may have got to the story in the early stages of negotiations and thus scuppered the deal.

The outrage expressed in the media, possibly reflective of public opinion, is quite striking. I saw one comment to the effect that “football is not for sale”- one wonders which part of the galaxy this commentator has been living in for the last 30 years. Other comments suggested that this would take football away from its fans- as if only Europe has football fans. An often unspoken element of this analysis is that people who watch football on TV are not “real fans” at all and therefore their interests should be discarded. Presumably people who live outside Europe and watch football on TV are completely unworthy.

If anyone were to suggest that such comments are Eurocentric, xenophobic, Islamaphobic and possibly even racist the denials would be indignant. But what do Europeans expect? What if Qatar were to start their own clubs and just pay the world’s best players to play in Qatar exclusively (much like Messi leaving Argentina to play for a European club)? I think many Europeans would consider that unacceptable too. Effectively Europeans are acting as the same way as the British did until the 1960s- as if they own the game and no one else has a right to play or compete.

The British have struggled to come to terms with the fact that they no longer control a game they invented, I think Europeans more broadly have a similar problem. But there is no doubt that top level sport will migrate away from Europe in decades to come- to the gulf, China and elsewhere. If you doubt this, consider Formula One, which until the turn of the century held more than two thirds of its races in Europe- last year the fraction dropped to nearly one third. Races have migrated because other nations have been prepared to pay more.

 
This was a poor attempt at recreating the MLS model in Europe.

unfortunately for us in the US, we’re stuck with that **** league
 
This was a poor attempt at recreating the MLS model in Europe.

unfortunately for us in the US, we’re stuck with that **** league

I really do wish that MLS had a better product. I have tried to watch it, but the quality is so low, it's difficult. I guess if I had a specific team to root for it would help, but the closest teams to NOLA are probably Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. There is no way that I will be a fan of any team from Atlanta and I just feel no connection to Houston or Dallas.

But, it wouldn't matter as much if they could just improve the quality of the competition. I think a lot of the issue is that MLS is seen as a retirement league. So, it mostly gets the scraps of young players that the European, Mexican, and South American leagues don't want and old players looking to retire.
 
I really do wish that MLS had a better product. I have tried to watch it, but the quality is so low, it's difficult. I guess if I had a specific team to root for it would help, but the closest teams to NOLA are probably Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. There is no way that I will be a fan of any team from Atlanta and I just feel no connection to Houston or Dallas.

But, it wouldn't matter as much if they could just improve the quality of the competition. I think a lot of the issue is that MLS is seen as a retirement league. So, it mostly gets the scraps of young players that the European, Mexican, and South American leagues don't want and old players looking to retire.
LAFC is a fun watch and their crowd is nuts (obviously that's not a major covid concern)
 
LAFC is a fun watch and their crowd is nuts (obviously that's not a major covid concern)

Yeah, I just find it hard to be a fan of an LA team. I do think the product on the field has gotten a little better over the years, but it has been a really slow process. I really expected MLS to improve much faster than it has. I guess I always figured with all the young kids playing soccer in the U.S. for the last 20 years would have really created a boon for MLS, but I think those kids care more about watching YouTube and Twitch than watching professional sports.
 
Yeah, I just find it hard to be a fan of an LA team. I do think the product on the field has gotten a little better over the years, but it has been a really slow process. I really expected MLS to improve much faster than it has. I guess I always figured with all the young kids playing soccer in the U.S. for the last 20 years would have really created a boon for MLS, but I think those kids care more about watching YouTube and Twitch than watching professional sports.
this is usually the point where bleedblk&gld chimes in about the for profit 'training' structure of US soccer as well as the dysfunctional relationship of the competing semi-pro leagues all thwart US player development
and it sure seems like he's right
 
this is usually the point where bleedblk&gld chimes in about the for profit 'training' structure of US soccer as well as the dysfunctional relationship of the competing semi-pro leagues all thwart US player development
and it sure seems like he's right

I don't know about all that, but it does make me more comfortable when our USMNT players are doing their club play in Europe.
 
This was a poor attempt at recreating the MLS model in Europe.

unfortunately for us in the US, we’re stuck with that **** league

go ahead...admit it. its the artificial fields that make it so. ;)

i cant stand watching on artificial turf. It should be banned and every stadium with it should have natural grass.
 
I really do wish that MLS had a better product. I have tried to watch it, but the quality is so low, it's difficult. I guess if I had a specific team to root for it would help, but the closest teams to NOLA are probably Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. There is no way that I will be a fan of any team from Atlanta and I just feel no connection to Houston or Dallas.

But, it wouldn't matter as much if they could just improve the quality of the competition. I think a lot of the issue is that MLS is seen as a retirement league. So, it mostly gets the scraps of young players that the European, Mexican, and South American leagues don't want and old players looking to retire.

its development.

Dont know if you caught the US mens Olympic qualification....that team was primarily MLS players. Kries was coaching. It was evident by game 2 that the level of development of MLS players still hasnt come to fruition. We lost in semifinals to Honduras. It was one of the more maddening matches because our team looked lost and out of shape. Now, there is some truth to the fact that this qualification took place OUTSIDE of MLS season, so it stands to reason players playing 3 matches in 10 days would not be fully fit.

However, this is US MNT....if you cant find your fitness and skill representing country, i dont know what to tell you. It was pitiful to watch Honduras boss our players and just "want it more".
 
its development.

Dont know if you caught the US mens Olympic qualification....that team was primarily MLS players. Kries was coaching. It was evident by game 2 that the level of development of MLS players still hasnt come to fruition. We lost in semifinals to Honduras. It was one of the more maddening matches because our team looked lost and out of shape. Now, there is some truth to the fact that this qualification took place OUTSIDE of MLS season, so it stands to reason players playing 3 matches in 10 days would not be fully fit.

However, this is US MNT....if you cant find your fitness and skill representing country, i dont know what to tell you. It was pitiful to watch Honduras boss our players and just "want it more".
That match was stupid
 

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