https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/3...ue-illegal

Here's a quote from Real Madrid:

"Nobody said that ending a monopoly after so many decades would be easy... From today, the present and future of European football is at last in the hands of the clubs, the players and the fans. Our destiny belongs to us." (Translation: We are allowed to milk the fans for the most money possible)

Very interesting decision here. We will see what the big clubs intend to pursue. The Premiere League is sort of like the SEC and those clubs will hold out the longest. But a bloc of:

Real
Barca
Atletico
Bayern M/L
PSG
Milan
Juventus

Could get the ball rolling and put pressure on UK clubs to defect.

I thought the proposal changed to where it’s now more of a threat to UEFA Champions League and open rather than closed?

(12-21-2023 07:51 AM)Just Joe Wrote:  I thought the proposal changed to where it’s now more of a threat to UEFA Champions League and open rather than closed?

That appears to be the case. In this proposal, there is a three Tiers but you can qualify for the third Tier based on domestic league performance. This is the model college football desperately needs to adopt.

32-48 team FBS (Let's say P2).
36 Team sub division (Let's call it Super Big 12/ACC merger)
64 team G5 Leagues

But there needs to be access for promotion/relegation in CFB. The new Super League is still "open" but the objective here is probably to keep it as closed as possible. Make the first two divisions so above and away superior with maybe only the bottom/top two teams relegated/promoted.

So the court said the government had to butt out of how a sports league organizes itself.

Absolutely the correct decision.

(12-21-2023 08:44 AM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  So the court said the government had to butt out of how a sports league organizes itself.

Absolutely the correct decision.

No - it’s not the government. The court said the UEFA and FIFA organizations can’t prevent the Super League from being formed. In a US context, it’s more akin to a court telling the NCAA that they can’t prevent the Big Ten and SEC from forming their own college super league. The court is actually *limiting* the ability of UEFA and FIFA to enforce its rules against its members.

Most of the big clubs have already come out against this. It's dead in the water again. Without the English, German, and French clubs, it won't go anywhere.

Also, the headline and the initial read of the decision kind of misread this. UEFA retains a veto on teams participating.

I'm not sure the big clubs (P2) needed to breakaway completely to form a Super League but they definitely needed to create a Playoff (Champions League) that excluded smaller nations (other P3+G5). Luxembourg playing in the same Tournament as England is as ridiculous as Jacksonville State playing alongside Texas.

(12-21-2023 07:31 AM)RUScarlets Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/3...ue-illegal

Here's a quote from Real Madrid:

"Nobody said that ending a monopoly after so many decades would be easy... From today, the present and future of European football is at last in the hands of the clubs, the players and the fans. Our destiny belongs to us." (Translation: We are allowed to milk the fans for the most money possible)

Very interesting decision here. We will see what the big clubs intend to pursue. The Premiere League is sort of like the SEC and those clubs will hold out the longest. But a bloc of:

Real
Barca
Atletico
Bayern M/L
PSG
Milan
Juventus

Could get the ball rolling and put pressure on UK clubs to defect.

Manchester United, Bayern, PSG and Atletico Madrid are all vocally opposed to a Super League. They understand the long term consequences…it will eventually downgrade national (England, German, French, Spain) leagues.

The problem is that nationalism isn’t the economic engine for booming soccer revenue. Real Madrid and Barcelona have fully embraced the international business model. They’ll keep making noise for a new order.

Super League won't form but it'll force more changes to Champions League. It's how I could see the B1G/SEC threatening a breakaway to force NCAA to make changes they want to keep them happy.

(12-21-2023 10:59 AM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  

(12-21-2023 07:31 AM)RUScarlets Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/3...ue-illegal

Here's a quote from Real Madrid:

"Nobody said that ending a monopoly after so many decades would be easy... From today, the present and future of European football is at last in the hands of the clubs, the players and the fans. Our destiny belongs to us." (Translation: We are allowed to milk the fans for the most money possible)

Very interesting decision here. We will see what the big clubs intend to pursue. The Premiere League is sort of like the SEC and those clubs will hold out the longest. But a bloc of:

Real
Barca
Atletico
Bayern M/L
PSG
Milan
Juventus

Could get the ball rolling and put pressure on UK clubs to defect.

Manchester United, Bayern, PSG and Atletico Madrid are all vocally opposed to a Super League. They understand the long term consequences…it will eventually downgrade national (England, German, French, Spain) leagues.

The problem is that nationalism isn’t the economic engine for booming soccer revenue. Real Madrid and Barcelona have fully embraced the international business model. They’ll keep making noise for a new order.

Barca in particular was put in dire straits a couple years ago due to the Covid fallout, but they were all hurting. Now? The English clubs and most of the other big ones had HUGE blowback from their fans. I wouldn’t say that it will never happen, but a big tournament like the Club World Cup makes more sense than another layer of soccer dumped on top of the champions league.

(12-22-2023 12:46 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(12-21-2023 10:59 AM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  

(12-21-2023 07:31 AM)RUScarlets Wrote:  https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/3...ue-illegal

Here's a quote from Real Madrid:

"Nobody said that ending a monopoly after so many decades would be easy... From today, the present and future of European football is at last in the hands of the clubs, the players and the fans. Our destiny belongs to us." (Translation: We are allowed to milk the fans for the most money possible)

Very interesting decision here. We will see what the big clubs intend to pursue. The Premiere League is sort of like the SEC and those clubs will hold out the longest. But a bloc of:

Real
Barca
Atletico
Bayern M/L
PSG
Milan
Juventus

Could get the ball rolling and put pressure on UK clubs to defect.

Manchester United, Bayern, PSG and Atletico Madrid are all vocally opposed to a Super League. They understand the long term consequences…it will eventually downgrade national (England, German, French, Spain) leagues.

The problem is that nationalism isn’t the economic engine for booming soccer revenue. Real Madrid and Barcelona have fully embraced the international business model. They’ll keep making noise for a new order.

Barca in particular was put in dire straits a couple years ago due to the Covid fallout, but they were all hurting. Now? The English clubs and most of the other big ones had HUGE blowback from their fans. I wouldn’t say that it will never happen, but a big tournament like the Club World Cup makes more sense than another layer of soccer dumped on top of the champions league.

Part of it is that the Premier League is so far ahead of the other leagues financially that they don’t have the same motivations as Real Madrid and Barcelona. To apply it to the current college sports situation, Real Madrid and Barca are like Florida State and Clemson while the EPL is the Big Ten/SEC. Barca by some measures makes the most revenue of any sports team in the world, yet they may actually be sandbagged compared to what they’d get in a Super League system or if their domestic league was on par with the Premier League financially.

(12-22-2023 01:07 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  Part of it is that the Premier League is so far ahead of the other leagues financially that they don’t have the same motivations as Real Madrid and Barcelona. To apply it to the current college sports situation, Real Madrid and Barca are like Florida State and Clemson while the EPL is the Big Ten/SEC. Barca by some measures makes the most revenue of any sports team in the world, yet they may actually be sandbagged compared to what they’d get in a Super League system or if their domestic league was on par with the Premier League financially.

Yeah, but I still think the mainland bluebloods will be forced to consolidate. The money in the domestic leagues just isn’t there for them individually. It’s insane to have to same 2-3 teams coming out with the League Cups every year. May as well embrace the disparity (it’s even worse than CFB or MLB). I think the EU fans there will be more concerned about the carbon footprint given the travel demands of a Super League. But there are enough teams still on the mainland that can support a 12-14 team league. Leave some room for Premiere League teams once they feel the squeeze.

Here is A22 website:

https://a22sports.com/en/

I was quite correct. The Super League was not dead, merely delayed. A lot of players in this, media and clubs. For now, just wow!

(12-21-2023 11:30 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  Super League won't form but it'll force more changes to Champions League.

This is my thinking as well just using it as a bargaining chip. Most big clubs have already come out and said they have no interest in joining. It's hard to describe to people who don't follow European sports how big of a backlash there would be if it ever got through.

From a European perspective the Premier League is the SEC/B1G

Germany/Italy/Spain are ACC/Big XII

France is AAC/MWC

The rest are Sun Belt/CUSA/MAC

FIFA/UEFA is NCAA

Champions League is Play Offs

The issues are the same, currently 4 EPL teams get into play-offs, they want more and the new UCL next year opens up the possibility of more, but there are at least 7 EPL teams that need the UCL money, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Spurs and now Newcastle.

There was talk of allowing past performance to count, so if Bama or Georgia or Clemson had an off season they’d still qualify for play-offs, that hasn’t been implemented, but it was a driver for the super league.

As people have said it’s unlikely the super league will happen, but the champions league will evolve and grow, it is a cash cow and the big teams will want to milk it.

Maybe they will end up as a P2, the premier league and the European league

European league

Real Madrid, Atletico, Barca
Bayern, Dortmund
PSG
Juve, Milan, Inter

This is the core plus additions like Roma, Marseilles, Ajax etc


Will live in changing times

I think La Liga is more like the B1G. You have the greatest rivalry in all of sports there with Barca/Real. That's bigger than tOSU/UM. They just haven't had their USCLA moment yet, but that is coming. You poach Inter/AC Milan into a Super League for starters (southern European comradery) to start the dominoes. It's not like the Premiere League is in a position to poach mainland teams.

Once Germany gets on board (I feel Bayern/Dortmund are more like FSU/Clemson). PSG is like UNC. They can swing both ways. Those are the three gets. Then the top remaining Italian and LaLiga clubs finish it off. Premiere League can try to do their own playoff but it will fail.

Shouldn't this be in the Pro Sports forum?