The European Super League

[Michael Tucker]

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/american-billionaires-plan-to-revolutionise-football/news-story/0ac3c2ee2590e92d78ce217e00957cc3

 

Report that has surfaced here today. Would certainly revolutionise for European football, and be the death of Uefa.

[Mark Kelly]

Nice Photo of Ed Woodward as he faced the firing squad.

[r.bartlett]

one of the most obvious photoshops since Forrest Gump.....

[Droy was my hero]

^haha

 

It won't be the English clubs pushing for the ESL.  They'll be reacting to initiatives from the big fish in tiny European pools.

 

Of course what the PL should do is to invite 3 or 4 teams to join the prem.

[Michael Tucker]

http://www.espnfc.com.au/blog/marcotti-musings/62/post/2820003/european-super-league-issue-not-going-away-for-uefa

 

Marcotti's view.

[Droy was my hero]

The question to ask is simple - which is the biggest football competition in Europe?

The PL or the CL?

That tells you whether the top English clubs should try to join an ESL, or whether the top European teams should try to join the Prem.

For me the answer is the PL pays the most and to more teams.  The Prem should invite 4 clubs from Europe into it.  I'm sure that the TV money would only go up as a result.  I have long argued that an ESL was inevitable, and it is still a serious alternative.  But the prem has it for me.

 

Check the numbers below.  From here and based on Jan 9 league positions

All foreign teams get less domestic TV money than the bottom PL club except RM and Barca (who sell their rights individually and take most of the pie)

 

PS - digging for info for this I read of a plan a year ago to make Spanish TV payments more equitable.  Anyone know whether there was any advance on this admirable project?

 

[Sleeping Dave]

On 2/3/2016 at 6:57 PM, Droy was my hero said:

^haha

 

It won't be the English clubs pushing for the ESL.  They'll be reacting to initiatives from the big fish in tiny European pools.

 

Of course what the PL should do is to invite 3 or 4 teams to join the prem.

The frontrunners to win The Best League in the World^TM is Leicester City, a team with a 100m turnover in 2014-15 (25% of Man U’s turnover). They spent £29m (30% of Man C’s net spend) which took them from relegation fodder to the current favourites to be crowned Champions.

They have 16 outfield players where none of them can be considered anywhere near being top players on the European stage. 10 of them are average internationals and the list looks like this;

James Vardy, 4 caps for England

Wes Morgan 23 caps for Jamaica

Andy King 32 caps for Wales

Kasper Schmeichel 18 caps for Denmark

Jeff Schlupp 11 caps for Ghana

Andrej Kramaric 9 caps for Croatia

Shinji Okazaki 96 caps for Japan

Riyad Mahrez 22 caps for Algeria

Christian Fuchs 72 caps for Austria

Gökhan Inler 89 caps for Switzerland.

Their three best players, Vardy, Mahrez and N’Kanté were all signed from lower leagues for chump change.

At the same time, English teams are struggling badly in European competitions and will most likely start the 2016-17 season behind Italy due to the 2011-12 UEFA Coefficients being removed from the equation. That means that unless we see some serious improvements from English sides in Europe next season we are running a very real risk of only having 3 CL teams for the 2017-18 CL season. I’m sure I won’t have to bring up how badly Italian teams have struggled financially over the last few years.

It should be obvious what point I’m trying to make here. English teams may have the most money but they sure as hell are not using it very wisely. The talent pool of players that will make a real difference is so tiny and they are completely uninterested of going to England in the first place, they go to PSG, Bayern, Barca or Real. We end up paying world class fees and salaries to players that teams on the continent pay only a fraction of for the same quality. Overpaying for talent doesn’t make the talent better – only more expensive. Europe and the world is virtualy littered by good to average players. There’s no need to overpay for those type of players yet that is what the English teams are doing. Leicester has showed how pony they all right now.

Having money but no brains is virtually useless. It doesn’t guarantee any success as we are seeing right now.

[Droy was my hero]

Just look at the money table.

The remarkable thing is not that the 14th English team Newcastle in this table, Leicester last year, will get GBP 75m this year.

The remarkable thing is not that only 9 non-English European clubs will get more TV revenue (and two of them just 1m more).

The remarkable thing is that 17 of the 27 clubs who take over GBP 70.5m TV money in the year will play in the Prem next season.  That one of the 12 out side the big 5 puts in a great challenge should not be any surprise.  They are all big clubs.

It has just happened.  No point in denying it.

Why is it that so many people around Europe watch the Prem and not their own league?

Is there anyone here (apart from Zaffo) who watches matches between 2 non-English teams excepting el Classico and the CL QFs onwards?  

Footie is entertainment, and the measure of success IS TV fees, not Europa success.  End of story.

Knocked out in the prelims of the Europa league and finishng 10th in the Prem not only brings a lot more money than being first in Portugal and winning the Europa league, it means you are a much better team too.  And then you get to overpay for the South Americans that Porto or Sporting Lisbon just brought through.

 

Amazing the PL, isn't it.

[Sleeping Dave]

3 hours ago, Droy was my hero said:

Just look at the money table.

The remarkable thing is not that the 14th English team Newcastle in this table, Leicester last year, will get GBP 75m this year.

The remarkable thing is not that only 9 non-English European clubs will get more TV revenue (and two of them just 1m more).

The remarkable thing is that 17 of the 27 clubs who take over GBP 70.5m TV money in the year will play in the Prem next season.  That one of the 12 out side the big 5 puts in a great challenge should not be any surprise.  They are all big clubs.

It has just happened.  No point in denying it.

Why is it that so many people around Europe watch the Prem and not their own league?

Is there anyone here (apart from Zaffo) who watches matches between 2 non-English teams excepting el Classico and the CL QFs onwards?  

Footie is entertainment, and the measure of success IS TV fees, not Europa success.  End of story.

Knocked out in the prelims of the Europa league and finishng 10th in the Prem not only brings a lot more money than being first in Portugal and winning the Europa league, it means you are a much better team too.  And then you get to overpay for the South Americans that Porto or Sporting Lisbon just brought through.

 

Amazing the PL, isn't it.

Nice way of replying to my post without actually addressing the point being made. 

The PL had more TV money than Serie A even when the Italian league were miles ahead of the PL. TV money isn't necessarily a measure of quality, it's a measure of popularity. 

there's still millions of Liverpool fans out there and they'd been **** for the best part of a quarter of a century. The PL is marketing their 'product' well. Your mistake is to think that means it has the best teams in it. Leicester wouldn't stand a chance to win Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or La Liga. No chance even if you took out the best team in each of those leagues. 

Anyone, no point discussing this. You just don't get it. You consider only one of probably 20 variables. That's your main mistake. 

[Droy was my hero]

It is entertainment - popularity IS quality.  Everyone knows that.  You too.

The Italian league has never been ahead of the PL.  The top 4 on occasion may have been.  The top 2 quite often.  The bottom 10 just don't compare.

Not just Leicester.  Any of the top 15 in the Prem would be challenging for 3rd or 4th in Spain or Italy, and 2nd or third in Germany of France.

Forget Europa league performances - it is a noddy league.  Forget even CL performances - PSG, Bayern, RM, Barca and English clubs are the only teams worth watching,