Is anyone else enjoying the debacle that is this weekend’s announcement of the upcoming European Super League? Tremendously entertaining fare - especially as a former Arsenal fan who can’t be arsed with them these days.
I’ve some ideas on how it might just be allowed to stand and work but fear none of those thoughts would occur and it won’t end happily for almost everyone involved.
Of all the teams involved it only makes sense to me for Arsenal!
While I’m not in favour of a super league I’m not sure I see this as a line that’s been crossed. Football as a business is already disgusting and elitist. The likes of City and PSG are foul vehicles of sports washing. Utd’s owners using leveraged buyouts to deny the british government tax revenue in favour of paying interest and sucking the club dry. Abramovic is an example of a stupidly rich person with a football club as a play thing and so on. So yes a super league is bad but football is already very compromised in our compromised society.
I was living in West Ham (within earshot of the ground) when they started all that business about trying to get a spot in the Olympic stadium – miles from anywhere, all the seats separated from the pitch by the width of the running track, but better for television. So I have generally assumed that the clubs are in it for the money first, and the fans only insofar as they’re needed to supply the money.
(In an economic sense, football entertainment is not a fungible good: most people who follow team A, whether they go to matches or just pay through the nose for the telly, won’t casually switch to following team B the way you might with washing powder, and as for following a different sport entirely that just doesn’t seem to happen.)
It’s all sportsball to me anyway; I don’t have that mental element of “supporting a team while not being directly involved” that most people seem to. The only sport I’ve found I enjoy watching is RallyCross, and that was something of a surprise; I got into it because JC Bouvier of Rallyman was posting videos to the HGG rules committee. 
I like how Spurs have distracted everyone from their involvement by sacking Mourinho.
Anyway, I wonder what the players make of it. Any players who participated would not be eligible for international duty at the World Cup and I believe the continental level competitions (e.g. Euros, African Nations etc.) Considering playing for your country is (supposed) to be what players strive for, I would hope most would not be pleased.
I’d like the thing to bankrupt itself through ridiculous player wages.
I know nothing - Absolutely Nothing - about football, but the reaction from Gary Neville on Sky Sports was so totally honest and respectable that I’m kinda invested in this car crash now:
Along with celebs commenting that Leeds beat Man City with 10 men last week, and Arsenal had a 1-1 draw with 18th-place Fulham, so a) why them, and b) that’s the kind of thing this league will make impossible.
Quite. I’m guessing the Arsenal board think they’d rather win 'uck all and finish 10th in a closed league every year, than win 'uck all and finish 6th/7th in an open league every year. Only in the closed league they’d get flipping huge wodges of cash.
It’s a very fluid and rapidly developing story but my questions are to how it will go down with
The fans of course will be the last to be consulted. Still, at least Maureen got to escape this fiasco - for now.
runs in
Football sucks. Formula 1 rules.
runs out
The player situation reminds a little of what happened in the last match of this year’s Six Nations. France vs Scotland had to be delayed due to an outbreak of covid on the French side, and rescheduled for outside the window permitted by the English Premiership for the release of players for international games. This meant that there were a few Scottish players who would not be contractually allowed to play this game. A deal was done that allowed (I think) 5 players to be released from their clubs, in exchange for some cash compensation to their clubs. However, this still meant some players were essentially sent home from the training camp for no fault of their own, and against both their own wishes and that of the Scottish Union.
Intercepts your fleeting comment to say that old style TOCA was way more exciting than F1 has been for 30 or so years.
I am happy to support a team that has in the last 20 years;
Almost been bought by a sex shop.
Is weirdly a feeder club for players from Trinidad and Tobago.
Hosted internationals.
Been repeatedly relegated.
Scored a decent goal in an FA cup game against Arsenal
Currently owned by a legitimate international film star.
Only the last of those points really narrows the number of candidate clubs down.
Ah, there’s been ups and downs. This season looks to be the most exciting since 2012 at least. It does feel like we’re in a transitional period and it will get more exciting once more of these young uns settle in. DRS is a necessary compromise. Hoping something will replace it eventually.
All getting spicy now! Awaiting an announcement by FIFA as to whether the new ESL team players would be banned from the World Cup before probably UEFA follow suit, then see if those teams/players get kicked out of this season’s and summer’s tournaments. Then wait for the players’ agents to start suing everyone!
As I see it, either the breakaway teams will back down or they might not be able to start their new scheme this coming August as they had intended. Such delightful intrigue - and immense distraction in the UK from the firing of Mourinho and the lobbying scandals surrounding Boris Johnson and the British Conservative government.
This is starting to sound like I should really read up on it or call my dad and have it explained to me 
I like a good drama I am totally not invested in…
My general picture of FIFA is “about as corrupt as the IOC” (see above re “living in West Ham”, i.e. near where the 2012 Olympics were happening, though I got out just in time). So their decision will presumably rest on how large a share of the proceeds they’re being offered.
I’m in favour of the ESL, because of its money-driven and anti-competitive nature. It will help football fans realise how utterly they are exploited, a subject on which they’ve been showing wilful blindness for decades.