Crazy Ted posted:

J.P. Morgan Chase bank has been confirmed as the official money men behind all of this.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

https://twitter.com/fergalkiernan/status/1384064384809332740

Flayer posted:

I hope Legacy Fans™ get a cool badge to wear to show their seniority. Maybe some exclusive DLC?

I hope this all goes tits up but at the same time destroys UEFA and FIFA in some way. I'm not sure how it would work out ultimately but I'd love for Arsenal to go bust if it forced out the shithead americans. I'm sure stadium maintenance could cover itself with match day revenue at least, we just wouldn't be able to spunk £350,000 a week on world class players intentionally frozen out of the first team for political reasons.

Flayer posted:

Sounds fake. Why would you invite a Russian team into your western European league? Just constant problems with timezones.

Collateral posted:

The what now? Next you will be tell me the Euro finals are now 32 teams.

I honestly think Uefa are shooting themselves by offering to ban players from internationals. The owners are probably delighted at this outcome.

pik_d posted:

https://twitter.com/superigor/status/1384181418176118788?s=21

Haramstufe Rot posted:

Another interesting factor would be teams in Spain and Italy that are not included.

Of course, it is a massive disrespect that 6 PL clubs, among then absolute garbage clubs, declare themselves the best in Europe over actual good teams in Germany and France. However, these leagues are still functional despite some ESL and they can send their teams if they so choose and flatten teams like Arsenal or Tottenham.


But for Italian or Spanish teams, international and eventually domestic Football is pretty much over. One would expect some ruffled feathers

quote:

Ian: How can football fans be surprised that this has happened, given the abuse & vitriol directed at club owners? There is a massive fan base in other parts of the world, and those fans don't insult the owners after every match

Total Meatlove posted:

Yer Lille, Lyon, and Monaco are poo poo

Bacon Terrorist posted:

Maybe Sky are going crazy about this because the pooper league is going to go all NFL Game Pass and cut out the middle man.

Bacon Terrorist posted:

Most people I have seen are more along the 'lol G Nev and friends are going mad now but they'll be commentating on it next year' etc school of thought. But these are the same people who believe all the players will be banned from internationals. Same as the ECB banned England players from going to the IPL.

biglads posted:

Fans aren't going to unite and stop this. The ingrained hatreds and rivalries are too much.

Fans will blame someone else probably not associated with their own club (Perez, Abramovic, Glazer etc) and the parochial bullshit will win.

Flayer posted:

Exactly, fans have zero power to stop this when the global interests that own the clubs can sell the TV rights (or get injected by hedge funds) for billions upon billions of dollars. You could have nobody turning up to games and it would make commercial sense for the owners to fill the stadium with ringers and cardboard cutouts. Or just move a bunch of games abroad. Don't get caught up in thinking local supporters have any agency or are in any way to blame for this.

Haramstufe Rot posted:

If Barca backs out the thing is dead. This would be hilarity of the highest form, surpassing this entire shebang.

But again, the clubs in this league are not there because they are good, but because they are in debt - they are the ones who win by buying players instead of developing them, and I don't think they have a plan to do anything else.

So it looks like this will continue. It's viable because big name clubs are there, and international fans care mostly about Spain and England. What do the 150 million people in Europe, who don't watch this, matter, if you get like 200 million Americans and x million Chinese fans?

English fans will watch it - they let their PL teams get sold out to oligarchs and billionaires, so you can't expect them to suddenly start caring about Football. It's really telling that half the clubs are English anyway - the country which created the game is also now killing it.

Either something happens in Spain and the thing dies, or PSG joins eventually and everything else dies.

FullLeatherJacket posted:

No idea though how much of the City/Chelsea thing is legit and how much of it is Sky trying to generate a wedge via their friends at UNNAMED SOURCE

It's not like Chelsea has a real board that's going to vote on this poo poo, and iirc even people who work for the club seem to speak to Abramovich once a year and deal with his PA the rest of the time so I somehow doubt he's giving regular briefings to Helen Chamberlain

Grimson posted:

https://twitter.com/MikeKeegan_DM/status/1384492077149417478?s=20

ZeeBoi posted:

https://twitter.com/thetimes/status/1384470333554499588

Tokyo Sexwale posted:

I don't disagree, but he still paints an incomplete picture is my point. If we look at, say, semi-final appearances by France since 1990 this is what we get:

1990: Marseille, semi-final
1991: Marseille, finalist
1993: Marseille, champion
1994: Monaco, semi
1995: PSG, semi
1996: Nantes, semi
1998: Monaco, semi
2004: Monaco, final
2010: Lyon, semi
2017: Monaco, semi
2020: Lyon, semi; PSG, finalist

Now that isn't a particularly stunning list of CL performance but if the real list isn't particularly impressive already there's no need to make poo poo up to make it look worse.

Tokyo Sexwale posted:

It's all good. I would argue that the true bottlers in that history are Lyon, who won 7 straight from 2002-2008 and in that time made zero semi finals and only three quarter appearances. There's a pretty noticeable drop off after 1998, in any case.

At any rate, back to ESL shitposting

Honj Steak posted:

From the Real Madrid subreddit lol. Perez is just like [genocidal maniac]. Well intentioned, but badly planned.

The DPRK posted:

Please excuse my naive questions, but:
- Why are so many clubs in debt?
- Is it really not possible for clubs to continue to exist based on matchday tickets (assuming no covid) and merch?
- Is this in itself not damning for modern football?

e: i'm mainly thinking here about the non big 6 sides, thinking if the big 6 break away - why are they so hosed?

The DPRK posted:

Do the numbers just not add up, when it comes to salaries, stadium costs vs their income at the turnstile?

shirts and skins posted:

Tottenham has a different major expense occupying their attention right now.

sassassin posted:

A lot of fancy protest banners have been printed up that won't get used now. Feel for the fans.

TotalHell posted:

Azhais posted:

https://twitter.com/StanCollymore/status/1384586718611918852?s=19

trem_two posted:

https://mobile.twitter.com/svertelney/status/1384588625275494406

Total Meatlove posted:

They could just offer Messi trains and write off €400m of that

Crazy Ted posted:

Someone take the old lady out back and shoot her

military cervix posted:

Chelsea currently making a strong argument for the ESL by demonstrating just how boring the premier league can be.

Loving Africa Chaps posted:

We've bullied billionaires into doing apology videos, keep going.