Gary Neville, former Manchester United player and current TV commentator put it really well. He loves his club, loves English football and yet he tore into these clubs for this cynical, cowardly move.
> I’ve benefitted from football hugely, I’ve made money out of football, I invest money to a football club. I’m not against money in football, but the principles and ethos of fair competition are part of the game so if Leicester win the league they go into the Champions League.
> Manchester United aren’t even in the Champions League. Arsenal aren’t in the Champions League, you watched them earlier today and they were a shambles of a football club at the moment.
> Tottenham aren’t in the Champions League and they want a god-given right to be in there? It’s an absolute joke and the time has come now for an independent regulator to stop these clubs having a power base. Enough is enough.
> will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever.
Oh come on, the audacity, amazing. You can replace this with the pointing spiderman meme.
I think you're completely off the mark here. Currently to qualify for CL, you either have to win the CL or have to do well in domestic league (finish in top 4,3,2 or 1 depending on the league). So in a way, you've to earn the right to play in CL. With ESL, it essentially becomes a North American sports competition, where same set of teams compete every year.
The NFL cartel is dead serious about breaking up the UEFA (and its federations) local monopolies.
I think it is brilliant to introduce more competition into the mix, but i also fear this will have the outcome to create 2 parallel tournaments and thus, take money out of the merit based system... into the franchise system.
I fear the goal of this initiative is to derisk sport ownership by private funds. This is a serious play at business oriented takeover of sports
The franchise system is horrible for sports. There is no benefit and punishment for teams, other than winning. This might work in small competitions like NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. In European football it will only create parallel tournaments with teams participating without merit (Arsenal, for ex, hasn't qualified for the last 4 Champion Leagues if I recall correctly). It makes no sense other than making more money. It will destroy smaller teams that already receive almost nothing in most leagues (Spain, for ex). If they do it I will stop watching altogether, and I beet I'm not alone.
It also doesn’t strike me as a sustainable model. Part of what makes European football so special is the rarity of the fixtures.
While I don’t have hope that UEFA or FIFA will successfully kill off the Super League, I have optimism that the players will. By the looks of it, it’s going to be up to them to unionize and prevent this from happening.
People want the UEFA / FIFA monopoly broken... but competition coming from....USA cartel holders?
This is what makes it so interesting, too
NOTE: its important to note that the "proposal" is led by clubs that are directly held by american sports ownership.
ManU is owned by Glazer, who also owns an NFL franchise.
That's why there is a reference to the NFL.
Glazer & co are effectively trying to de-risk the business by proposing a league where results don't impact the bottom line
I suspect most football fans are indifferent to the concept of Uefa/Fifa - they just want them to be less corrupt.
What really piqued my interest was your phrase "I think it is brilliant to introduce more competition into the mix" and I wondered if you could expand on that.
I think it is a shame that the 50+1 rule (which states that at least 50% of the team's voting rights must be held by club members) is only instituted in the German League. I don't think any fans actually want this super league to happen.
Please, in the name of all that is holy, lets keep football news off HN.
If the breakaway league was proposing to run on bitcoin with players contracts based on Etherium and club ownership distributed as NFT smartbeans, then maybe it would be justified, but I come here to be free of the inanity of the world of football.
I hate football - and I'm male and from the UK. However I think this is HN-worthy simply because it is a drama that feels "more" than simply a sports issue.
As others have said - non-tech news regularly appears on HN and people come here for the intellectual commenting.
I'm entirely against submissions along the lines of "Real Madrid win unprecedented 14th Champions League" but this proposal has some interesting facets that I think some HNers might find intellectually interesting.
There's a lot of broadly applicable questions here about the extent to which governments should interfere in the free market for the common good.
Maybe okay to discuss the Super Bowl or World Cup final or some similar major sports event. Maybe.
But instead, this particular submission appears to simply highlight cynical maneuvering and posturing by billionaires and corrupt special interests. On all sides.
Edit: someone flagged it. Good. I didn't, but I'm glad to see that others also feel strongly against this submission.
I have to disagree - the Patriots winning the Superbowl or Brazil winning the World Cup are not events that "gratify one's intellectual curiosity." A tussle between the Premier League and the leading football clubs in England is fascinating for a number of reasons.
People in this country love football and this proposal raises an important question - to what degree should governments intervene when the free market is working against the preferences of the electorate.
HN is super offtopic at times. Political issues are regularly discussed here despite the fact that there was 0 tech in it. At first I too disliked this, then realized, whatever! I have to filter things for myself.
> I’ve benefitted from football hugely, I’ve made money out of football, I invest money to a football club. I’m not against money in football, but the principles and ethos of fair competition are part of the game so if Leicester win the league they go into the Champions League.
> Manchester United aren’t even in the Champions League. Arsenal aren’t in the Champions League, you watched them earlier today and they were a shambles of a football club at the moment.
> Tottenham aren’t in the Champions League and they want a god-given right to be in there? It’s an absolute joke and the time has come now for an independent regulator to stop these clubs having a power base. Enough is enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP05EDm9EB8