I was going to let this subject pass, but I really don’t see how I can because it has such massive implications not just for the Villa, but the whole English game.
If anyone hasn’t seen it yet, the story is that £4 billion plus of finance has been lined up for the creation of a European Premier league which might begin as early as 2022.
It’s apparently been instigated by Man United and Liverpool and will involve the usual top 6 and Spurs.
This sort of thing has been rumoured and you could even say threatened (albeit veiled) for a long while and my immediate instinct is to say “Good, it’s about time. They can p*iss off and get on with it”.
I say that because a few clubs are not bigger than the game and shouldn’t be allowed to think they are.
The pure greed of this frankly makes me sick and I’m not even sure what the clubs involved expect to get out of it. Okay, they’ll obviously retain more of the money they get in, because they won’t have to share it amongst so many clubs and those will be on more of a level footing. The likes of Man U won’t be subsidising the likes of Burnley, after all.
But what will this actually achieve for the clubs?
If we take Man Utd as an example, the only people who have benefitted at the club are the Glaziers, who have taken millions out since they took over the club. And all this when the last I saw, the club was a billion quid in debt and many people think they’re at risk of dropping out of the Champions league altogether very soon. Maybe that explains why they want this?
So who has got what to gain?
It seems to me it’s only the Glaziers in this case.
I’m not able to comment on the other club’s finances, because I don’t know. Spurs are struggling financially though, because of the cost of their very nice stadium and I don’t think any clubs are actually making a profit.
So while my first instinct is that I’m not bothered, I have to confess that I am.
Majorly so.
Would this be a fixed league, in that there is no promotion or relegation?
I’d expect that’s what the clubs would like, but what would be the point of that exactly?
There’s not much incentive is there?
Here, I’d much prefer that the current Premier league refuse to have anything to do with this and block any association whatsoever. In other words, if you do this you’re finished as part of the English game.
Hey, let’s go the whole hog and the FA should tell the clubs involved that any players would not be eligible for their country either.
I’d love to hear views on those particular thoughts. Am I thinking along the right lines here, or am I deluded?
I suspect it might be the latter and there would be promotion and relegation involved, which I suspect would be enough to keep the powers that be onside with the whole idea. Chucking the rulers of our game a good few quid would no doubt sway opinions. They’re as greedy as the clubs who supposedly want to do this.
The big question is where will the Sky money end up?
Would it follow the departing clubs, who we know are already their favourites by a long way?
Or would it stay with the current league?
That’s a tricky question, but I suspect it would go with the new league. It hurts me to say that, but if you take the top say twenty clubs in Europe the number of fans will dwarf that of any single country.
Here, this could be used as another weapon to hit Sky with. Work with this new league and you’re finished.
It would enable the English game to go back to how it was pre-Sky. A game where winning silverware isn’t restricted to the same small amount of clubs. A game where we might see a Nottingham Forest again, because the game doesn’t rely on just money and anything is possible.
Sadly I don’t see this happening either. The powers that be wouldn’t want to go backwards and the thought of less money? Heaven forbid.
Even if it meant it would be good for the game.
And then, it would just be an incredibly sad thing to see. It simply shouldn’t be allowed to happen and those in charge of our game ought to fight this to the death. Or at least until the wantaway clubs give up on the idea.
Guess what though?
I don’t think that would happen either as they don’t have the balls to lay the law dowm.
Of course, the fans’ thoughts won’t matter one bit.
But I’d love to know what their fans think of the whole proposal?
Bearing in mind that given the improved standard of the oppostion, it wouldn’t surprise me if increased prices were involved for those wanting to watch.
A terrible idea, but it’s a done deal even if it doesn’t happen as quickly as they want, imo.
£4 billion is serious money and proves there’s a lot of thought and time gone into this.
It stinks and I hope it goes massively wrong for them.
As far as I’m concerned, the FA should expel any club signing up to play in another league from all English football competitions, and yes, their players should be banned from representing England too.
The few clubs that go for it will end up as the Harlem Globetrotters of football after a couple of years, totally cut off from the mainstream game in a gilded cage where they continually play the same few teams several times a season – about as challenging,meaningful and interesting as Celtic v Rangers,
Remember the ‘rebel’ tours and “Packer circus” in cricket, back in the late 70’s and early 80’s? Did they achieve anything?
Ardent you took the words out of my mouth by likening this to Packers World Series which came about because Packer wasn’t granted the exclusive TV rights to cricket in Australia. Of course the circumstances were very different then as cricketers were paid a pittance on annual contracts with no winter income unless they were picked for a tour and Packer was offering guaranteed five year contracts with a massive increase in earnings to the top test players. Eventually the ‘Establishment’ compromised; Packer got his TV rights and players got better contracts.
This is the same but different.
United & Liverpool having failed to get their way on the ‘Big Project’ or whatever they called it are trying to blackmail English football by removing (what they arrogantly see) as Sky’s UK audience forcing Sky to substantially reduce payments to the the EPL and EFL. So it’s the same in that it’s all about money, power and greed – yet it’s different because it will not help the vast majority of professional footballers one bit. Nor does it, imho, offer an attractive viewing platform to the majority of football fans.
So hypocritical is a word that readily springs to mind.
United and Liverpool, or at least their AMERICAN owners want power; they want to run football like owners run football (not ‘soccer’), basketball and hockey in the States. To protect their bank vaults there would be no relegation or promotion.
So the rich get richer and the beautiful game is the poorer for it.
I tend to agree with you on most of this. I think (and it’s been said many times before) that money and all the greed in the game will eventually kill it off altogether! I already think the Prem is a money driven monster, which I think most people would agree with.
If there is a breakaway euro league then where would it leave the also rans in the Prem and all the clubs in the EFL!(of which Villa could easily have been part of this season)
I for one (and I’m guessing I won’t be on my own) will not be interested in, nor will I pay extortionate amounts for the ‘privilege’ of watching the ‘elite’ of a greed league.
The powers that be in football should sit up and take notice!!!
I blame that Andy Burham , bet he’s the instigator , no that was thought of a decade ago and never went anywhere , can you imagine the problems it would cause, us out of the eu and all the hate we would get, it won’t happen.
I’m now reading that this won’t be a breakaway league.
So they want their cake and eat it!
Where would that leave all the other clubs if they were to win the domestic league?
It’ll also be worth hundreds of millions to the winners, which will only make things even more inequitable.
I really can’t see that working at all and I’d fully expect it to get short shrift from everyone.
Another one that’s really bugging me is how on earth are these clubs able to discuss this behind everyone elses backs and get away totally unpunished?
It’s an utter disgrace and there ought to be sanctions, imo.
“Heads we win. Tails you lose”
This is typical arrogance from ManUre and their owners: let’s create a system where we never have to worry about relegation, and we’re guranteed a “CL” place however crap our team really is.
They, along with Arsenal in particular, have tasted what it’s like to miss out on a CL place a few times in recent seasons, and they haven’t liked it one bit. Suddenly their entire cost-base with its’ inflated transfer fees and grossly bloated salaries began to look un-sustainable. Panic.
Maybe it’s time the other 14-16 PL clubs actually took the initiative and gave them something else to worry about: even a nominal vote to threaten them with expulsion (not that the lawyers would actully let it happen without a long battle) simply to show them that what the rest of football thinks of them – might be embarrasing enough to make them sulk back under a rock for a season or two…
Yep, that’s what it needs.
These clubs were ready to stitch us up and we ought to reciprocate.
Again, I doubt it will happen. Everyone seems terrified of them.
In other news, Lansbury has been left out of the 25 man Prem squad.
That tells me we were trying to loan him out (no-one would buy him on his wages) and we couldn’t find a taker.
40k a week and he won’t start a game all season. What a waste of money he’s turned out to be 🙁
A little tough on Lansbury perhaps?
Steve Bruce brought him to VP inJ anuary 2017 when we were in a bit of nowhere in the Championship, and we needed ‘proper’ Championship players – which is what Lansbury is: not spectacular, but pretty reliable.
He’s not a PL player and never will be now, and he’s one of those who’d rather collect PL wages without having to bother playing, rather than take a pay cut and move back to the Championship – but that’s a choice many players seem to make.
Pretty much agree. It stinks so Manure is an apt name 🙂
Tbf to Arsenal they haven’t whinged like Manure and were against PBP as were the fans.
I’m surprised that we couldn’t loan out Lansbury given it’s doubtful we would have asked for (other than a nominal?) loan fee and would, no doubt have stumped up half his wages. He’s a decent Championship player no more. I suppose we might pay off his contract if we can’t shift him in January – I think it’s up in June.
I remember when we bought him, Kenny Burns commented that he didn’t rate him and we’d overpaid – thought at the time it was just sour grapes but …….
I only mentioned Arsenal because they were the first of the “Sky 6” who found themselves locked-out of the CL in the last few years, meanwhile still paying-off massive debts incurred from building their stadium and paying players bloated salaries. They were already worried before the Covid closure…
Spurs are in a similar position; they’ve spent a fortune on the new stadium, and depend on 60,000 in there every two weeks to help pay for it; they’re desperate to get back into the CL and stay in it.
The point I was trying to make was that these are some of the clubs who have become totally dependent on the CL to fund their massive over-spending in recent years; stadia, players, agents fees, etc. It’s not just here, either; look at Barcelona.
They’re like junkies who need the CL ‘fix’ every season.
Having said all that, I’m a bit suprised by Liverpool, since I didn’t think they’d quite gotten themselves into that sort of position yet!
Your point about Liverpool – perhaps it’s more about the owners although I accept they are synonymous with the clubs.
Leeds at 8pm tonight lads!!!!
Thoughts??? I’m going 2-0 Villa.
Mmmm – we don’t have a good track record against Leeds and 5 wins on the spin is a big ask. Hernandez seems to enjoy playing against us with goals and a sack load of assists.
I’m going cautious for a draw – not the end of the world.
This is I’m alright Jack and sod the rest by owners, I still say it ain’t going to happen. Fans will have their say as well as other clubs , can you imagine the expense to the normal punter, travel, Euro, and the aggro from countries that hate us for who we are. This is as Badger saying owners of the main clubs looking to furnish their own pockets, Sky, Bt, would love it for the money, No it ain’t going to happen clubs and fans will step in.
It is a kite that won’t fly. The devil is in the detail. 5 countries would supply 13 of the 20 possible clubs. That leaves 7 slots for the ‘Rest of Europe’. No chance.
I hate predicting Villa results but a draw would put us top of the league. Sky and all the other media outlets have their heads so far up Bielsas arse that you would think we were playing Bayern Munch or Barcelona. We are more than capable of winning tonight. Leeds will play high press like Liverpool but they don’t have the same quality so we should be able to pick them off. My only concern is Costa up against Targett. Grealish will have to do the tracking back to ensure we don’t get overwhelmed especially with Ayling overlapping. Also what’s the odds on that dirty cheat Bamford getting a penalty.
COYL!