Kid Dynamite 7169 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Apparently today Platini has said he is happy to listen to proposals for this A new wave of speculation over the prospect of a European Super League has swept the continent this week. Influential sports newspapers in France, Italy and Spain have all run variations on the theme, prompting unusually strong denials from Uefa and the European Clubs Association, the recently formed body of 137 leading clubs that replaced the G14 last year. Uefa, which was said to have discussed the idea at a strategy meeting last week, said the idea was a "non starter" and "against our president's philosophy". The ECA, which was said to have discussed the issue at its own executive board meeting this week, said: "We have never had any intention of implementing such a competition. We have never discussed it and it has never been on our agenda." Sources who were at both meetings confirmed that it had not been on the agenda at either gathering and English representatives said they were not aware of any conversation on the periphery either. Yet there are still those who say there is no smoke without fire. The proposals are unusually detailed and it is an open secret that a version of the plan has been touted by some European clubs for several years. It was partly to head off the threat of a super league that the Premier League's unusually ham-fisted 39th game plan was hatched. The newspaper reports this week said the Super League would be made up of three divisions with 20 to 22 clubs in each tier. Promotion and relegation would occur between the divisions each season. European domestic leagues would remain if the Super League ever got the go-ahead, Gazzetta said, but the number of matches in individual championships would have to be reduced so that top clubs could play in both competitions. Effectively it would mean, as one British tabloid had it this morning, "the end of the Prem". So where did the story spring from? One senior ECA insider said he believed it was mischief making by a handful of Spanish clubs facing serious financial difficulties. The French club Lyon has also been mentioned as a prime mover, but Milan has distanced itself from suggestions that it is involved. "This is a nightmare that somebody had overnight," the Milan director Umberto Gandini said. While the plans may appear detailed, there is no sign that they are being taken seriously at the highest levels. The underlying driver is the economic realities that are starting to hit some European clubs and a desperate search for new revenues, allied with a fear that the dominance of English clubs in Europe is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. But for those Spanish and French teams looking to level the playing field, it's hard to see how a European league would help. Meanwhile, the abandoned experiment with two group phases of the Champions League proved that the concept of a Super League was not necessarily the silver bullet it was once assumed to be. Mindful that attendances and TV audiences were dwindling, Uefa swiftly went back to just one group phase. The plan for several divisions also appears flawed. Are Newcastle, one of the five English clubs who belong to the ECA, really more likely to create greater interest for a clash against Helsingborg than Sunderland? Ultimately, it doesn't appear that a Super League is any closer than it has been any of the other half a dozen times it has been floated in recent years. The most serious co-ordinated push came in 1992, right at the start of the Premier League boom, when the G14 clubs threatened a breakaway that effectively forced Uefa to launch the Champions League. The success of the Champions League, which has its TV and sponsorship deals tied up until 2012, makes a new attempt at a breakaway less rather than more likely. And why would English clubs, who at the moment appear to have the best of both worlds in terms of a strong domestic league and money-spinning European success, want to risk that for an uncertain venture that would completely destabilise the Premier League golden goose that they have created. Unsurprisingly, Premier League clubs moved to distance themselves today, insisting that they were not even aware of the plans. Ultimately, the spiraling speculation can be traced back to Platini himself. He didn't help himself by giving an ambiguous answer when originally asked about the concept by France Football. "Everybody knows my philosophy about European competitions … but the world is changing and we must be careful about that," he said. "If it was up to me, I would revert to European Cups as they were at the beginning, with just knockout rounds. But we must listen carefully to any suggestion. If [clubs] come and talk to us, we would listen to them and then decide." Suspected by some of pursuing an anti-English agenda, an accusation he denies, he could have been more unequivocal. And he has certainly dropped enough hints to suggest he would like to limit the Premier League's power. But Uefa's subsequent insistence that the idea is a "non-starter" appears to have killed the speculation dead – for now. The proposal for a Super League is bound to keep coming back like a boomerang – if only because there will always be one European footballing nation that tends to dominate for a period and the others will want to catch up. But logistically, economically and culturally, it's hard to see how it could happen at any time in the next five years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 One of the five English clubs who belong to the ECA playing championship football. Can you imagine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 7169 Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 If Keegan and FS were still here id probably be excited at the thought. As it is im embarrassed and theres already 101 articles on the net laughing at us over this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewerk 31199 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Shite idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM4 0 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Terrifying that this League thing is being brought up again... hope it never happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 14013 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I would hate a Super League and I would lose interest in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay 10 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I would hate a Super League and I would lose interest in it. Not if newcastle were playing it you would not, and not if it had the best teams in it either. I don't want it to happen either though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khay 10 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 See above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 14013 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I would hate a Super League and I would lose interest in it. Not if newcastle were playing it you would not, and not if it had the best teams in it either. I don't want it to happen either though. For me the game would certainly lose something so regardless of whether Newcastle were playing in it or not I don't think it would hold the romance and history of the domestic league. It's an idea I am not keen on and I doubt I ever will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayatollah Hermione 14052 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 We'd be fucking mullered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 7169 Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 If we had the chance to make more money and see the likes of Inter, Barca, Real, Porto, Bayern, Lyon, Ajax at St James every other week id take it like. Would make us a bigger draw to players too. Apart from Europes top 8-10 clubs we could probably give the rest a decent game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douggy B 0 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I would love a soopa doopa league. Fuck the big four off (you are welcome to join them) and I can have my game back. Get rid of all the jester hat wearing sky filth that turned up post 1990. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Will it have a division two? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom 14013 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paddy 17 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 One of the five English clubs who belong to the ECA playing championship football. Can you imagine? dont be so bloody stupid!!!! it wont happen to 2012 we will be league 1 at least by then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingKev 0 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Same bollocks as the 39th game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Same bollocks as the 39th game. Or the Champions League final as it is coming to be known, much to the annoyance of Platini. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McFaul 35 Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/6969671/European-Super-League-summit-Manchester-United-Arsenal-Chelsea-Liverpool-and-Manchester-City-chiefs-in-secret-talks-to-leave-Premier-League.html Will this ever go away? They were all meeting in London yesterday. Where would this leave us? Greedy bastards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gemmill 46027 Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 It would leave us as the same perennial PL survival hopefuls that we are at the minute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kelly 1260 Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Just another money making idea for the clubs who have money already. Nothing to do with sport but then again what has sport got to do with professional football most of the time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howay 12496 Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 I still don't see it happening but tbh would it be that bad if it did? The Premier League would still go on and arguably be a lot more competitive, it's not like any players that play for clubs like ours would be playing in it anyway. Invite only apparently so no relegation etc, the thing I read said it would make the CL redundant but again I don't think it would just the teams playing in it would change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 7169 Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 Liverpool to 'leave' the champions league Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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