[Football] Timing of ESL announcement

[wellquickwoody]

Whilst no doubt at least partially timed to coincide with the new CL format, does it not seem awfully convenient that there are no fans in stadiums right now to protest against their owners’ decision?

 

[blue-shifted]

A perfect storm of events has combined to create this.

FIFA's timing of the Qatar world cup is another one. This was always going to provoke the big clubs

 

[Napper]

Never trust the spanish

 

[Brok]

Football stinks at the moment.

 

[father_and_son]

Whilst no doubt at least partially timed to coincide with the new CL format, does it not seem awfully convenient that there are no fans in stadiums right now to protest against their owners’ decision?

There has been a year long experiment into whether football is/isn't viable without fans in the stadium. The only people I know who think that football has been dismal throughout lockdown are STH at their respective clubs. All the armchair fans I know haven't noticed a significant shift other than talking about the loss of "home advantage", which to them of course, is just a monday morning talking point, not a serious reflection on the impact on the game of no crowds.

I only hope that the PL itself own the rights to the audio files used to create the artificial crowd noises and go after the ESL for copyright breach when they start overlaying crowd noises from PL games to TV coverage of them playing at 4am, under floodlights, to an empty ground, just to appease the Far Eastern betting markets.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Football isn’t football any more. Once the Premier League was formed finances were always going to spiral out of control. Moneymen, greed, arrogance, mismanagement by toothless Football Associations, betting ......the list goes on.
To be honest I am almost beyond caring, provided these teams get excluded from the Premier League and FA Cup. They can go stuff themselves. However, I just feel for their fans who may need some “Archer Out” support if these ideas progress further.

 

[blue-shifted]

Football isn’t football any more. Once the Premier League was formed finances were always going to spiral out of control. Moneymen, greed, arrogance, mismanagement by toothless Football Associations, betting ......the list goes on.
To be honest I am almost beyond caring, provided these teams get excluded from the Premier League and FA Cup. They can go stuff themselves. However, I just feel for their fans who may need some “Archer Out” support if these ideas progress further.

Yes, this set the principles which we are currently seeing in motion. What we are seeing is the natural evolution of the idea of the Premier League

 

[brighton_tom]

This seems a no going back moment in terms of bad PR for these clubs. We're not yet out of pandemic, during which clubs lower down the league are at the risk of going bust. There has been outcry for the PL to help these smaller clubs, to help the wider football community to keep going, but now we really get to know what their opinion is. The owners of the big clubs care for nothing but their own greed and power.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

There has been a year long experiment into whether football is/isn't viable without fans in the stadium. The only people I know who think that football has been dismal throughout lockdown are STH at their respective clubs. All the armchair fans I know haven't noticed a significant shift other than talking about the loss of "home advantage", which to them of course, is just a monday morning talking point, not a serious reflection on the impact on the game of no crowds.

I only hope that the PL itself own the rights to the audio files used to create the artificial crowd noises and go after the ESL for copyright breach when they start overlaying crowd noises from PL games to TV coverage of them playing at 4am, under floodlights, to an empty ground, just to appease the Far Eastern betting markets.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the crowd noise played in PL games is actually from FIFA (the computer game, not the organisation). That's what Bobkin Jnr told me, anyway. So if it's wrong, I'm blaming him

 

[banjo]

Great timing shows them to be even bigger ***** than they already are.

 

[Weststander]

Digressing, I think Levy timed the Mourinho sacking with this bigger ESL news, to minimise the laughter at his club this week. It would’ve dominated sports chat from pundits and football shows all week.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Each time I see ESL I can’t get it out of my head that it stands for East stand lower

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Each time I see ESL I can’t get it out of my head that it stands for East stand lower

Same for me with BHA, I always think they’re talking about the British Horseracing Authority

 

[Weststander]

Each time I see ESL I can’t get it out of my head that it stands for East stand lower

Always a mass exodus on 70 minutes.

 

[BN41Albion]

Football stinks at the moment.

Yep. If you add in VAR as well as the constant shameless cheating/diving, football is a shambles

 

[Beanstalk]

Well it's undoubtedly a mixture of club finances (outside of Covid) and empty stadiums. They've been able to push forward because the game has continued without fans. This, to the owners, is the thumbs up they have always desired to push forward with a franchising of clubs - something that is clearly the next step.

An appalling amount of debt is the obvious answer. Gross debt = Barcelona €1.173 billion, Atletico €999 million, Real Madrid = €901 million. Inter Milan have just had €200m emergency funding injected. It's to stop these clubs going bankrupt due to years of financial negligence. The dirty dozen have a gross debt of £7.406 billion. It is why financially secure teams like Bayern and PSG don't need to attach themselves.

I think the rest can be put down to horrific, Dr. Evil levels of greed. Owners like Kroenke and the Glazers have watched their sides drift in and out of the top 4 for years and thought, "well I want to get profit from my investment and football is too uncertain." That's before we even get to owners like those at AC Milan (Paul Singer of Elliott Management) whose business is to literally take on the loans of economically struggling countries and bankrupt them.

I honestly think it is naïve to think the new UCL plans play into this at all. City destroyed UEFA legally over FFP and it laid the groundwork for this. They all hate UEFA for taking a 20% tax on all their (continental) earnings. The new UCL plan conceded to every one of their wishes and they've still gone ahead with a franchise league. A bunch of (mostly American) profiteers looking to destroy the game to pay off their enormous debts and make a short term profit.