Long Read : How modern football became broken beyond repair

[dead_soft]

Get rid of the clubs doing financial doing, hopefully that won’t include us. Let them fly and play the rich man’s game, they aren’t necessary to enjoy football - neither is Sky, wall to wall coverage, or shirt sales.

 

[Faroy86580]

We know this has happened.

I cant be the only one who has enormously lost interest now the league is a parade of the biggest chequebooks. There's no scope for variety, unpredictability or sporting romance anymore. Such things don't sell brands. TV execs want to sell the same product every year to the same potatoes, to line their pockets.

Yes.

There's a lot of fans who have never known anything else except PL.

Each club craves winning their every game all the time, but I really think that would be boring. How can the wins be great if the opposition always roll over? It's an old argument (Caratacus anyone?)

 

[TheBigIguana]

We can pick our CL games, they are all on.

In the US you have to pay extra for the game they don't pick to televise. And I'm not doing that when I'm in work and can only pay passing attention anyway.

We also have to pay for TV and an extra subscription to get all of the PL games. They're really milking us over here.

 

[TheBigIguana]

The whole situation is pretty gross. It's a microcosm of what is happening in society in general. Greed is just tearing the world apart.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

Fantastic article that.

I've said for a while the best thing that could happen to not only this league but the whole of Europe is a European Super League.

Forget the best players leaving and the money drying up - think of how competitive all the leagues would be

Germany without Bayern Munich
France without PSG
England without the top 4/5
Spain without Barca and Real Madrid

Believe me best thing that could happen and I hope one day it does although I cant see it - the other 14 clubs owners in the Prem will just give in and let the big 6 have bigger pieces of the pie (TV revenue) in order to keep their own gravy train investment rolling.

 

[TheBigIguana]

Fantastic article that.

I've said for a while the best thing that could happen to not only this league but the whole of Europe is a European Super League.

Forget the best players leaving and the money drying up - think of how competitive all the leagues would be

Germany without Bayern Munich
France without PSG
England without the top 4/5
Spain without Barca and Real Madrid

Believe me best thing that could happen and I hope one day it does although I cant see it - the other 14 clubs owners in the Prem will just give in and let the big 6 have bigger pieces of the pie (TV revenue) in order to keep their own gravy train investment rolling.

While I'd love for a competitive environment to exist in more leagues, losing the quality isn't exactly a great alternative. I doubt I'd be interested in a super league, but I also wouldn't love a league with sub par players. And beyond that any good player would get snapped up by the high wage league almost immediately.

South American leagues are relatively competitive at the moment. There are big clubs that stay near the top, but it is similar to the European Leagues of the 80s and not the current ones. River for example have won a bunch lately, but they went down right before Gallardo took them over. As cool as the competitiveness of those leagues are, and Copa Libertadores is really quite fun, the lack of quality can really be an issue at times.

It would be a lot more fun than it is now. But I wouldn't say it is ideal.

And your last paragraph: are you suggesting that the PL clubs should let the "Big 6" leave and make the money or just hand more to them now? Because I can't see the latter being a good thing. City and the RS in the last 3 years have shown how lopsided it can get. Imagine if Chelsea, Arsenal and United all put people in charge as smart as Pep and Klopp? It would be a mess.

 

[Seathestars]

There's something wrong right at the top.
Man City get a 2 year ban for financial reasons.
CSKA are given a partial closure of one tier of a stand after their fans racially abuse Yaya Toure, for one game.

Basically UEFA are not fit for purpose

 

[Yid4life]

If Spurs ever joined a European Super League I would knock top level football on the head for good.

A ground full of football tourists is not for me. It is bad enough now.....

 

[brieverton]

If its fan driven, a European Super League will never come to pass.

If corporate interests prevail, it might just.

I think you are then looking at an MLS franchise model, where you have 20-odd teams and no relegation, and some concurrent cup competition.

Then you are probably looking at domination by a small number of teams, and for the financial windfall that ensues, the other clubs are reduced to being bit-parts making up the numbers, hoping for silverware maybe once in a decade. The Premier League model all over again.

I still don't think thats an appealing model to most clubs, when push comes to shove.

The excluded clubs should steadfastly refuse to co-operate with it if it did happen, and let these super clubs off in their splendid isolation.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Just a joke when clubs earning 400/500 million a year claim they are being treated unfairly and should have a bigger piece of the pie.

We live in an upside down world.

 

[anton66]

If Spurs ever joined a European Super League I would knock top level football on the head for good.

A ground full of football tourists is not for me. It is bad enough now.....

I think City fans who haven't embraced the C/L would hate a Super League. Once the novelty had worn off, supporters wouldn't travel in large numbers to away fixtures and City would only get about 15,000 for home games.

 

[b-rad]

Such a depressing read.

There's no way back now.

 

[Wayno]

I couldn’t want a super league more. It’s absolutely essential in order to save football as a sport in this country.

 

[Kenshin]

Surely any move for a super League and essentially removing teams from their respective national leagues would be , essentially impossible.

It would have to be done above everyone else's head so to speak. So when it actually happened then every single team that doesn't go to the super League would then have grounds to sue for lost income by doing such a move. Especially if there was no direct way for any club to enter said league.

It would drive ticket prices up, fans would have to pay more for travel every week which will reduce the number of actual fans being able to attend.

So for every club that did enter that wasn't your real Madrids or whoever , it would destroy their club. They would lose their fanbase on a consistent basis. All jokes aside, how many scousers attend anfield each week for the game. No way you can afford to fly to Italy / Spain / Portugal etc every second week as well as accomodation and the rest of it 19 times a year. It would cut local fans from their club.

So even though the club's would survive a super League with the additional money/ glamour / better players. It would / over time , kill the club identity and leave the super teams entities of another power rather than their own merits.

 

[No8Bally]

The sooner the Sky 6 and their huge cheque books F-Off, the better.
Get shut of all the over paid imports, and restructure the leagues into divisions 1 to 4.