Interesting points made by Wenger here but I don't agree with all of them. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44077078. After experiencing three not particularly exciting seasons in the Prem looking over our shoulders much of the time to avoid relegation, if the 6 big clubs bogged off to Europe, would it make for a more competitive & interesting league for the rest of us plebs left behind? I'd like to think it would. It's nice to beat a top 6 club once or twice a season but I wouldn't miss it if there was a greater chance for all Prem clubs to win it or at least aim to finish in the new top 6 rather than just aim to get 40 points. I can't see another club 'doing a Leicester' again. I wouldn't be interested in paying to watch the super league in the way that Wenger suggests either. I used to watch the Champions League on terrestrial TV but won't pay to watch it on Sky etc. I've not missed it and won't be watching the Liverpool/Real Madrid final at the end of next week even though I want them to win. However, if a new European super league was at the weekend as Wenger wants, thus making the Prem a midweek league, I think that'd sound the death knell to Prems all over Europe. A few nights under floodlights per season is fine, but not every week. I also think the TV money would be thrown at the super league by the corporates and away from the Prem. So for me, the best case scenario would be for the top 6 to bog off into a midweek league much like it is now anyway and the rest of us in the Prem retaining a good TV deal and weekend fixtures, preferably Saturdays only! Oh and the top 6 can't compete in the FA Cup either. But all that would be unlikely. Thoughts, anyone?
One thing supporters of a top of the table team are used to is winning and the reason they are there is most of the time money spent on transfers and wages. Supporters will soon turn sour when their team who were once table toppers ends up at the bottom of the European table. This is a risk for all teams involved and will have a serious impact on revenue and there wouldn’t be able to have a relegation in place unless the lowest place team from each country was relegated back to the prems and the top team promoted. Can see it happening and everyone regretting it because no supporters can afford to go.
I actually don't mind the idea in theory, as long as there isn't a glass ceiling that prevents smaller teams from entering. That said, there surely can only be a fairly limited number of teams from each country-even a 24 team European Super League would probably not have more than 6 teams from any one country. Surely this would be the worst of both worlds- the gap between the top and bottom in the Premier League won't get any smaller, yet there would be little to no chance for teams like Watford and Everton to get promoted
I live within 2 miles of Vicarage Road, for me having a season ticket is what it is about. Watching live games and attending matches with friends and family. It's part of the structure of my life. I rarely watch matches on TV, not even finals or World Cup games. I enjoy attending matches, I would not find supporting a team through TV of interest. I don't watch European leagues or competitions. Especially as they are basically a subscription service, and not free to view. I work with a colleague who lives inUxbridge and is a Man Utd season ticket holder. He has not attended a single game this season for a variety of reasons. One of which is he only attends if he can do so by train. He has sold every match to another season ticket holder who sits next to him. But he is a Man Utd fan, always on about it, watches matches on TV, and would not consider his support as anything different to someone who attends every game home and away. So for him a European super league may appeal. I think international competitions would attract a big audience on TV and Internet platforms, but I don't think it would attract me to spend money buying a subscription. Because ultimately you end up having to become a supporter of one of the big six English clubs.
Interesting post. While this may be Wenger speaking personally, I would not be at all surprised if he is in cahoots with a cabal of big clubs & is ‘flying a political kite’ ie putting out the idea to see the reaction. If the reaction is positive, the clubs will use it as leverage vs UEFA etc to try to force this through. If it does happen, surely the Prem ceases to be in all but name. The tv & sponsors money will be channeled into the Euro league as soon as it is contractually possible. I would be amazed if there is any meaningful relegation from the Euro league. If you’re in the golden circle, why would you allow any chance to be removed? @rsenal level teams would insist on this as a condition of participation, citing US sport. The rump Prem thus becomes a pallid Champo with no/minimal option to be promoted. After a while there would no need to restrict it to midweek as it simply wouldn’t compete with the Euro league to a global audience. Underlying all this is the unpleasant truth that the Big 6 take a much smaller slice of the tv pie than they should by any commercial measure. Aren’t they capped at something like only 50% more than the least televised team? The only reason Watford are in the Prem is because Man U can’t play themselves. Especially as the ownership of the top Prem clubs becomes increasingly uncoupled from their English roots, this oddly socialistic redistribution of revenue will be questioned. While Wenger is being disingenuous to say it is inevitable, the chances of the Euro league happening are increasing. Time for breakfast!
Fair enough - it's Arse of the Arse and anything he says has to be listened to. I can, sort of, see the argument to stop "THE BIG x*" domination of the various leagues (PL, Spain, Jockland** etc) but Shorley there has to be a chance of relegation and promotion to it? How would it work: lowest placed team(s) from each nation get "dropped"? How about those nations that supply only a single team - they only have a single season "in the sun". We've seen how the gazillions generated by the PL have "helped***" English football it's only fair that we spread this "help***" throughout Europe, *Where 1>=x<=6. **Tee-hee. ***Other descriptions are available.
Who cares, let Everton and the other big 7 sod off I haven't watched a champions league game in years and I wouldn't watch this one either The leagues left here will suffer a bit of TV money loss but would become more entertaining like the championship with anyone beating anyone on the day, bring it on
I would not want to go to home games anyway, even if there was promotion, and we where to make it into a European super league. Not with all them foreign supporters burning the town down, and murdering or torturing anyone that they can get their hands on.
I’m not sure it would be a good idea for the big clubs, but damn sure it would screw the small clubs possibly in the same way the ITV digital failure did, we would suddenly go from 100mil a year to (guess) 20 mil. Year If you had a Euro league there would be no need for champions league / Europa, this brings a lot of extra revenue in How many fans are going to travel away all over Europe to watch their team Are fans going to really feel connected to a team that week in week out plays in a different country
Loads. I can envisage it now, at the away match "Waiter! Were the prawns in this sandwich freshly caught this morning?"
I would love to know the viewing figures of Champions League games on BT. I know it was on average 200,000 a season or 2 ago and under 2 million for the final. I reckon a league 1 game on SKY gets 200,ooo viewers. BT now charge broadband customer for their TV service as well as they can not make the money back from advertising. FIFA are worried about the power of clubs over international football, that is why they are trying to redo the club world cup and are willing to offer millions to teams to compete in it. Where is all of those millions coming from? Not Europe but USA, China and middle east, whose teams are not competitive and fans are really only interested in watching the European teams on TV. I remember the original plan for the Premier League was a super league of the then top 6, with Villa and co in that, they only included more clubs when they realised fans and viewers would not be interested in Spurs v Everton 6 times a season, it will be the same again now. Clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea get less fans for European games and have to offer price incentives to entice fans or tie the cost into season tickets for league games, it would be the same this time. For a season of so fine, but novelty of playing Sparta Prague etc will soon wear off, the same getting beaten by Real and Barca, unless those smaller teams manage to entice Premier League players. Due to lack of fans in grounds and poor atmosphere, it could may well end up Man Utd and co playing abroad the whole time and never actually in the UK and domestic viewing markets will soon go down. I have been and watched the Premier league cup in Hong Kong, it's only preseason games but massive over there but it's not competitive, the players are not bothered and pitches and facilities are poor. Wasn't Manchester derby cancelled the other year because of poor pitch conditions, the same will happen again, players will get tired with all the travelling and performance drop. Let them do it, if push comes to shove, i reckon there is a huge number of fans who preferred being in a competitive league like the championship compared to the premier league, I have no concerns. Less money also means less international players and a chance for more local home-grown players as well.
Totally agree. Let them **** off into a European Showbiz League for TV viewers while the rest of us have a competitive league for football fans. Sure, our clubs will all get less money but I can live with that, provided there's a limit to the size of Showbiz League squads
It should be a closed shop, otherwise relative minnows like Everton who get in will have the same terror of relegation that the bottom 14 in the Prem have now
The Premier League is a brilliant business model: By being truly international it draws in colossal international audiences and therefore big advertising revenue and therefore many of the best players. This is a virtuous circle. But it is a precarious balance, and indeed there is a danger already of people perceiving it to be steadily less competetive due to the top 6 domination. The Leicester win 2 seasons ago may, at the time, have been the best thing that could have happened to it, but the majority of the audience will 'support' one of the top six and have little or no interest in anybody else. They'll turn over to another channel. The majority of tv viewers in, for eg, the Far East buy into the glamour of the Premiership as it is, but I'm pretty sure that, if the top 6 were to leave, they would promptly lose interest. There would, I reckon, be a complete commercial abandonement of the EPL as soon as contracts permitted. There would be no halfway house, it's all or nothing. Bubbles do not burst a little bit - they completely disappear.
We'd lose international TV money but we'd get more domestic money than the Championship currently gets. Many football fans would rather watch their local team on TV than endless re-runs of Man City vs Real Madrid
