Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Albion blog: European Super League
Friday 8th May 2009, 9:10AM BST.
Albion blogger Jarrod Hill has had enough of relegation talk so has decided to come up with another topic all together.
Due to me being completely bored and fed up with discussing our season and current count down to relegation, I have decided to bring up the subject of a European Super League for discussion.
The powers that be – and by that I mean Europe’s top clubs – are pushing for a reconstruction of European football into a ‘Super League.’ I have read some of the suggestions for this so called league, and the main thread involves the following: -
A league set up with up to 18 teams.
No qualification each season, with just two teams relegated and promoted.
Relegation will be the bottom two teams, promotion will be from a knock out competition of teams qualifying through their domestic leagues.
Initial set up is by invitation.
I have a number of feelings on the points above. Firstly, what is wrong with the current set up?
Many have argued that the Champions League has become predictable. If it hadn’t have been for that inept refereeing performance we would be facing a repeat of last year’s final – the emerging dominance of the English clubs is a major factor.
But surely under a league system little will change regarding the better clubs dominating, so without the lottery of knockout football there is actually more chance of continued dominance.
Without dissecting each point, my over-riding fear is that if this happens in the next few years the effect it will have on the rest of the football world.
I believe it will serve to cheapen all other competitions, especially if winning the league, FA Cup, or League Cup qualifies your team for the Mickey Mouse cup.
Let’s face it, the motivation is money through TV revenue and if I am honest it’s that one point that winds me up the most.
The greed in football has reached epic proportions already and the thought of the rich getting richer in English football disturbs me.
Surely we should be looking at ways of distributing the wealth more fairly and ensuring that the sport flourishes at all levels of the game.
Anyway onto to the Wigan game, not a lot to be said really, other than I will be in the Sportsman from 1pm on matchday if anyone fancies a beer with me and big Pete.
I must admit that at times this season I have enjoyed the pre match entertainment more than the games!
See you then.
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Let em all go i say….at least we’ll have something to play for.After all..each time we go into the prmeir league…what exactly are we playing for?…
Lets say we stay up….what we playing for next season?…the answer is money.What good is that money to us fans?
I’d rather play every year in the CCC,win it,and stay where we are.At least we can compete
Let the big clubs go i say…we’ll never be able to compete with them.
The rich are getting richer and nothing is going to change..
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It would certainly make the Premier League far more exciting and interesting if Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool were to bugger off.
There’s a chance that the “European Super League” becomes the Mickey Mouse League instead – or rather it becomes the league that hordes of fans in Asia watch, discrediting it in the eyes of European fans. Maybe. Just maybe.
Now there’s the incentive for big clubs to buy up talent so other clubs can’t use it against them; and that perhaps wouldn’t exist so much in an ESL as it’d be more difficult to lure teenagers from Russia, Spain and Italy etc to Manchester, rather than from Essex, Yorkshire or the Black Country. Maybe. I’m just shooting from the hip here…
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Having watched the two biggest cheats in the history of football this week I now realise where the Baggies went wrong. You should have practiced falling over for no reason, diving whenever you were tackled, whinging at every decision that went against you and dedicating your lives to be a complete and utter …….
If you had done all of the above you could have been in the Champions League.
You may be going down but I applaud you for trying to play football how it should be played.
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im not sure i want to be flying round europe on a w/e,but if we must join it so be it,aye boing boing loads of air miles
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good job the dingles aint in it cuz apparently they cant organize an open top buz tour round dingletown,its had to be cancelled,aye boing boing ding ding fares please
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Would this run alongside the Premier League or be a replacement for it? I haven’t really paid too much attention to it to be honest.
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Might see you in there bomber will be there from about 11
Malvern could not agree more yes of course diving and mouthing off to officials goes on all aspects of football but the premier league has to be one of worst leagues in the world for cheating(diving etc..)
we used to say its only the non british based players but to be fair we are as god as the foreigners at it now
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there would be no premier league without the big 4 sky would drop it like an hot penny and so would all the big sponsers like it or lump it thats the cold hard truth
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I watched just half of the Arsenal v Man.U. match last week. From the moment the second goal went in, only masochists and Man.U. supporters were interested surely? If the ‘Other Clubs’ had the guts to encourage the big 4 to go into Europe, then refuse to play them in English competitions and refuse to transfer players to them, ie go back to the old Div.1, 2, 3, etc., everyone would get a chance to compete properly as it used to be. What exactly is the point in going into the Prem ? We get fewer games to watch, never get a look in to win anything and get our thrills through a form of upside down ‘can-we-stay-up’ nonsense. For whose benefit? Club? Players? Supporters? Pick two from the three only.
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No.8,
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there mate. I don’t think Sky would drop it altogether, but would relegate it to “B” entertainment in much the way they show Championship games now – but the principal you put across would be exactly the same regarding sponsership etc… as for Championship football, it would suffer very badly from the lack of coverage and a number of clubs in it would be in danger of going to the wall.
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Jarrod.
Good stuff as usual. I may be an old reactionary but I agree with Cyril. This could be the best thing to happen for proper football supporters, rather than the ‘big four glory hunters.’ Yes we would lose the Sky money, so what? We could go back to seeing our games on ITV and BBC and save a fortune on subscriptions. More importantly we would have a real league again, where Wimbledon, Northamton or Ipswich could come from the 4th div to reach the top. We wouldn’t have the Ferrari driving superstars and the cheating referees, afraid of upsetting them. No more Premier League making sure the rich get richer, back to the good old FA mismanaging everything but doing it equally for everyone. As 1 Rockstar and 2 Connor say, let ‘em go and leave the rest of us to it. I personally think that they will miss us before we miss them, at least on a football basis. The big hitters have made a mockery of our game with the inception of the Premier League, let them go and don’t let them back in.
PS 8 WW.
Money isn’t everything, some things are more important and football is one of them.
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