Football (Soccer) Thread

[garbon]

Today was one of those days in the Commons when everyone on all sides was more or less united in anger - basically the Lib Dems and Labour were throwing out ideas of other measures the government can take and the government thanked them for their suggestions

It must be nice for the government to have something they can join in on the moral outrage about. I saw this is a top priority for Boris Johnson now.

I also noticed that coverage of the fan in-person protests don't seem to be covering any angles about the police needing to enforce social distancing rules/rules against large gatherings. Rule of 6 is over?   Though actually perhaps allowed as most of the protests look rather...anemic.

[Tamas]

Today was one of those days in the Commons when everyone on all sides was more or less united in anger - basically the Lib Dems and Labour were throwing out ideas of other measures the government can take and the government thanked them for their suggestions

It must be nice for the government to have something they can join in on the moral outrage about. I saw this is a top priority for Boris Johnson now.

I also noticed that coverage of the fan in-person protests don't seem to be covering any angles about the police needing to enforce social distancing rules/rules against large gatherings. Rule of 6 is over?   Though actually perhaps allowed as most of the protests look rather...anemic.

This is excellent luck for them with the whole Cameron thing going on.

[Tamas]

Get a load of this guy's hubris:

"It doesn't make sense that in La Liga most modest teams can turn a profit yet Barcelona ends up loosing lots of money"

OMG 

[Tamas]

As a garbage American Arsenal fan who is responsible for what is transpiring, someone tell me what club I should support now that my horribly-run, has-been club has finally jumped the shark.

This time next year we'll be discussing Arsenal's chances of whether they can beat Barcelona away to get the 3 points necessary for the ESL playoffs.

[Tamas]

BTW since the British government will be sending in the gunboats, could they also get rid of the freshly announced CL rules while they are at it? They sounded awful.

[garbon]

Today was one of those days in the Commons when everyone on all sides was more or less united in anger - basically the Lib Dems and Labour were throwing out ideas of other measures the government can take and the government thanked them for their suggestions

It must be nice for the government to have something they can join in on the moral outrage about. I saw this is a top priority for Boris Johnson now.

I also noticed that coverage of the fan in-person protests don't seem to be covering any angles about the police needing to enforce social distancing rules/rules against large gatherings. Rule of 6 is over?   Though actually perhaps allowed as most of the protests look rather...anemic.

This is excellent luck for them with the whole Cameron thing going on.

Yes a lot more sexy than boring corruption.

[Tamas]

Today was one of those days in the Commons when everyone on all sides was more or less united in anger - basically the Lib Dems and Labour were throwing out ideas of other measures the government can take and the government thanked them for their suggestions

It must be nice for the government to have something they can join in on the moral outrage about. I saw this is a top priority for Boris Johnson now.

I also noticed that coverage of the fan in-person protests don't seem to be covering any angles about the police needing to enforce social distancing rules/rules against large gatherings. Rule of 6 is over?   Though actually perhaps allowed as most of the protests look rather...anemic.

This is excellent luck for them with the whole Cameron thing going on.

Yes a lot more sexy than boring corruption.

This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship: I would not put past this bunch to pay a billion or two of "aid" to the 6 clubs to "enable" them to stay in the CL.

[jimmy olsen]

Tottenham have sacked Mourinho after he's secured them a permanent place in the Super League. Shameful stuff, game's gone.



Seriously though,   

Tottenham is in because they have a Korean star player and the people here will demand that Korean broadcasters buy the broadcasting rights for the league.

[Liep]

Florentino Pérez seems certain that the Super League will start up and that UEFA can't throw out any teams from the Champions League or any players from the Euro Cup.

"We will not get into legal issues. It is impossible. The players should remain calm because the threats won't happen. "This is not a league for the rich, it's a league to save football."

[The Larch]

Florentino Pérez seems certain that the Super League will start up and that UEFA can't throw out any teams from the Champions League or any players from the Euro Cup.

"We will not get into legal issues. It is impossible. The players should remain calm because the threats won't happen. "This is not a league for the rich, it's a league to save football."

That's always been his m.o., treating what he personally wants as inevitable and without any negative consequences whatsoever. The whole reasoning is always "because I say so".

I'm looking at an English language source for last night's interview, let's see if I can come back with more stuff from it.

[Sheilbh]

Florentino Pérez seems certain that the Super League will start up and that UEFA can't throw out any teams from the Champions League or any players from the Euro Cup.

"We will not get into legal issues. It is impossible. The players should remain calm because the threats won't happen. "This is not a league for the rich, it's a league to save football."

He also said that Johnson's threat to block the English clubs was because he'd been misinformed that this would destroy the Premier League, but it won't so it'll all be fine. I'm not convinced that's quite right.

I feel like there's a fair bit of motivated reasoning with his lines last night

He also said they'd signed commitments so can't back out which'll be interesting because I think some of the English clubs might crack soon-ish.

Edit: Eg from Sky Sports reporter:

Sky's Kaveh Solhekol reports that among the six ESL clubs, there are differing opinions, with some unhappy with how this has been handled and saying "this isn't what we signed up for". They were expecting a controlled media policy, is "shocked and taken aback" at the lack of a media policy, and unhappy at players, managers, and some board members being kept in the dark. Clubs involved aren't close to pulling the plan ... "not yet".

He's also reported that some clubs were very bullish about setting this up ASAP while other clubs, apparently, have formed a European Super League by mistake and just wanted to explore the idea

[Tamas]

Florentino Pérez seems certain that the Super League will start up and that UEFA can't throw out any teams from the Champions League or any players from the Euro Cup.

"We will not get into legal issues. It is impossible. The players should remain calm because the threats won't happen. "This is not a league for the rich, it's a league to save football."

He also said that Johnson's threat to block the English clubs was because he'd been misinformed that this would destroy the Premier League, but it won't so it'll all be fine. I'm not convinced that's quite right.

I feel like there's a fair bit of motivated reasoning with his lines last night

He also said they'd signed commitments so can't back out which'll be interesting because I think some of the English clubs might crack soon-ish.

I'd be surprised if they danced back at this stage.

[The Larch]

Ok, found an English language article about the interview at Sky Sports (https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12280860/florentino-perez-real-madrid-president-insists-european-super-league-will-save-football-at-this-critical-moment), I'll just post some straight quotes from it:

"Whenever there is a change, there are always people who oppose it. We are doing this to save football at this critical moment"

"Audiences are decreasing and rights are decreasing and something had to be done. We are all ruined. Television has to change so we can adapt."

"Young people are no longer interested in football. Why not? Because there are a lot of poor quality games and they are not interested, they have other platforms on which to distract themselves."

"If we continue with the Champions League there is less and less interest and then it's over"

"Together we have lost €5billion," he said of the top clubs' alleged losses. "In two seasons Madrid have lost €400m."

"When you have no income other than television, you say that the solution is to make more attractive matches that fans from all over the world can see with all the big clubs, and we came to the conclusion that if instead of having a Champions League we have a Super League we would be able to alleviate what we have lost."

"What's so attractive? That we play among the big teams, the competitiveness, to generate more resources?"

"This is not a league for the rich, it's a league to save football."

[Sheilbh]

I'd be surprised if they danced back at this stage.

Mail are reporting two English clubs are on the edge of pulling out - my guess would be City or Chelsea because they were apparently the last to sign up. They also need it the least because the Americans run these clubs as businesses so want a bigger return and Spurs are just thrilled to be invited.

Or possibly Liverpool who've spent years on a very successful branding project around "this means more" and connections between fans and club and team. But, in the last season they've had Project Big Picture, furloughing fans and some other covid mis-steps and now announced this which both their manager and a very senior player have said they don't agree with. It feels like something might have broken between Liverpool and their fanbase over the last year.

[Tamas]

Feels like folding before getting even any UEFA concessions is the worst possible thing they can do.