***Official*** English Football Season 2020-21

[GIMH]

Pretty sure this was fake news, the tweet that got the most attention was from a fake journo account.

I did wonder. Only saw the screenshot. It's believable in a sense though isn't it, because if you're Mourinho and you know your number is up, what better way to attract some PR.

Meanwhile Paddy Power have tweeted that it's harsh of Spurs to sack Mourinho the day after he secured them ESL qualification, which I did have to laugh at.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

There is an awful lot of takes in the media at the moment about the proposed league being anti-sport which I find very strange. Anti-football, perhaps, but it's pretty much the only professional sport that doesn't already run on a closed shop franchise model in most places. It is the sort of thing you write if you think sport = football though, I suppose.

Yeah you're right. Even the European club sports that tried to replicate the pyramid model have moved to super leagues.

 

[Uppercut]

There is an awful lot of takes in the media at the moment about the proposed league being anti-sport which I find very strange. Anti-football, perhaps, but it's pretty much the only professional sport that doesn't already run on a closed shop franchise model in most places. It is the sort of thing you write if you think sport = football though, I suppose.

I don't think this is fair. Sporting meritocracy is a principle that different sports compromise on to different extents. The football pyramid allows teams to rise and fall based on on-field performance to a much greater extent than other major sports, and this is worth preserving.

It's sort of like how if the most democratic country in the world introduces anti-democratic reforms, they're still anti-democratic reforms. It's not being blind to the rest of the world to object to those reforms.

 

[sledger]

I did wonder. Only saw the screenshot. It's believable in a sense though isn't it, because if you're Mourinho and you know your number is up, what better way to attract some PR.

Meanwhile Paddy Power have tweeted that it's harsh of Spurs to sack Mourinho the day after he secured them ESL qualification, which I did have to laugh at.

It would be such a Mourinho thing to do as well haha.

 

[James]

West Ham to win the league now....

 

[Spark]

There is an awful lot of takes in the media at the moment about the proposed league being anti-sport which I find very strange. Anti-football, perhaps, but it's pretty much the only professional sport that doesn't already run on a closed shop franchise model in most places. It is the sort of thing you write if you think sport = football though, I suppose.

The models that they're purportedly trying to go for have significant equalisation structures in place to basically level the playing field long term though, with drafts, collegiate systems etc etc. Zero chance the ESL 12 are enthusiastic about creating some kind of drafting with big restrictions on transfers and a salary cap.

 

[Gnske]

I don't watch football, but I thought everyone already knew football clubs in any variation are just capitalist megacorporations using tribalism to prey on sub-units of the masses?

I hope it succeeds, I love this idea personally simply because at the inevitable death knell, everything is going to be changed. See the Australian Super League these guys have taken inspiration from for proof.

 

[Gnske]

Hell even World Series Cricket is a precedent, and look how cricket changed after that.

The future is now Legacy Fans, I for one welcome our JP Morgan funded overlords.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I don't watch football, but I thought everyone already knew football clubs in any variation are just capitalist megacorporations using tribalism to prey on sub-units of the masses?

Knowing something exists doesn't make it acceptable or without criticism breh.

 

[Howe_zat]

I don't think this is fair. Sporting meritocracy is a principle that different sports compromise on to different extents. The football pyramid allows teams to rise and fall based on on-field performance to a much greater extent than other major sports, and this is worth preserving.

It's sort of like how if the most democratic country in the world introduces anti-democratic reforms, they're still anti-democratic reforms. It's not being blind to the rest of the world to object to those reforms.

Yeah, this is a good point.

 

[Gnske]

Knowing something exists doesn't make it acceptable or without criticism breh.

Fair enough, if I was a fan I'd probably be pissed too. But it's like criticizing AIDS for being AIDS for my taste.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Throw the greedy sods out I say.

If the rumour that Mourinho refused to take training because of the Super League and got sacked by Levy is true then he has gone way up in my estimation.

 

[sledger]

Haha it's heating up now. UEFA have officially announced that any players who participate will be banned from playing in the World Cup/Euros.

 

[Niall]

Haha it's heating up now. UEFA have officially announced that any players who participate will be banned from playing in the World Cup/Euros.

So I assume the national boards who have been left out of this super league will lawyer up if they cant pick their best players...Scotland..Senegal etc?

 

[grecian]

Throw the greedy sods out I say.

If the rumour that Mourinho refused to take training because of the Super League and got sacked by Levy is true then he has gone way up in my estimation.

It's nonsense, do you really think Mourinho will not only give up this job, hence no pay-off, but then be unemployable for all those other clubs.

 

[Furball]

Haha it's heating up now. UEFA have officially announced that any players who participate will be banned from playing in the World Cup/Euros.

Absolutely no chance they'll make that stick.

 

[sledger]

Absolutely no chance they'll make that stick.

Yeah, probably unlawful if nothing else. Given that UEFA's big gripe about the proposed superleague is the fact that it wouldn't be "in the spirit of the game" it would also be a pretty hypocritical move imo, to say nothing of the impossible (and massively unfair) position in which it would put players contracted to the clubs involved.

I mean it's a move that is literally telling these players "deliberately breach your contract (i.e., by refusing to play, and risking being personally sued for literally millions of pounds/euros) or no World Cup for you".

As I mentioned before, for a situation that should be a PR slam dunk for them, they aren't half bending over backwards to make themselves look like total dicks.

 

[GIMH]

Yeah, some may say if you dance with the devil etc, but it is a tad harsh on players who are on lengthy contracts to tell them they can't play in the World Cup, being played on the graves of slaves in Qatar, because of a decision their employers have made that they are contractually obligated to act upon.

Thankfully the fan groups of the respective clubs are absolutely livid. No idea how much clout they have...

 

[andruid]

As the active African on this thread, the biggest irony is that FIFa had been trying to strong arm CAF into launching an African Super League where (get this) participating clubs would have to cough up 20? million USD over 5 years to participate.

 

[grecian]

We all hate Fifa, this isn't really about them, it's about preserving a pyramid structure and stopping a few big franchises and some North London clubs hovering up all the money. I don't think it's a bad idea for them to make empty threats against players participation in world cup, after all players have more power than fans, get their sponsors sweating.