I'm not saying that it's perfect by any means. In pure business terms though it makes perfect sense for the big clubs to take charge of their own destiny.
Actually the Sky thing is the big reason that any new system is likely to be PL + New European comp. Sky know that they will get far more viewers from the PL than from Europe - the average PL attendance is usually higher than the average CL attendance until the later rounds. There's simply more interest in matches between clubs from the same country. The FA Cup is the same - more people watched Man Utd vs Crawley than watched Arsenal vs Barca: http://www.sportindustry.biz/news/view/9274/fa-cup-5th-round-ties-pull-big-audiences If the breakaway happens, I'd expect it to be PL matches on weekends with "NewCL" matches on weekdays, probably every other Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday. That way the clubs maximise their revenue from both sources. In 2009/10 Chelsea and Man Utd both earned over £55 million from the PL, but around £30 million and £40 million from the CL so those two in particularly would have no interest in leaving the PL whilst they are still the top two.
The business argument runs contrary to your assertion. Firstly, the breakaway clubs would not have to share their tv revenue with either the PL or FA. Secondly we are on the brink of clubs being able to control their own broadcasting. It is already possible for the clubs to make their own arrangements and sell their own output without the need for people like Sky/ESPN etc. I accept that attendances have been higher domestically than for the earlier rounds of the present CL/EuL. However, an Eu Super League would equate with the latter stages of the present CL. The difference would come in terms of how ESL clubs would account for their income. In the UK that would probably mean averaging match day income a la Byern and Barca. All of the clubs already know that the tv revenues will be under threat when the present contracts come to an end. With the number of matches reduced, the clubs could then also take on a more global presence. Particularly for Liverpool and United this would mean more than just pre-season Asian tours and/or some form of global competition.
Big clubs taking charge of their own destiny would only mean that the big money folk come in and destroy the game. Football may be big money but to fans it is still a sport. While I appreciate that the current footballing authorities leave much to be desired, a super league started by and made for money-driven clubs would be to the detriment of the game. How boring would it be to have only three or four teams being able to compete for honours? Yes it's no different now but when the FFP rules kick in, this hopefully will change. If not then more should be done to reverse the trend towards making our sport a playground for the super rich. To have football being money-driven in the manner of a super league could also mean financial doom for some clubs. As I said, football should try to remain a sport. It will always need money but money should not be allowed to be it's ruination. End of epistle.
The clubs could already make their own arrangements to sell their own output within the PL, just like Barca and Real do in La Liga. All it would take would be a few clubs to break out of the collective agreement that gets negotiated every few years, they wouldn't need to leave the PL altogether. Besides which, the PL is run by the clubs already - what's the benefit of trying to leave it? I don't agree that a Super League would equate with that to be honest. The Arsenal - Barca match was last 16 of the CL, so roughly equivalent to the size of any Super League, as the smaller CL clubs like Marseille, Shaktar and Schalke would obviously be out. If that match can't even outdo Utd vs Crawley in the FA Cup 5th round then there's not much hope for regular matches like that! Without the national rivalry people just aren't as interested unless it is the semi final or final. I can see English clubs entering some sort of European Super League, but like you say I can see them looking at it as the replacement for the CL, and not as a replacement for the PL which is already effectively run by the clubs. And how are the TV revenues under threat? If anything the next global PL TV deal is likely to be worth around £600 million more than the current one. That's a £30 million boost to every club in the PL, and probably even more for the top clubs who will skim more off the top. I don't think that would be of any interest to them to be honest. Why go halfway round the world when you are guaranteed £3 million per game for playing people from down the road? Those tours do so well because they are a limited thing - people turn out cos it's the only chance they get to see their teams live and even then stadiums aren't always full. If big clubs came to town every couple of weeks then the novelty would soon wear off imo. Also, most of the Asian fans wouldn't be able to afford to pay similar prices to those that English fans pay every season. The "World Club Cup" thing doesn't get that much interest or create that much money cos no-one in the UK really cares about us playing clubs from halfway round the world.
I'm not saying that the kind of scenario I described is what I as a fan would like to see. I am viewing the issue dispassionately as a business possibility. In terms of the biggest clubs being global brands then those clubs with the furthest reach will seek to maximise their returns. Therefore I believe that the status quo is not really a long term position for any of them. Hence (and again i stress in business terms) your viewpoint is very parochial. 2 other issues may well force the English clubs to consider their futures: Technological Innovation. we are familiar with the present digital style of provision (Sky/ terrestial digital) but that model is already under serious threat as the bounds between tv and computing become more and more blurred. P2P options are getting better and better and do not need to rely upon external organisations. European Clubs. The vast majority of them - even the biggest - are struggling to maximise their income potential. If they decide that a Super league is in their best interest the English sides will have very little option but to join them. Finally what would excite you more United v Santos or United v Bolton?
I'd be very interested in a Global Football tournament if it was done properly, not like the rubbish CWC thing at the moment lol. A proper competition with the top club sides from all over the world run in a similar format to the CL. Tbh i'd be happy to see the CL remain and add a new european league which was not knock-out and then add a Global knock-out tournament as well. Problem with adding extra torunaments or having larger tournaments is the amount of games that need to be played within a season. Of course if we added more tournaments teams could always increase in size, having larger squads and more rotation so that the team is able to keep going for a more packed or long lasting season. Then you have the issue of if people can afford to attend that many games, if it all becomes over the top etc etc... So i think ultimately its a lot fo hassle to mess around with the format of how football is run at the moment. It might be nice however to have a club world cup run every 4 years like the real world cup, with all the top teams entering.
I think it is a terrible terrible idea. Would take the soul out of football and just preserve status quo. I don't think Rummenigge is actually that bothered about Fifa, he is just discrediting them to get support for his idea.
I am also viewing it as a business possibility - clubs currently earn more money from the PL than from the CL. If they are going to maximise their returns then they will naturally look to ditch the CL in favour of the super league and keep the PL. PL matches regularly get higher gates and TV audiences than European matches and are often more attractive to fans because of the rivalry. But a global football league is not going to defend against the threat of convergence between media and technology. If anything it will exacerbate it as fans become more used to watching their club over the internet when they are playing in a country where the domestic TV is already streamed online. This is true, but by the same measure European Clubs could not conceivably form a super league without the English sides joining them. Only Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and Inter are on the same level as the big four in terms of revenue, commercial power and global appeal imo, although Juventus are pretty close. It would need to be an all or nothing venture in order to succeed, which implies that English clubs would also have power in the negotiations process, and thus could negotiate for any new league to be structured around the existing leagues. And as you point out, most clubs in Europe are struggling to maximise their income so why would they look to dismantle the domestic leagues which are their main source? I cannot think of any club in Europe which may earn more from the CL than they do from their domestic league. Even Barcelona, which earned a reported 110 million Euros from winning the CL, earns 140 million Euros from their La Liga broadcasting contract alone. United vs Bolton of course. I couldn't name a Santos player off the top of my head, and don't know any Santos fans. Whereas I know a fair few Bolton fans we can have some banter with over the game down the pub and get some bragging rights. And even if I was a die hard fan I wouldn't travel to whatever Brazilian city Santos are based in to watch the away match, particularly if it was only one game in a massive league full of other random clubs I don't care two ****s about.
What happens when we can fly to Australia in 3 hours? Football is just as susceptible to globalisation as any other industry.
If we could fly to Australia in 3 hours then the situation may change. But given that the new 787 and A380 are no faster than the 747 which is 40 years old, I don't see the flight time to Oz coming in at anything under 18 hours at any point in the foreseeable future. At the moment the main impact of globalisation on football is that it allows the bigger clubs access to larger markets in America, Asia and others. So it allows them to grow their revenues nice and steadily without having to consider anything so drastic as completely breaking up the PL in favour of a new and untested league format.
The only way that will happen would be for some airline to develop, build and eventually mass produce a successor to Concorde. Even then you're still looking at 8 - 10 hours, even at flying at Mach 2. It's not going to happen, at least not in my lifetime.
Let's go back to a little basic economics. What does the Theory of the Firm say? - "Firms exist to maximise their profits". A Super League would only be one of the tactics used to achieve that. Ownership in the UK of our biggest 'brands' are already in foreign hands (US, Arab, Russian - even Indian!). These people, despite their commitments to the idea of clubs, are not concerned with your or my ideal of what a club really is. Provided that they can work towards that profit maximisation without destroying their ideas of the core values then they are perfectly happy to consider what to us might be impossible ideas. When it comes to football clubs the larger clubs face a business dilema. Large organisations tend towards monopoly/oligopoly positions so as to minimise risk when they are in competitive markets. A franchise style arrangement gives them that security within the timeframe of their planning horizons - hence they can compete without the competition itself being too potentially prejudicial. If the big clubs do go down this route, one of their exit strategies could be to leave a domestic entity in place eg Liverpool/United/Chelsea/Arsenal go into the Super League but have a 'junior' entity (Liverpool Kop, Manchester Devils, Gunners etc.) still competing in the Premiership. The corporate entities could do this as they would no longer be subject to the ownership controls of FIFA/UEAFA/FA. Many of the big clubs would welcome the possibility of having a feeder club within their portfolio. In a few years this feeder system could be globalised with them owning/controling teams in the USA, Asia and South America. Hence the 'bragging rights' demand could be satisfied domestically. Now I may have been reading the tv revenue forecasts across Europe through a mirror but I believe that the majority of the forecasts suggest that tv income streams are more likely to fall in the medium to long term. Football is a global entity. If the European big clubs do not act soon to strengthen their positions then they will start to see their dominance and value overtaken by powerfull clubs/organisations emerging from Asia and S. America who will grasp the concepts of global branding and exploitation
can't remeber the name of it but there was a design for a craft that could reach Ausralia in under 3 hours by going into near space.
I'm not arguing with any of that. But I still don't believe that a European super league will be as profitable for the clubs in the short term as the PL or La Liga or even Serie A. Gates will be lower, and broadcasting rights won't be as much in the short term. I still think the most likely scenario is for the PL to run alongside any super league, like it currently does with the CL. Then in five or ten years, if the concept is established and the marketing revenue takes off, the top clubs might consider withdrawing from their domestic league, but even then there are unlikely to be enough high profile European teams to put in a super league that would fill the whole season. The Premier League is already effectively an oligopoly position for the top clubs. For all the banter that happened last season, there was never any chance of Liverpool being relegated, and they still earned the best part of £55 million from their participation in the PL. I agree that a European super league franchise system is likely to be more appealing that the current CL, particularly for English clubs with City and Spurs also wanting a piece of the top table pie, but I can't see it replacing the safety and security of the PL, where every team in the top six, is virtually guaranteed to earn at least £50 million a year and virtually fill their ground on 19 occasions. I just don't see this happening in the short term. Would you honestly pay £800-900 a year just to see Liverpool reserves play against other teams? I don't see the fans accepting that for a second, and whilst you are right that the owners will want to maximise profits, they cannot do that if they alienate their core supporters / customers. Maybe in the future when the market (and more importantly the revenue) is established overseas, but right now the most likely thing is for the Kop, Devils, Gunners etc to be the ones playing in the leagues in Asia and America. Do you have any sources for that? I know domestic revenues are stalling as the market is fairly saturated, but the forecasts I've seen still have overseas revenue levels increasing quickly. Are the medium term forecasts due to the recent test case where a pub landlord subscribed to Polish TV in order to get PL football for less? The European courts ruled that was in line with EU principles on free movement of services, thus effectively breaking the Sky monopoly. But that situation would still exist no matter how the football competition is set up as it is related to the legal issues. I agree, but the big clubs are already acting. Man Utd has overtaken the Yankees as the most valuable sports team in the world, with the most valuable sports brand. And Real Madrid has the highest revenue of any sports team in the world. Both of these clubs have embraced global branding and exploitation, with Liverpool, Chelsea, Barca, Milan and others not far behind. Most clubs emerging from Asia and South America seem to see themselves almost as feeder clubs to the big European clubs - can you think of any clubs from outside Europe with such a well known global brand and appeal? In fact, the potential power of these emerging clubs is the factor most likely to stop any sort of "global super league" imo. Why would Real, Barca, Utd, Liverpool etc want to support their future competitors by playing them in competitive matches? If Man Utd played Santos in a super league, the club that would gain most from that would be Santos as they would then be seen as peers to Utd.
