Off Topic Tottenham a Founder Member of a Breakaway European Super League

I get what you’re saying mate. But for me this is a complete stabbing in the back of the club’s ethos and everything that the fans want the club and the badge to represent. Yes, the game is about the glory, and we all want to win, but it’s meaningless if the competition is meaningless, and if we are kicked out of all domestic competition and only play in the ESL which we can’t get relegated from, then the competition becomes meaningless to me. Sure, one could argue about whether the influx of money into the PL in the last 2 decades has made it meaningless already, but the fact is that it’s an open league, anyone can participate, and Spurs are at just as much risk of being relegated as anyone else taking part.

I think that as much as we all love to crow when other clubs get Levy’d, ultimately as fans I think it’s always been a point of pride that for the last decade or so we’ve competed at the very top of the PL and reached the CL final without the cash injection that the likes of Chelsea and City have benefitted from. We’ve all been happy that Spurs have tried to do things the ‘right way’ and it’s become a part of our identity, or at least it had for me.

European football is fun of course and it’s good that we’ve been able to test ourselves against the best teams on the continent. Being at the Real Madrid game at Wembley, the memories from the CL final run...these are all Spurs memories that I treasure. But ultimately European competition is so significant because of the money, but the domestic competitions are the heartbeat of the game. I have no interest in following a club that turns its back on that.

 

This ESL must be Levy`s wet dream, a guaranteed place in it every season, and the guaranteed revenue it brings without having to spend big money to qualify for it through league position. Levy would be happy just taking part and Spurs would probably finish bottom of it every season, and be mid table in the PL, all while trousering the massive revenue from it into profit.

 

In my view this is simply about the Americans taking control of 'big' football. They want to rest control of the money from UEFA and FIFA.
I would be tempted to let the 12 **** off and do their thing reconstitute the PL as the 1st Division ban our 6 (including Spurs) from all domestic competition and divide the football world into two. The players are already earning loads of money so that can't tempt them. They would have a choice of where to play their football. In a real competition or a fake competition for the few. It will work for a bit but in the end the pointlessness of it would come home.

 

The team being dog **** never stopped us supporting Spurs in the past

I'm one of those that will be going to watch a different side but I was gonna do that anyway tbh. The game at the top level is too greedy, fans have no say which is why we're being priced out. Every chairman at those 6 English sides would take half empty stadiums in exchange for increased value in the club due to foreign markets. If we mattered at all, we'd have been consulted.

I don't like the lack of consequence in this invite-only tournament either. I hope the silver-lining is that the ESL thinks it can hold the worldwide coverage rights for themselves, which I think they will, and that will just make it easier to boycott if you don't want to lose all televised football with it.

Pricks the lot of them.

 

I'm not even sure if the players want it, either. There's been no consultation process with any of the stakeholders outside of owners and possibly some senior execs/managers, and even then, I'm not sure about it.

I think a lot of them severely underestimated the backlash this news would receive.

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/footbal...o-take-action-over-european-super-league-plan

 

So he wants to take the country into Europe now?

 

Facepalms at the ready...

 

Stay with the badge and support SPURS LADIES

 

While this is entirely about money, I don't think that means it is about greed.
Hardly any football clubs are profitable. A football club is essentially an operation to transfer money from broadcasters to players. The owners keep almost none. Even ENIC, who actually own a profitable club, have never taken much out in dividends. But Covid has made it clear that even the biggest clubs have a precarious existence and don’t have much stability. Another year of Covid restrictions and any big club out of Europe might well go under. As indeed could any club relegated from the PL.
I don't actually see anything much wrong with a change where the Champions League moves towards a relegation/promotion model rather than a qualification based one. That's probably the most logical endpoint. The problem is the transition, which if based solely on one season's results, could lead to some being punished for mistakes. I doubt it's a coincidence that Milan and Inter are part of this in a season where they are both likely to qualify for CL.

 

If they could actually play football I would. Get better quality over your local park.

Shelina Zadorsky though... She's worth watching... At anything.

 

And phase 2 is the Women's team anyway.

 

There is the angle to look at that the club currently have a huge debt due to building a new stadium but barely having time to have people in it, as evidenced by how we have now played more games at our stadium with 0 fans in attendance due to the pandemic than with fans in it, so when the golden goose of the Premier League threaten to leave - as not only do games against Arsenal, Chelsea and man Utd not only guarantee a full house and plenty of food and drink sale on top, but matches against Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Saltypool and The Sheikh Mansour Team guarantee TV money - then the conversation is less about greed and greed alone and more about other factors, with sustainability top of the list, which can't be guaranteed if we're the Daddy By Default in a league full of Burnleys

Do I support the move? Not really, even though I am enjoying the thought of Rupert Murdoch ****ting his pants that several of the golden geese he has enabled (plus Spurs...) are leaving him for Jeff Bezos' nest just as I'm finding it amusing that people are pretending that the Premier League wasn't created by a number of clubs splitting off from the Football League enabled by a bearded shortarse who wanted to sell more satellite dishes, because as Klopp said a couple of years ago when he said he didn't support the idea of a super league a match against Los Ladrones is special because they're rare and exotic, and for some clubs once in a lifetime experiences - but when you're guaranteed to play them home and away every season it's not special, and as a result you won't guarantee packed stadiums (and food & drink sales to match) so what's the point?

 

Hmm... I wonder who this quote came from...

 

Did they get on the blower with the Glazers already?

 

That's probably illegal.

 

I don’t know on what grounds FIFA and UEFA can ban players from registering in squads fir tournaments tbh. Strong stance though. Is it up to their discretion?

 

I genuinely can’t believe what’s happened in football in the last 24 hours.

I’d probably be fuming if I wasn’t already so disconnected from the club.

what an absolute mess.

 

Once again, remember when a group of clubs broke away from the Football League?

I don't recall any of them getting banned from their national teams nor continental competitions