UEFA watch 2018-9

Wasn't some Sheff Wed players involved in match fixing or something.....a long while ago?

 

A while ago? 1964!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_British_betting_scandal

 

Not to be confused with this betting scandal that The FA have yet to rectify...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1915_British_football_betting_scandal

I say redress the balance and send them down to the Championship immediately.

 

I started watching Spurs in 1953.Now that's a while ago!

 

UEFA have reopened investigations into PSG's financing of purchases of Neymar and M'Bappe. The initial clearance of them has been overturned by someone further up the food chain.

Whilst this action can be seen as doing Barca's and Real's bidding, it does point towards the intentions of FFP 2.0 and the authorities getting to grips with some of the worst financial doping. Shame it took 15 years to get round to it.

Unfortunately, as per the wonderful 'Back To The Future II', we now find ourselves in a reality where Biff Tannnen is rich and powerful, George McFly is dead and Doc Emmett Brown has been committed to an asylum.

Where's my DeLorean?

 

Screw that, where's Dr Sam Beckett?

...on second thoughts, maybe best we don't ask his help

 

"Gee, didn't that guy ever have [proper] hair?"

 

I was listening to the radio yesterday evening whilst cooking dinner. They had one of the senior football journalists from The Time on. He was talking about the stories coming up this week. Amongst the "Why is Jose Mourinho so crap?" and "Let's suck Pep's balls", he mentioned an interview with Barcelona President, Josep Maria Bartomeu, which will probably run on Wednesday to coincide with our game at Wembley.

The headline from the interview was that Barcelona are expecting the formation of a European Super League. It's been coming for some time. The completion of our magnificent new stadium, the upturn of our commercial partnerships, leading to breaking into the Top 10 richest clubs and our qualification for the CL has been incredibly timely.

We're in the mix to be invited into any Super League, whereas a decade ago, we were a thousand miles away. Love the idea or hate it, we have given ourselves the likelihood to participate in the future of the game at the elite level. I'm loathe to bring up the "Win a Cup v Qualify for the CL" argument but it's unavoidable. Some silverware would be great but winning the FA or Carabao Cups isn't going to materially improve our destiny. I don't expect our first team to be playing too many domestic cup games this season.

There's going to be an expanded version of the CL in the next decade. I've been staggered by the suggested valuation of Chelsea at between £2-3 billion. That can only be based on considerable future growth in income, We've not built that stadium to be on the outside looking in.

 

Surely if a euro super league is formed the premiership will have to be cut down to half the size it is now or is the European Super League set to replace us playing in the premier league ?

 

Good question. The European Super Clubs could expand on the current format by withdrawing from domestic cup competitions or they could look to cut the number of teams in the premier divisions across Europe's most powerful nations. I doubt that Bournemouth, Brighton and Burnley (and some clubs starting with letters other than 'B') will be too keen

However, money talks and the ultimate goal for the CEO's and Club Presidents is likely to be a league of super clubs, in massive stadiums, broadcast to the waiting world. It's not their job to respect history and tradition but to feed the furnaces with yet more money. Ultimately, I see a European elite playing each other with no relegation or promotion and guaranteed riches for owners from countries that don't play the game to a serious level domestically.

 

I have no doubt a super league will happen because as you say money talks and the big money men don't care about histories of clubs but it will probably be a few years yet because of the timescale to set it up,I just hope platini and blatter are no where near being involved.just a thought man u and the goons had better get their arse in gear or they'll be left behind

 

On the subject of the super league another point I wonder about is if we are still competing in the premiership as well as the super league what happens with the transfer window because you can't have 2 sets of rules .also would there be a limit to how many home grown players and foreigners you can have in your squad , it seems there are a lot of things to sort out before any super league is formed.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_clubs_performance_comparison

Here is what this super league would look like based on appearances during the CL era :

Ajax
Arsenal
Barcelona
Bayern Munich
Benfica
Borussia Dortmund
Chelsea
Dynamo Kyiv
Galatasaray
Internazionale
Juventus
Lyon
Manchester United
Milan
Olympiacos
Porto
PSV Eindhoven
Real Madrid
Shakhtar Donetsk
Spartak Moscow

 

Regrettably, for some of those clubs, I don't see that sort of performance based criteria being employed. Nobody's keeping Citeh from the riches a Super League would generate and I can't see Barcelona or Bayern Munich wanting to play Olympiacos or PSV above Spurs.

I can't see how a league, constituted how most American, Russian or Chinese owners would want it, would remain within UEFA. I'd look at the participants of the International Champions Cup from the summer just gone as a blueprint. These clubs represent what's important, with the odd alteration...

1

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Tottenham Hotspur 3 2 1 0 7 3 +4 7
2

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Borussia Dortmund 3 2 1 0 6 3 +3 7
3

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Internazionale 3 2 1 0 3 1 +2 7
4

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Arsenal 3 1 2 0 7 3 +4 6
5

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Liverpool 3 2 0 1 7 5 +2 6
6

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Real Madrid 3 2 0 1 6 4 +2 6
7

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Juventus 3 1 1 1 4 4 0 5
8

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Chelsea 3 0 3 0 2 2 0 5
9

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Manchester United 3 1 1 1 4 6 -2 5
10

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Lyon 3 1 1 1 3 3 0 4
11

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AC Milan 3 1 1 1 2 2 0 4
12

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Bayern Munich 3 1 0 2 5 6 -1 3
13

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Benfica 3 0 2 1 5 6 -1 3
14

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Manchester City 3 1 0 2 4 5 -1 3
15

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AS Roma 3 1 0 2 6 8 -2 3
16

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Paris Saint-Germain 3 1 0 2 5 10 -5 3
17

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Atletico Madrid 3 0 1 2 3 5 -2 2
18

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Barcelona 3 0 1 2 4 7 -3 2

 

I contend my league would not be too far from what UEFA
would finally decide, after their horse-trading of money vs
their darlings.

 

If UEFA are involved? I think that's very far from a given. UEFA will want to be inclusive. I see the biggest clubs as wanting an exclusive arrangement of those with the largest global supports and biggest stadiums. The majority of these clubs will be owned by Americans, Chinese and Arab Oil countries. They've no interest in UEFA or European football.

I foresee a breakaway akin to the setting up of the PL, away from the Football League, so that the clubs decide what they do and they employ someone to look like they're running it. What would UEFA offer these clubs, apart from headaches?

 

A Super League? Clubs in it wouldn't be able to play in their own comps.They wouldn't have time.....and how would they decide on promotion and relegation?I couldn't imagine the PL without the top 4 or 6.
They would have to revert ,maybe,back to the old "European Cup" system where only the actual champions would be involved !

 

Expensive Stoke's game has been delayed due to traffic

I take it we should be demanding they be deducted points for expecting their opponents to bend over backwards to accommodate their error?

 

Apparently United didn’t arrive at the ground until 7.20!

 

Best kick them out of the competition then!

...or does such idiocy only apply to us?