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City's next few fixtures could see them move clear...Villa, West Brom, Sheff Utd & Burnley before they meet Liverpool in Feb. Could be that the rest of the division f#cked this one up...
Yeah i noticed that run of fixtures look favourable. Nothing is certain this season though. Its so tight from 1st to 6th.mabunch78 wrote: âMon Jan 18, 2021 6:35 amCity's next few fixtures could see them move clear...Villa, West Brom, Sheff Utd & Burnley before they meet Liverpool in Feb. Could be that the rest of the division f#cked this one up...
In news to some Football was played prior to 1993
I wondered the same immediately on the announcement. I also wondered why the f#ck he would go. That 18/19 Ajax team is now benched and underperforming across the continent.
I will be this weekend. Time for the wildcardGavin Duffy wrote: âThu Jan 21, 2021 11:06 pm Glad I dumped all the pool players off my fantasy team.
I wonder if this is a wider trend. Mourinho famously runs teams into the ground for short term success. Is football now a sport where you need to really physically and emotionally run players into te groudn to be successful now? Are the long term success models, besides expensive buying of big talent players constantly, now not able to work?
FIFA says players in a European Super League would be banned from World Cup
January 21, 2021Updated 11:37 AM GMT
55 Comments
Players have been warned by FIFA they will be banned from the World Cup if their clubs join the European Super League, reports Luke Bosher.
This joint statement from FIFA and the six confederations comes a few months after rumours emerged of a European Super League forming between the top clubs on the continent.
But players that do take part in such a competition will now be unable to participate in any tournament organised by FIFA â or the AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA.
What other tournaments would players be banned from?
As well as the World Cup, European players would be banned from taking part in the European Championships. South American players would also be unable to compete at the Copa America.
At club level, players from European teams would be barred from playing in the Champions League or the Europa League.
What did FIFA and the confederations say?
A statement from FIFA read: âIn light of recent media speculation about the creation of a closed European âSuper Leagueâ by some European clubs, FIFA and the six confederations (AFC, CAF, Concacaf, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA) once again would like to reiterate and strongly emphasize that such a competition would not be recognised by either FIFA or the respective confederation.
âAny club or player involved in such a competition would as a consequence not be allowed to participate in any competition organised by FIFA or their respective confederation.â
The statement was signed by the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and the presidents of the six continental confederations.
What is the situation with a European Super League?
In October, rumours arose of the biggest clubs in Europe breaking away from the UEFA-organised Champions League to form a European Super League.
Such rumours have popped up at various points over the last two decades, but usually died down after concessions were made to the big clubs to keep them happy.
This time, however, the rumours appeared to be at their strongest, with former Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu sensationally declaring he had signed up the club to such plans in one of his final days in office.
There is not total agreement among the European heavyweights though â only yesterday Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told TZ and Merkur that he would decline an invitation to participate in a Super League.
Does this damage the chances of a European Super League?
Not exactly. The truth is that at some stage, someone will pile enough money together alongside a huge media rights deal to make a tempting offer to Europeâs biggest clubs.
But there has always been a sense that the Super League is an empty threat to be wheeled out whenever the terms of the deal between Europe's biggest clubs and UEFA around the Champions League comes up again.
FIFA and the confederations could have put this statement out preemptively to protect the structure of world football. They know the appeal of playing at the World Cup to players, even those at the biggest club. Ditto the Champions League, Euros, Asian Championships, African Cup of Nations and the Copa America.
What is also interesting is the potential for the Club World Cup. The rejigged competition, the brainchild of Gianni Infantino, could be a big earner for clubs when it shifts into its intended new role as a proper tournament. Being banned from that might not appeal.
Explained: Why UEFA is ârattledâ over the latest European Super League plan
Matt Slater, Adam Crafton and more 3h ago 38
Other contributor: Phil Buckingham
For football fans the announcement appeared to come from out of the blue. A âclosed European Super Leagueâ, FIFA and the six international confederations said in a rare joint statement on Thursday morning, âwould not be recognised by either FIFA or the respective confederationâ. Top players participating would therefore be barred from representing their national teams in events like the FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship.
In reality, the statement reflects just how nervous FIFA and the confederations have become. For months now, they have watched on as the most powerful clubs in the world have talked among themselves about the future of football post-2024, when European footballâs current broadcast and sponsorship deals expire. This week, there have even been reports of proposal documents circulated between clubs.
As one source told The Athletic on Thursday: âUEFA is rattled.â
There is a lot at stake. FIFA and UEFA are determined to quash talk of a breakaway tournament and press ahead with plans to expand the FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Champions League. Some clubs, however, are determined to ensure that they shape the future of football rather than the governing bodies. Something has got to give.
But what would a European Super League really look like? Why have the worldâs most powerful clubs been so frequently meeting in private this season? And what do Premier League clubs not involved in the clandestine talks really think? Here, we attempt to answer some of your most pressing questions.
What happened on Thursday?
Footballâs major governing bodies issued a statement warning players they would be barred from future World Cups and other major international tournaments were they to play in any breakaway European Super League.
A letter signed by FIFA, UEFA and the worldâs other confederations emphatically rejected any proposal for a European Super League, which have been gathering steam in recent months.
A joint statement read: âIn light of recent media speculation about the creation of a closed European âSuper Leagueâ by some European clubs, FIFA and the six confederations once again would like to reiterate and strongly emphasise that such a competition would not be recognised by either FIFA or the respective confederation.â
The statement added that âany club or player involved in such a competition would as a consequence not be allowed to participate in any competition organised by FIFA or their respective confederation.â
The statement was notable for two reasons. One: FIFA and UEFA rarely agree. Two: FIFAâs president, Gianni Infantino, had not categorically opposed a Super League until that point, previously remarking that he was ânot interestedâ in such proposals. Infantino was even claimed by one source to have been privy to European Super League discussions. FIFA said that Infantino speaks to clubs on a variety of matters, but that his opposition to a Super League, as the signed statement showed, was clear.
Why has this come around again?
There are several ways to answer this question but they all boil down to the same thing: one day it will probably happen. That means stories about secret plans for the creation of a European Super League will never be wrong.
As The Guardianâs former sportswriter Arthur Hopcroft wrote in his seminal book, The Football Man: âThere was a general expectation a little while ago of what was called a Super League, in which all the leading European clubs would play, breaking away from the domestic leagues in their own countries.â That was in 1968. âIt has not materialized, and is not likely to,â he added.
There is one good reason why it has not happened yet and that is because every time the richest clubs have let it be known they are discussing such a move, UEFA has changed the format, financial distribution or both of its main club competition, the old European Cup. What was once an unseeded, knockout tournament between domestic champions, has become the Champions League, Super League in all but name.
That is why this story has come around again.
Why did FIFA and UEFA bite?
UEFA, the elite clubs and the big leagues have been arguing about how to carve up the money generated by UEFAâs club competitions between 2021 and 2024, and then the entire format of those club competitions after 2024, which is when the broadcast and sponsorship deals expire.
The 2018-21 distribution deal massively favoured the richest clubs, as the biggest slice of the pie was reserved for the 32 teams that make the Champions League group stage. A prize so rich it gives those clubs a huge head-start on their domestic rivals in the race to qualify for the following seasonâs Champions League. And so and so on until those positions are entrenched and Bayern, Juventus and PSG grow bored of winning their leagues.
That sweet deal for the aristocracy was signed off, with almost no consultation, by former UEFA president, and Juventus legend, Michel Platini. His successor Aleksander Ceferin, however, got the UEFA gig thanks to the votes of small and medium-sized countries annoyed at that carve-up. He promised there would be no clandestine agreements in backrooms on his watch.
UEFA has also belatedly realised that its prize money has killed the competitive balance in leagues across the continent. Which is why Ceferin would like to take some money from the Champions League pot and sprinkle it over his new Europa Conference League, a tournament intended to give the type of team normally turfed out of the Champions League play-offs in August a longer run in Europe, and to increase the amount of âsolidarityâ money it dishes out to clubs not good enough to qualify this season but eager to do so in the future.
Here is the first reason Hopcroftâs âgeneral expectationâ was resurfaced.
The big boys, the ones the world logs on to watch, are telling Ceferin to get his hands off their money. But that is just the start of it because what they really want is what takes us to the second big debate and reason to play the European Super League card.
The biggest clubs do not just want as much money as they have now, they want more.
Who can blame them: none of them really makes any money. And that was before COVID-19 struck, which has resulted in elite club after elite club announcing nine-figure losses for last year. The solution to their short and long-term cash worries is more games, particularly against each other, ideally on weekends.
At one point, when this chapter in the eternal saga started in 2019, they also wanted to do away with the inconvenience of qualifying for the Champions League again via their domestic leagues.
That demand and the weekend land grab have been quietly dropped â for now â and UEFA is keen to shake hands with the clubs on a new Champions League format next month. The plan is for the eight groups of four to become a 36-team league in which the clubs play 10 games, five at home, five away, with the top 16 progressing to the knockout rounds. Known as a âSwiss modelâ league, it is widely used in chess.
This move, however, will still upset the domestic leagues, who worry that these extra European games will hoover up scarce media rights money and might just be the start of something, not the end. After all, Swiss model leagues are famously flexible and some chess tournaments have hundreds of players.
Whatâs new?
There is one key difference that explains why FIFA was so willing to leap to the aid of UEFA, an organisation with whom, in football parlance, it has history.
As the body that sits atop the system, FIFA is always going to have an interest in preserving the status quo. But having watched the Champions League help UEFA become far richer than it is, and European teams dominate the World Cup, FIFA wants a piece of the lucrative club game.
It knows its current offering, the Club World Cup, is only really of interest to fans of the European and South American teams that nearly always contest the final, and even then, the European teamsâ fans do not always care that much.
So, FIFA president Infantino, a former UEFA man, wants to replace that with a four-yearly, 24-team, summer Club World Cup that really would find the best club team in the world and excite fans everywhere. He had hoped to get that started in China this summer. But unfortunately China got something else started in late 2019, scuppering Infantinoâs plans and pretty much everyone elseâs, too.
What have the clubs been getting up to?
The governing bodies are all too aware that powerful clubs have been holding discrete meetings and there is a fear that the European Super League may have been on the agenda.
Earlier this week, the Real Madrid president Florentino Perez flew to Turin. There he was a guest at La Continassa, the lavish 18th century building that Juventus recently renovated into their new headquarters. Perez was hosted by Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, and the two men enjoyed a three-hour meeting about matters pertaining to the European Club Association (ECA) and the politics of the game. The meeting did not go unnoticed at UEFA.
Other clubs have been talking. The Athletic has been told that Manchester United co-owner Joel Glazer is another key figure in discussions, as he was in the previous âProject Big Pictureâ talks, while sources say JP Morgan, the American bank, could finance the project.
Manchester Unitedâs executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward, told a fansâ forum in November 2020 that the club was âat the centre of discussions about the future of European club competitionsâ. He added, however, that he was focused on strengthening existing UEFA competitions through his position on the European Club Association.
Why would those clubs support a European Super League?
Any breakaway European Super League would be controlled by the teams that create it. The tournament would also result in Europeâs elite clubs playing more matches against one another, guaranteeing hundreds of millions of pounds in additional revenue.
As one source told The Athletic on Thursday: âThe big clubs believe the money will always follow them. They are the big attractions and so why should they subsidise small clubs when they can keep even more money for themselves?â
A European Super League would almost certainly lead to a significant loss in value and revenue of the numerous teams excluded from it, while also lowering the value of footballâs existing national leagues and tournaments.
Why might JP Morgan be interested in bankrolling this?
It is pretty simple, really. Interest rates and yields on bonds never really recovered after the global financial crisis a decade or so ago but they have absolutely tanked as companies and governments have thrown money at COVID-19.
This means there is an awful lot of money swilling around out there and nowhere to put it.
The Bank of Englandâs base rate is 0.1 per cent â a historic low. If it gets any lower, we will be paying banks to look after our money. So JP Morgan has not suddenly discovered a love for the beautiful game or even decided that football is a particularly amazing investment. It is, though, happy to effectively print whatever it takes to get a European Super League off the ground because it is sure there are enough investors out there desperate for something to have a punt on.
This also explains why so many private equity firms are queuing up to lend European football clubs money or buy stakes in entire leagues.
Why it is JP Morgan in the frame, as opposed to HSBC or Bank of America, can probably be explained by its longstanding relationship with Manchester United owners the Glazer family. That bond, cemented in football, has been profitable for both parties.
So ⊠what would the football actually look like?
On Thursday evening, The Times reported that a proposal document circulated between clubs outlined the structure of the latest iteration of a potential European Super League. The tournament would involve 20 clubs, with 15 permanent members and five qualifying annually. Six English clubs â the same six clubs that comprise the Premier Leagueâs so-called âbig sixâ â would be among 15 permanent founding members.
The Times reported that founder members of a proposed European Super League would be offered up to ÂŁ310 million each to join the competition. Champions League qualification is worth about ÂŁ100 million.
The 20 clubs would be split into two 10-team groups. Each team in a group would play home and away matches against one another. The top four teams in each group would then play a knockout play-off across the two divisions to decide the champion for the season.
There would be home and away legs in the quarter-finals and semi-final, with a final played at a neutral venue.
It would also see a best versus worst approach to the knockout matches, with the team with the best record playing the team with the eighth-best record. This would also apply to the semi-finals.
Matches would take place in midweek, with the exception of the final. Clubs would still play in their domestic leagues.
The top five clubs in each group and two further qualifiers would also qualify for and play in FIFAâs revamped World Club Competition, to be played annually.
How has the Premier League reacted?
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said âchange is comingâ when he addressed a parliamentary hearing in November. That was in reference to a strategic review of the game, due to be completed by the end of March and in the wake of Project Big Picture failing to garner the necessary support.
Tellingly, though, Masters also said: âWe know change is probably coming in Europe. And I suspect if we donât come up with a unifying plan, someone else will write it for us.â The Premier League has previously taken a hard-line stance against any major European reform and that has not altered.
In the summer of 2019, when the ECA put forward plans to change the Champions League structure from 2024, the Premier League said the âdomestic game should continue to be the priority for professional clubsâ and that proposals would be âdetrimentalâ to the top European leagues.
That outlook has not changed. And why would it? The Premier League boasts the most popular football competition on the market and will never welcome competition for that mantle.
A European Super League would also serve to dilute the broadcast market and, in all probability, reduce the TV income for the Premier League and its 20 clubs. There is only ever so much cash to go around when broadcasters around the globe bid for live sport and a shiny new league including Europeâs elite would have clear appeal.
What about Premier League clubs not involved in the planning?
The Athletic discussed the mooted European Super League with numerous Premier League clubs on Thursday.
One Premier League side outside of the âbig sixâ told The Athletic that this sounded like another version of the Champions League and therefore they would not feel likely to be affected by it.
But they did voice concerns that more European football would give the âbig sixâ scope to earn more money, giving them more power. There was an awareness, though, that European football is at a crossroads and there will likely be major change at some point.
Others questioned exactly what teams would be involved and how the âbig sixâ should be defined at a time when some of the largest clubs in the country are falling down the Premier League table. Arsenal finished eighth last season and currently sit tenth this season, for example, while Tottenham Hotspur have never won a Premier League title.
Some clubs voiced their opposition to the plans and viewed it as outside of their interests. They see the Premier League as the best league in the No 1 sport in the world, with a fantastic product. They doubt whether this is necessary or in the wider interests of the game and see the Champions League as providing an opportunity for the top clubs to come together.
Another Premier League club speculated that the plans were simply mischief-making, at a time when FIFA and UEFA are under considerable political pressure.
One figure dismissed it simply as: âowners who are detached from the process having fun in the USA. The people here know it will never happen.â
And how do the broadcasters feel about this possibility?
BT Sport have been the exclusive rights holders to European football in the UK since 2015 and in 2019 they secured an extension running all the way through to 2024. BT pay ÂŁ400 million a year for the Champions League and Europa League, as well as the Europa Conference League beginning from next season.
BT regard European football as the crown jewel of their live sport packages, alongside their smaller number of Premier League games.
It is unclear if a European Super League would have the same appeal or if other suitors, such as the new kid on the block Amazon Prime, would declare an interest in any newly-launched competition.
