It's exactly comparible to Wimbledon, except this time as it's the perceived big boys everyone is publically soiling themselves in fake indignation.You lot are hard to please. When people say the right things they're still wrong
This isn't comparable to Wimbledon moving or clubs going bust, this is taking away the competitive element of it all, the whole reason for a league is have promotion and relegation otherwise what does it matter.
Well put, Bradnor. We could have something more like the German model - where the fans are involved in owning/running the clubs and where it's affordable to go to a match. It's unbelievable that we have allowed the game to get to a point where it's normal to pay £50 plus to watch a regular league game. This has been coming for years. The ESL will be like Formula One - a completely closed shop and boring as fook.Agree Tartan. I think football needs a reset to a more sustainable model. I like to think the ESL might have presented an opportunity for that to happen.
Most of us on this site fell in love with football in the 60s 70s and 80s, when it was cheap to go, being at the game was everything, and as a result the crowd was predominantly young. It is that cohort which as they moved into middle age has financed the growth of the PL, and thence of the big 6, as a lot of us have been prepared to pay £35, not 35p, for entrance to a game, and a sports subscription of £600+ per year to watch our team on TV. Ok, so overseas TV rights are also very important (and that's a function of the internet), but where is the next generation coming from that will be committed to watching English top tier football, in person and on TV, for the prices that are now being charged?
I think that's a major, possibly existential problem, for the current structure of the English game. If we wave the BCC 6 off into the sunset, we have a chance to reset the game more sustainably, make going to a game or watching it on TV more economically accessible, and rebuild the mass audience for the next 30/40 years
That's your choice.If we had won the league without the big boys competing it would've meant nothing.
If the top flight doesn't have all the top teams involved i for one will be finished with football
Apparently we did win without the big boys competing..... in fact some wankers reckon that’s the only reason we did win itIf we had won the league without the big boys competing it would've meant nothing.
If the top flight doesn't have all the top teams involved i for one will be finished with football
Apparently we did win it without the big boys competing..... in fact some wankers reckon that’s the only reason we did win the league how wrong they were....If we had won the league without the big boys competing it would've meant nothing.
If the top flight doesn't have all the top teams involved i for one will be finished with football
It's exactly comparible to Wimbledon, except this time as it's the perceived big boys everyone is publically soiling themselves in fake indignation.
The competitive element isn't being taken away, we'll still play Villa, Leeds, Everton, not so much Derby or Forest, every season and the Euro club competitions will still be there. Domestic football will still carry on and the league will still be competitive. It'll just be minus a half dozen clubs. Twenty team top flight, 3 x 22 team tiers below, happy days.
This Super League is nothing more than an exhibition league, and if they believe there is a market for it then good luck to them, I find it hard to believe it's the golden goose. There will still a market for what us 'proper football fans' want, possibly even stronger than before if the outcry is channeled properly.
Where does the money come from to buy a 51% share? Not sure the fans could raise that kind of money.We could have something more like the German model - where the fans are involved in owning/running the clubs
Interesting Tartan that you believe Wimbledon's fate to be 'exactly the same' as this breakaway. You'll know better than me re surrounding circumstances, but I understood the Wimbledon position as an indebted Club looking for a route to survival. (I agree that that is similar if not the same for 11 of the 12 EBCCs.)
Wimbledon however, underwent a takeover sanctioned by EFL. Following completion of this transaction and the subsequent acquisition of the golden share, a case was made by the new owner, and application granted by the EFL to relocate the Club to MK. It was then deemed inappropriate for the new Club to be known as Wimbledon so a name change finished the job. This is completely the opposite to the ESL, because this new proposal is a complete breakaway from the current subscribed Leagues, whereas Wimbledon/MK are still playing in the same EFL, against the same teams. They could be relegated to the National Leagues; they could be promoted to the Prem. (I presume this is what what? means when he mentions removing 'the competitive element' [in the ESL]).
The EFL realised their mistake too late, and immediately brought regs into play to prevent franchise football ever happening again. This of course is no consolation to Wimbledon fans, but in fairness to the League this saga was played out over a period of time, with no doubt, the intention of distraction from the true motives of the buyout team.
Far from seeking a buyer, the EBCCs have plotted a way of enfranchising themselves out of debt, thereby fashioning a route to a few more £millions into the bargain, while at the same time disenfranchising their lifeblood support without the slightest care, embarrassment nor nod to the possible emotional damage that these fans may suffer as a result. (On this latter, here too, I agree that scale notwithstanding it is exactly the same as the Wimbledon catastrophe.)
BLUE ARMY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you really complaining that there aren't enough PL games on live TV in the UK?? Really?Spot on, Eggs. Sky took football away from the ”working man” when they were complicit in starting the PL 30 years ago. The fans were abandoned for global TV rights and ratings. The UK Government could have stopped it but they didn’t. Since then Sky and BT’s constant bigging up of the Big Six and dismissal of all other teams as makeweights to their main events has been blatant and it shows with their choice of pundits over the years. If you were big 6 in UK you could watch your teams games live on TV most weeks. If not you had to wait until your team played a big 6 team. And if you were not in the PL god help you! Up until the pandemic you could see all PL matches live in most places in the world but were not given this choice in the UK.
You know Sky and BT will be here in the bidding frenzy when the TV rights are up for grabs.
Crocodile tears indeed!