The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Superblue 6,370]

24 minutes ago, DDA said:

It genuinely feels like we are saving rats like Real Madrid and Barcelona at the expense of our own moral reputation.

Roman has falled for it hook, line and sinker.

We all make mistakes Roman.. its not too late to turn back. We will forgive you.

Whilst Roman would have the final say on such big decisions at the club, this screams of Bruce Buck's influence. 

He is American which seems to be a big warning light at present, given the influence of United and Liverpool in this league and my understanding is he is our representative for things such as the Premier League.

Roman has and probably even more so nowadays, relied on the advice and support of a select inner circle of people to help run Chelsea. I would bet my cold, hard cash that this has been heavily influenced and advised by Buck.

For all Roman has been hammered with down the years with regards to how he built his fortune, and his issues with the UK Government, I firmly believe by and large he's been a bloody good owner. Mistakes have been made like at any club, but he's done and invested huge amounts into the wider community, the long term infrastructure of the club, built the academy and women's teams from basically nothing, brought back into the fold a host of club legends who had been banished by Ken Bates and has ensured the club have placed themselves at the forefront of charitable support and anti racism/semitism.

I'd like to think that he'll make a decision off the back of this with the whole football club in his thinking.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Blues Forever 1,232]

As announced by Bloomberg and confirmed by RMC Sport, UEFA is preparing a counterattack in the Super League. UEFA is working with investment fund to come up with new LOC that would have a starting budget of €4.5b but which could go up to €7b.

[Azul 1,615]

15 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Are you sure?

 

Yeah, Florentino the savior! Even wants to save biggest rival!

 

[chippy 342]

28 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Well this guy has a point: The argument over relegation and so on seems stupid. Do games in the NFL, MLB and so on suffer from it not being a factor? When teams don’t do so well it gives them the opportunity to rebuild without the stress they may go down. The clubs could corner the market in players, but don’t they do that anyway? 

The point about that the games will be boring is also baseless. NFL, NBA has the same teams and people still watch it. 

 

The NBA is seeing a huge decline in TV ratings in the USA. Even the finals only got about 6-7 million viewers, which is pretty abysmal from a population of 340 million.

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

9 minutes ago, chippy said:

The NBA is seeing a huge decline in TV ratings in the USA. Even the finals only got about 6-7 million viewers, which is pretty abysmal from a population of 340 million.

As someone who does not watch NBA anymore, it is largely due to only a handful of teams having the best players. Who wants to watch a entire season when you can name the teams that will be there at the end.

[Fernando 6,453]

12 minutes ago, chippy said:

The NBA is seeing a huge decline in TV ratings in the USA. Even the finals only got about 6-7 million viewers, which is pretty abysmal from a population of 340 million.

True that being said I do hope we back out of this. If we don't have Bayern, PSG and Dortmund is not that great for me. AC Milan, Arsenal are nowhere near good enough for this. 

And as many people said it feels like we are bailing out Real Madrid and Juventus for their nonsense. 

Let them figure, they might fall out of the limelight for a while like it happen with Liverpool. But they will be back eventually. 

[DDA 9,690]

It would be interesting to see how a Super League would play out for a season but if its just to save the scummy Spanish and Italian clubs.. then no.

We have the power in England... in the Prem... and we are literally bending over and pulling our pants down.

[Randomshit 10]

47 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Well this guy has a point: The argument over relegation and so on seems stupid. Do games in the NFL, MLB and so on suffer from it not being a factor? When teams don’t do so well it gives them the opportunity to rebuild without the stress they may go down. The clubs could corner the market in players, but don’t they do that anyway? 

The point about that the games will be boring is also baseless. NFL, NBA has the same teams and people still watch it. 

 

Absolutely. Would love to be like Lakers who for 10 years could not make the play off and were the worst team In the league. 

Or something like okc, who traded pg and Westbrook for a tonne of draft pick and will be shit for atleast 5 more years.

Or even better, we could do something like magic, where as we trade vucevic, Gordon, Aminu as what is the point of even staying competitive if you are not going to be winning the thing, right? 

😂😂😂

The fact that the worst aspect of American sports is now being packaged as the most enticing part of it is a joke. 

[Vesper 28,768]

Abramovich should be ashamed

Tuesday April 20 2021 Matt Law's Chelsea briefing

Owner previously beat football's cartel — he cannot now block same chance for others By Matt Law, Football News Correspondent There is a reason Roman Abramovich was not welcomed with open arms by the owners of Chelsea’s Premier League rivals back in 2003 and it had nothing to do with any strong views on Russian politics. David Dein, then vice-chairman of Arsenal, was in Monaco for the Champions League draw when he famously said: “Roman Abramovich has parked his Russian tank in our front garden and is firing £50 notes at us.” Just like the motivation behind the formation of the European Super League, the reason the established two-club Premier League elite at the time did not like Abramovich and what he stood for was purely selfish and borne out of the fear of competition. And, as it turned out, rightly so, as Chelsea have been the most successful team in English football since Abramovich dared to take on the Premier League cartel of Manchester United and Arsenal. Up until Abramovich’s arrival, only Blackburn Rovers in 1994-95 had managed to stop either United or Arsenal winning the Premier League title every season since its inception in 1992. The Premier League had pretty much been a closed shop until Abramovich came in and blew the doors open to those who could afford to and dared to challenge. It could certainly be argued that Abu Dhabi would not have bothered pumping their vast sums of money into Manchester City five years later if Abramovich had not demonstrated that United and Arsenal could be beaten. Which is why it is so disappointing that Abramovich has jumped into bed with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke, and allowed Chelsea to board the European Super League train. Levy, remember, is the man who, along with others, lobbied support from Premier League clubs to make sure Newcastle United’s proposed Saudi Arabia-backed takeover did not go ahead. Piracy and human rights issues were quoted as the reasons for the failed bid, but one can speculate that Levy did not fancy the extra competition a rejuvenated Newcastle could have posed - just as Dein and Co did not want Abramovich invading their cartel. Arsenal put all their eggs in the Financial Fair Play basket, hoping it would help to kill off the competition created by Abramovich and followed up by Manchester City and, in Europe, Paris Saint-Germain. Again, Chelsea’s millions were not welcomed by the elite, who wanted to close the gates, but by then it was too late. Tottenham are a club that have not won a trophy for 13 years or a League title since 1961 and Arsenal’s expectations have fallen off a cliff so dramatically that Mikel Arteta’s future has not come under scrutiny in a season in which they could finish in the bottom half of the table. Under Abramovich, Chelsea are a club that do not hand out bonuses for Champions League qualification or finishing second as employees of the Russian billionaire only get rewarded for winning. Club legend Frank Lampard lost his job, despite finishing fourth and reaching the FA Cup final last season and qualifying for the last-16 of the Champions League this term. Abramovich does not recognise ‘success’ in the same way Levy and Kroenke do. And yet everybody, including Tottenham and Arsenal, would be rewarded for mediocrity in a European Super League in which nobody can be relegated. Similarly, those teams would also earn far more than any of the Premier League clubs left behind, no matter how badly they might perform. By agreeing to go along with the European Super League plan, Abramovich has joined forces with those who tried so hard to stop him and is now part of a group denying others the same opportunity he grasped with both hands. That is why, even though Chelsea were not among the drivers of the Super League, Abramovich should be embarrassed and ashamed to call the likes of Levy and Kroenke allies, and why Chelsea fans, for possibly the first time of his reign, should be disappointed with the man who has already fought and beaten football’s cartel. There is still time for Abramovich and Chelsea to remember where they came from and do the right thing. Got a question on Chelsea? Get in touch on Twitter @Matt_Law_DT or by emailing [email protected]

 

[Superblue 6,370]

Clubs such as Porto and Benfica have been quick to distance themselves from rumours of joining the ESL. 

I'd be surprised with the current outcry, what other clubs would have the nerve to join this league currently. 

It could end up just 12 teams or some really watered down European clubs making up the numbers, so we'd be back to average clubs involved like the Champions League.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

I wonder if the Uefa lawyers have found out they cannot remove the current teams? Would be good news for us.

 

https://www.espn.com/soccer/uefa-champions-league/story/4365074/champions-league-semis-with-european-super-league-rebels-to-go-ahead-sources

Edited April 20, 2021 by ZAPHOD2319

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[Randomshit 10]

8 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

As someone who does not watch NBA anymore, it is largely due to only a handful of teams having the best players. Who wants to watch a entire season when you can name the teams that will be there at the end.

With the same logic, why would you even want to watch a closed league of 12 teams, specially when there is no relegation involved?

Also last year Lakers and nuggets got to the conference final in the west while Miami and Celtics fought for it in East. 

Just the last 3 nba titles has been won by all different teams - Lakers, raptors, gsw.

I will give you that gsw did build a dynasty, but atleast their dynasty was solely oit of draft picks in curry, Klay, green. I highly appreciate that over making of super teams, which is what will happen if these super rich clubs get even more rich and buy even better players. That would be the definition of repetitive champions.

 

[NikkiCFC 7,942]

29 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

As announced by Bloomberg and confirmed by RMC Sport, UEFA is preparing a counterattack in the Super League. UEFA is working with investment fund to come up with new LOC that would have a starting budget of €4.5b but which could go up to €7b.

This is essential. UEFA makes bigger budget. All good. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

1 minute ago, Randomshit said:

With the same logic, why would you even want to watch a closed league of 12 teams, specially when there is no relegation involved?

Also last year Lakers and nuggets got to the conference final in the west while Miami and Celtics fought for it in East. 

Just the last 3 nba titles has been won by all different teams - Lakers, raptors, gsw.

I will give you that gsw did build a dynasty, but atleast their dynasty was solely oit of draft picks in curry, Klay, green. I highly appreciate that over making of super teams, which is what will happen if these super rich clubs get even more rich and buy even better players. That would be the definition of repetitive champions.

 

The more I see of this Super League, I dont think it will be better than what we currently have,