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Barcelona are in serious shit debt wise (as are Real and Milan), I think for them, this was a last desperate attempt to keep on living in the fashion to which they have become accustomed. Unless another scheme emerges, they are very soon going to have to face the cold hard reality of living within their means. I suggest a few seasons of Russel Slade to clear out the big earners and start afresh.
This is important, as we are in danger of falling back on a 'new version' of the Champions League, that isn't that far away from what the ESL was suggesting. Qualification for big clubs who didn't make it the proper way, seems like a closed shop to me.
I did think for a while that the ESL was just a smokescreen. Big fuss over ESL, gradually calms down, UEFA steps in, everyone breathes a sigh of relief that football has been saved, and meanwhile the big clubs get exactly what they were after in the first place - perpetual and unopposed qualification.
Perez thinks it isn't over yet, it's merely "on standby"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56842442
I was thinking what happens now? To hear Pep talking last night you’d think things were now back to normal and things can carry on as before - I hope not and I think not. Florentino Perez certainly doesn’t think so and I bet those men who made grovelling apologies in the last couple of days to the “legacy fans” they were prepared to ride roughshod over on Sunday don’t either.
I think back to the punishment meted out to Wigan last season because of the actions of people who saw that club as merely a money making exercise and struggle to see a difference between that and what those who
were both stupid and arrogant enough to not see that their declaration that they were dropping everyone else in it to go off and form their own free from relegation megabucks competition while also declaring that they will carry on in their domestic leagues would not be accepted as some sort of fait accompli did -these people need to be driven out of football,
I think it's quite simple, punish our clubs - 20 point deduction would make next seasons PL an absolute cracker. Let RM, Barca, Juve crack on with whatever shit they're up to - if it gets off the ground and is successful I think it would be something far removed form football, you've got the Juve president banging on about Fortnite and such.. I don't see them attracting much support to some second rate mediterranean friendly tournament unless they completely re-invent the game - then they wouldn't be footballs concern.
It's difficult to imagine the six starting the season on negative points but if not then they're asking for it all to happen again one day.
I doubt anything will happen to the clubs in the form of deducting points or fines. Morally I think everyone wants to chase the owners out of town as angry mobs but technically and legally now all the clubs have retracted, I think the prem will serve some sort of minor slap on the wrists, remind them of the rule book and have a "don't do this again" finger waving conversation like school teachers.
There will be big enquiries within the premier league and Uefa however, trust has been flushed down the toilet so expect regulators now to be brought in accross football.
Big changes ahead which everyone has said is needed for years, so if anything this will accelerate it now and FIFA and UEFA need to address major issues within. Financial fair play is a joke for a start. Going to be an interesting few months and years.
On another note I can totally understand fans of the clubs reactions, we have been crapped on before by owners.
However them all asking for these owners to get out and move on is ludicrous and probably hot headed without thinking.
The owners own all major stock worth billions. Unless the owner of Amazon, Microsoft or the royal family of Brunei plan to buy that stock and control, unfortunately they are stuck with those owners for a very long time.
And before this, Glazers and Kroenke aside, the liverpool, spurs, man city and chelsea fans absolutely loved their owners and investments they have produced.
They need to be careful what they wish for as these owners most probably have the power to turn out the lights. They have admitted they dropped a major bollock, they need to work on fan relationships now. Those 4 clubs have had massive investment, none in the red financially.
Amazing words from Perez. Every sentence is devoid from reality.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...-far-from-dead
the whole exercise was a classic example of a failure of project management.
they didn't engage their key stakeholders:
fans, players and the governing body.
with some ground work and a few concessions they could probably have won enough of each of those groups over to get this through.
it's often said that Manchester city's ownership is for "geopolitical reasons" so getting involved in something as deeply unpopular as this would be completely contrary to the entire point of it. of course if It happened they wouldn't want. to be left out in the cold, Im not surprised they weren't keen.
I didn't understand why they kept sending Perez forward as spokesperson, everything he says is utterly ridiculous
“The owners are mostly not English. They’re not in it to make money, they have teams in America, love sport and they found themselves in a position they didn’t expect. They’re old, they got scared,”
That’s not true. There was a lot of sympathy for the fans of both clubs. The difference is that there were already rules in place (voted for by the clubs themselves) regarding punishments for going into administration. I’m not sure if there are any rules in place regarding the ESL nonsense. It would be right and proper for these clubs (and especially their owners and executives) to be punished in some way, but it’ll be difficult for the authorities if they haven’t broken any of the current rules.
It's almost like it was just an idea they had recently, thought they would test the response and were completely blown away by the negativity.
They didn't have any in depth details, no website, no real idea on who the other 3 founders would be, no pr machine at all.
It's like there was a few zoom calls and when Perez asked if they should announce it now he pretended they were on mute.
As much as a lot of football roles are filled by way of cronyism and are massively unqualified these are still billionaires who know how to make money, with such presentation though this naturally wouldn't have lasted long anyway.
All that money and business experience and they didn't even bother to buy the oil for the pr machine.
I fail to see it as anything but a stunt that backfired completely.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsNews/st...605757954?s=19
this is kinda hard to believe
An interesting take on things by David Conn, particularly the view that the Government might be in the mood to make Premier League club owners pay over things like their reaction to Covid.
https://www.theguardian.com/football...-save-the-game