It is a competition no fans wanted. It is a competition no fans has asked for. But it is a competition that Europe’s “elite” clubs have continued to push.

The European Super League.

Now the Champions League is not perfect. It has become dull. Viewing figures and match day attendances are dwindling and it is in urgent need of reform.

But the answer is not a “European Super League”.

One of the biggest problems of the Champions League is that we continually get the same teams drawing each other, year after year.

Arsenal have been drawn against Bayern Munich 4 times in the last 9 seasons, despite not playing in the competition for the last 3.

The magic of Europe for a match going fan was that you might be playing a club for the first time. And if not it might have been the first time in many years.

Being drawn against the same teams over and over again makes it less exciting.

It is the same for away games.

We all want to do a Euro Away. A few thousand of you in a city. Few beers and watch the game. But does anyone really want to go to Munich again? Or Barcelona? Or Olympiakos or Marseille?

Prior to a draw, top of my list is “a club we have not played before” as it gives me a chance to visit a new city. But with the current set up of the Champions League, it is 80% of the same teams qualifying year after year.

And it gets worse in the qualifiers. Always the same teams.

It is a competition designed to ensure that Europe’s “big” teams qualify. And in turn ensures those teams get out of their groups.

And the proposed European Super League does not solve the Champions League’s biggest flaw. In fact it makes it worse.

In last nights statement, it was announced that just 20 teams would play in the ESL. With 15 of the teams being “founder” members.

So we now have even less teams able to qualify. Even less new cities to visit.

You have too much of something and it becomes boring, and that is what is happening in the Champions League and will be accelerated in the European Super League.

The same teams playing each other every season. No thanks.

The second issue with the Champions League is that it creates a two-tier system in domestic leagues.

Those that are in the Champions League end up with around £70million more revenue a year than those not in.

That in turn allows them to buy the best players, pay the higher wages. Which keeps them at the top and makes it hard for anyone else to break in.

Leicester City and / or West Ham might break into the top 4 this season, but it will be a one off.

Only once since 2005 has the Premier League top 4 contained a team other than Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea or Tottenham.

You either have to be very well run and get lucky with transfers (Leicester City) or have a billionaire oil baron turn up and finance your way to the top (Manchester City).

On the second one, the top teams hate that as well.

They do not want new clubs disrupting the status quo. A Manchester City coming in and financing their way to the top. As this makes their leagues more competitive. They do not want a competitive league.

Whilst the Champions League usually sees the same teams qualify, it does give the opportunity for other teams to qualify through a league position.

The ESL takes that requirement away and reinforces the “haves and have nots”.

Arsenal have not qualified for the Champions League for 3 seasons. This year it will be 4.

Tottenham have been top 4 just 6 times since the Premier League was founded. And with them unlikely to make top 4 this season it will be 4 times in 10.

Liverpool went through a stage of qualifying once in 6 years during the early 2010s and Manchester United have gone from every presents to qualifying just 3 times in 7 years.

Chelsea have also missed out 3 times in the last 9 years.

AC Milan are one of the founder members of the ESL. They have not qualified for the Champions League in 7 years. Likewise Inter Milan went through a stage of qualifying once in 7 years from 2012 – 2017. Juventus are just about hanging on to 4^th place this season

Clubs are fearful of not qualifying and losing their place at the top table; and this greed is what has led to the ESL proposal.

These clubs have been pushing UEFA for some years to have “guaranteed” Champions League places regardless of league position.

They see themselves as the most important sides in the game. The ones that draw the big crowds, big viewing figures. They have the huge global places and therefore they should be compensated properly with guaranteed top level European football.

UEFA have resisted this, and correctly so. And this is their response.

The clubs are basically saying “we are bigger and more important than the rest of football. If you are not willing to guarantee us top level football and the riches they bring, we will set up our own competition”.

And it will fail.

It will fail because it does not resolve any of the problems the Champions League currently has. In fact it makes them worse.

They have over estimated the loyalty of match going fans. Fans will just stop going.

Whilst the competition might have interest from fans abroad, with them tuning into their TVs to watch – football is not a TV show. Those fans will not pump the thousands of pounds match going fans do to go week in week out.

There is a huge difference between someone in England, paying £1000 a year on a season ticket, money that goes to the club, and TV subscriptions, which again goes to the club; and fans abroad who might watch on a dodgy laptop stream and buy 2 shirts a year.

Games in front of half empty stadiums will not be a product they can easily sell to broadcasters and advertisers.

One final point is exposing a myth.

I have seen some say “but the ESL will generate more money which will allow us to buy more players”. No it will not.

Lionel Messi would already be at an ESL club. So would Kevin de Bruyne. And Cristiano Ronaldo. And so on

The founding members of the ESL already have the highest wage bills in Europe. The introduction of the ESL will not allow them to buy better players as they already have all the best players.

All the ESL will do is generate more money for less clubs. It will make rich players richer and their billionaire owners even more money.

Arsenal will not be better as a result of the ESL. It will not resolve how poorly we have been run. Same with Manchester United.

Manchester United is the perfect example.

They have the highest wage bill in England. They are a poorly run club. More money will not change that.

I hope if the clubs do go ahead with the ESL, then UEFA and the domestic leagues take a hard stance and suspend those clubs. Ban the players involved from playing for their countries. Ban them from joining other clubs.

Whilst UEFA and the Premier League might not be perfect, they are a darn sight better than having 15 teams guaranteeing huge financial windfalls for themselves and stick two fingers up at the thousands of other teams in Europe.

The European Super League. NO THANKS.

Keenos

Famous back 4 – Signed picture available now from https://t.co/vlaHeBWIC8

Photo COA from @allstarsignings pic.twitter.com/GsxfK8dOEL

— 🎗 ///SHE WORE/// 🎗 (@SheWore) March 30, 2021

Arsenal (0) 1 Fulham (0) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 18th April 2021. Kick-off time: 1.30pm

(4-2-3-1) Mat Ryan; Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Granit Xhaka; Mohamed Elneny, Dani Ceballos; Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli; Alexandre Lacazette.

Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Willian Borges da Silva, Cédric Soares, Thomas Partey, Nicolas Pépé, Calum Chambers, Pablo Marí, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah

Scorers: Eddie Nketiah (97 mins)

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 69%

Referee: Craig Pawson

Assistant Referees: Scott Ledger, Richard West

Fourth Official: Simon Hooper

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Stuart Attwell; AVAR Constantine Hatzidakis

Attendance: A maximum of 300 attendees due to UK government coronavirus restrictions

After the glorious victory over Slavia Prague in the quarter-finals of the Europa League three days ago, we are now back to our bread-and-butter matches in the Premiership, doing our normal day-to-day work and concentrating on the next game, which today just happens to be another London derby, this time against Fulham. We should forget the difference in Premiership placings, and focus in on the task in hand, which is obtaining three points; nothing less will do. Let’s go!

Within less than a minute of the start, Gabriel Martinelli almost scored when Alexandre Lacazette neatly lobbed a ball into the Fulham penalty area for him to run onto, and his subsequent flick (that went past goalkeeper Alphonse Areola) went narrowly short of the far post; this missed chance merely set the stage for our domination of the first half. A couple of minutes’ later, after even more good play by our forwards, Emile Smith-Rowe pulled the ball back for Gabriel Martinelli, and his subsequent low shot on the spin was parried away by the Fulham goalkeeper. At our end of the pitch, Mat Ryan (who replaced Bernd Leno in goal today), was brought into action when he caught a simple cross from Ivan Cavaleiro; he distributed the ball quickly and the pressure on the Fulham goal continued. Emile Smith-Rowe was unlucky not to score when his long-range shot flew over the Fulham bar after Gabriel Martinelli made a scintillating run into the visitors’ penalty area and slotted the ball across to the young Arsenal striker. Although Fulham did have their moments (including a near-miss when a wicked deflection from the inside of Rob Holding’s leg sent the ball spinning just inches from the near post, leaving Mat Ryan helpless), the lion’s share of possession was ours, and it seemed that it was a matter of time before we scored. When Mohamed Elneny brought down Ademola Lookman in the centre circle just after the half-hour mark, it was looking as if referee Craig Pawson was going to reach for a card, but thankfully he thought twice, which could have been a lucky escape. Five minutes before half-time, Dani Ceballos scored a fabulous headed goal, but unbelievably VAR decreed that Bukayo Saka’s foot was in an offside position, so the goal was cancelled out. Despite one or two good attempts on the visitors’ goal, the first half finished goalless, sadly.

Right from the restart, we were snappy and quick to the ball; in fact, Alexandre Lacazette went inches wide with a very strong shot which was passed to him after an excellent move by Dani Ceballos out on the left flank. Twice over the course of five mintues, Granit Xhaka was hurt in unfortunate tackling incidents, and after treatment, which saw him going off the pitch briefly for assistance, he returned to the fray. Nine minutes after the half-time break, Bukayo Saka broke in from the right, and as he fell awkwardly near the byline, his subsequent shot hit the outside of the post. A couple of minutes later, Craig Pawson gave a controversial penalty decision, when Gabriel just caught Mario Lemina when he made a swing for the ball inside our penalty area; despite our appeals, VAR upheld the decision, and Josh Maja scored from the spot. Immediately we came back at Fulham, and after Dani Ceballos was brought down outside the visitors’ penalty area, the resulting free-kick taken by Alexandre Lacazette bounced off the defensive wall. We played with purpose now, keen and both desperate to grab the equaliser. Hector Bellerin was unlucky not to score, when his header went inches wide; that was his last act of today, as he was replaced by Nicolas Pépé, and also Thomas Partey came on the pitch for Mohamed Elneny with twenty-two minutes of the match remaining. A couple of minutes’ later, Alexandre Lacazette went down with an injury, and was replaced by Eddie Nketiah. We applied immense pressure on the visitors’ goal, with Gabriel Martinelli going around the goalkeeper before hooking the ball across to Nicolas Pépé, whose header looked a certain goal, but Alphonse Areola got a touch and Tosin Adarabioyo cleared off the line. With Eddie Nketiah going close with a superb lob over the goalkeeper and the bar from close range (after an excellent pass by Bukayo Saka), it was starting to look like it was going to be a case of one of those days, sadly. We were pressurising Fulham with wave after wave of relentless attacks by our strikers, and it seems somehow incredible that we had not scored an equalising goal. Our frustrations started to show as the minutes ticked down towards the end of the match, and as a result, silly fouls were being committed, when in any other point of the match, that would have not been the case. With a minute to go of normal time, Gabriel Martinelli ran into the Fulham penalty area, and his strong left-footed shot was parried by Alphonse Areola, who was having the match of his life today. In the seven minutes’ injury time, we started to throw literally everything at the visitors, but luck didn’t appear to be on our side, in fact, the harder we tried, the more it started to slip away from us. Then, with seconds of the match remaining, our goalie, Mat Ryan, who came up into the Fulham penalty area as a last-ditch effort, flicked a header over to Granit Xhaka, who whacked it across the goal; Fulham goalie Alphonse Areola, completely surrounded by our players, just about got a touch but behind him was Eddie Nketiah, who did the simple task of tapping it into an empty net, and so the match finished as a draw. Thankfully.

Well, that’s it then. Back to where we were a week or so ago. And now of course, this result today merely confirms what we have expected all along, that unless we win the Europa League, it is almost certain that we won’t be playing in European competition next year. Sure, we played at a quick pace for large chunks of the match, but we petered out, giving Fulham the opportunity to make headway in the game, which they did of course, courtesy of a hotly disputed penalty. Despite all of the fine efforts by our strikers, who kept going right up until the end of the match, all we could get from a game played at home to a side that are currently languishing in the relegation area, was a draw. And Alexandre Lacazette limped off the pitch with a suspected hamstring injury. Unpredictable as ever. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Everton at the Emirates on Friday, 23rd April at 8.00pm (Premier League). Victoria Concordia Crescit

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.