The European Super League – Trying to make sense of why Arsenal led the way

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First of all let me preface this piece by saying I’m not “in favour” of the proposed European Super League. In principle I’m fully against the idea. However, I’m about to try and make sense of Arsenal’s position in the middle of it all and why it’s possibly the “right” (bear with me) thing to do. I’ve also laid out some stark warning signs for us at the bottom of this piece.

Let’s just cover off one of the important things here – every other Premier League club would have signed-up to this if given the opportunity. Leeds United’s cheap PR trick with their t-shirts trying to embarrass Liverpool Football Club last night was crass, coming as it did from a club which spent 16 years outside the top division, and bankrupted themselves, having tried to crack the Premier League and Europe by spending money they didn’t have – by which I mean they were a prime example of the greed and spending that has put football in this position in the first place. Sky and the other broadcasters can do one too as their opposition is purely based on the potential loss of their own cash-cows knowing Amazon and the clubs would blow them out of the water when the TV rights are franchised.

So what about Arsenal? Why should they be in this? The fact is, in my view, that Arsenal needed to be part of this in order to try and dine at the top table from here on. We are way behind the 8-ball when compared to Chelsea, Man City, Barcelona and Real Madrid (and PSG) because our billionaire owner (or the King of Spain in certain cases) does not bankroll us. Some supporters lament that fact and some take it as a badge of honour that Arsenal try to compete without “buying” success outright. Strategically, Arsenal’s position in the middle of this whole thing has to be a “good” move to secure our position. If it all goes up in smoke we’re not really any worse off, and we’re also well placed to do well out of any compromise that might be reached. On the other hand, if it does go ahead, it’s far more important to be inside this particular tent than looking on enviously.

Is that “fair” on other clubs? Is that “good for football” in general? I’d say it’s not, but football is big business which makes it a cutthroat industry, whether we supporters like it or not, and if Arsenal are to remain relevant (by which I mean not being a West Ham or an Everton, for example) they have to be involved at the very start of things. 

Of course the big losers all across the piece will be supporters. It opens up the new league to games being played all round the world for a genuinely global audience. The term “legacy fan” has started to be used. What an insult that is. Where do these “legacy” supporters fit in? The fact is we don’t, because our clubs are literally owned by individuals, most of them geographically (never mind philosophically) distanced from the entity over which they preside. They are not custodians, they are investors – certainly in the case of the Kroenke family. Investors want to make money, not spend it. The “legacy fans” do not necessarily spend a fortune in the online shop, or buy expensive PPV TV subscriptions. The new worldwide fanbases do.

This is a massive crossroads moment for football, where the chance exists to reform or remove UEFA and FIFA (something I consider to be a pretty decent option, incidentally, especially if it means ending the farcical “international level” of the game) but at the cost perhaps of something quite fundamental to the game and the people who follow it. 

It’s also a massive crossroads moment for Arsenal and Stan Kroenke. While I think we’re better off in this small and unpopular group at the moment, the problem for us is what does Stan do if it goes pear-shaped? We know he’s not putting his money into Arsenal either way. But will he just sell up for a profit, and who would that be to? Or will he punish those who will have derailed his investment by running Arsenal into the ground, selling off the assets as he goes? 

If you think the European Super League is a scary proposition, just imagine Arsenal once it had been asset-stripped by an owner who holds no affiliation to us whatsoever. This is the hand we have found ourselves dealt, so for the moment I’m going to sit and wait and see how this pans out. If I was a betting man I’d say there’ll be a compromise that mostly suits the 12 clubs first and foremost. One thing for certain is that UEFA, the Premier League, Sky, BBC, BT Sport etc, need the clubs more than the owners of the clubs need those organisations.

Note: This blog was written prior to last nights announcement that all 6 English teams had pulled out

Dover Marksman

ESL Would Have Killed the Premier League Star

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The latest scheme from greedy owners was either a massive chicken run with UEFA or would have actually changed football for a very long time. So let’s look at the actual changes that were proposed and where we would have been in a year or so, not just the ESL but more importantly the Premier League.

Arsenal are playing midweek European games in the ESL, Tuesdays & Wednesdays, usual times, no change there.

We’ve just been beaten at home by Barca 3-1, we lost in Munich 2-0 last week. Next week we play Inter away, where we need a win to keep our hopes of reaching the last 16 knockout round alive. No change there.

We’re playing in a cup competition that we have no chance of winning, but we no longer have to worry about qualifying for it again next season via the Premier League. Woah, massive change.

For the good? Well, a lot of us are fed up of playing Europa League teams who are not really at the top level (ironic, yes). Whilst it was intriguing for a while, the only real appeals were that the young players get more game time and a few thousand fans get a trip abroad to new places. I guess the biggest plus point should be that we are now in our 3rd semi in 4 seasons, so this is obviously a competition we can win. But from a financial point of view, Europa League football is only holding the club back, our participation each year & the hit to our wallet just keeps making it harder for us to get back in the Champions League and to also try to get back to challenging for the Prem title. With Stan in charge, we absolutely must get that CL money coming back in, as please remember, one of the richest men in football has not given a single dollar to this club from his own funds.

In the last few years of our qualification, there was a lot of moaning about the Champions League. Yes, the group stages were fine, some decent teams, some “farmers”, but Euro nights under the lights are great evenings, even at the Emirates. But it’s only when you get past the group stage that it gets lively and you play the big teams.

Unfortunately, our decline and regularly getting drawn against Barca or Bayern, where we would get beaten quite soundly, normally with the usual heroic attempt at fighting back in the 2nd leg, became tedious. Especially when we were promised by Ivan that “we’d be competing with Bayern within a few years” back in 2013.

So why do we think it will be any different in the ESL? You play 10 different teams, 5 at home, 5 away. Now if you look at the original 12 and the 3 added likely to be PSG, Bayern and Dortmund, how many of those teams would we currently give a game? On our day, we can beat a lot of them, if the planets are aligned, but generally speaking you’d say Spurs, Milan, Inter would be as far as my Paddy Power money would go. The extra 5 teams invited each season? Who knows what criteria is picking them, so maybe we’d have some chances there. But reality is, finishing in the top 8 would be tough, so then we get a 9th-16th knockout round, unless we really are complete bobbins and miss out completely! Get through that, and you’re playing one of the top 8 teams. I have a familiar sense of Déjà vu creeping in now.

But we’d have all that extra money I hear you say, which means better players because we can pay higher fees and wages. Well yes, but so can every other team in the ESL.

Our star has diminished greatly over the last few seasons. We still have London to offer, but who do you think the really top players will join? One of the now even richer big Euro clubs, who have a chance of progressing and maybe winning the ESL, or one of the teams who have snuck in the side door and won’t really challenge beyond possibly the last 8? We will be relying on Hale End and buying hungry young players to mount any kind of challenge.

We’d have better players to play in the Premier League (No, we will not be thrown out, the PL may be a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them), I agree, but so will the other 5 ESL members.

Yeah, ok, but it will make qualification for the Champions League so much eas…….Oh.

Yes, now we come to our bread & butter as was, the domestic season. The PL will only really be about winning it for the 6 ESL clubs now, the positions between 2nd and 17th become fairly irrelevant, which may be a good thing for us. Assuming the ESL money gives the big 6 the power to solidify those positions, the battle for Champions League places, where Leicester, West Ham, Wolves and Villa fight it out for the coveted 7th to 10th spots will I’m sure be fascinating for the global football market.

The problem with that is, if you cannot win the title and you don’t need to qualify for Europe, what’s the point in the Premier League? Try to imagine, it’s late March and we’ve just been knocked out of the ESL by Madrid. We’re in 5th place, 12 points behind City who are top, and our next 3 games are Villa and Wolves away, followed by Brighton at home. How much effort are the players, now taking home £200k a week on average, going to put in for these games when there is nothing riding on them? The rest of the league has been compressed, so they are now fighting for European places or to avoid going down, so they will mostly have something to play for all season. Not sure I really want to imagine what kind of displays and results that may lead to, but again, Déjà vu rears its head.

There’s no relegation from the ESL either, so this cycle just repeats itself, season after season. A few years of this and I can really see getting up at 7am on a Sunday, to travel to Burnley for a meaningless PL game to not quite seem as attractive as it used to be. For the big 6, the Premier League is done and dusted, except for those still battling to actually win it. The ESL will probably mean there will never be another Leicester. If those outside the ESL don’t need to beat the top 6 sides to get in the Champions League anymore, what will it mean for those games?

For the ESL teams it will exist to give them what could more or less be a 6 team 38 game tournament, ensuring the players are kept ticking over at the weekends & a public relations commitment to making the PL still seem “the most exciting league in the world”.  For the fans it will be 38 games that will never be what it was in the past. The bread & butter of a football club will be side-lined, purely so the mega rich who own the ESL clubs can try to milk the cow for every single drop it can get.

Now, there will be plenty who say that if was a genuine attempt to set up the ESL and not just sabre rattling to get UEFA to change their revamped 2024 CL plans to something more attractive to the big clubs, then there is nothing that fans can do about it (editor: fans have proved those people wrong).

Others will have written about various things that UEFA, the domestic leagues, the governments can attempt to do, so I’m not going to bother with that, as most of them, bar the politicians, have shown themselves to be just as greedy & disregarding of the fans in the past leading to the creation of their own monster, which ironically is just about to try and kill them all. I only care about the fans.. And the politicians show greed to the country.

If you really feel it is a fait accompli and there is nothing that can be done, fair enough, I know there are plenty that warned us all many years ago that this would happen, that Kroenke was only ever in this for one thing and that was never about primarily winning major honours. Many of them will not get involved now, they were abused when they protested in the past, so I really do not blame them. I have been involved in protests that have not achieved their objectives, but I have also been involved in protests that have worked, so there is never a reason to assume that fans have no voice.

If the fans do nothing, that is exactly what we will get. If we try to mobilise & at least voice our concerns, in whatever way possible; online through words & attacking clubs & sponsors etc, or at the grounds with visuals and voices, then at least we will have tried to do something. After all, we are the moral guardians who are supposed to be the ones who care most about the game right?

So, you can sit in the lounge on the Titanic, enjoying a last smoke and a brandy, or you can try to find a way off the ship and on to some debris to try and survive. We may all still end up like Leo, but at least you can say you tried to do something, take some pride in that. You never know, maybe we will all end up like Kate!

Note: This was written prior to last nights announcement that all 6 English reams had pulled out following fan pressure

Mark King

Greed is not just a disease of the “Big 6” – it is a disease of the modern game

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Last year whilst in the Championship, Leeds United were charging away fans £39.

At the same time the Premier League capped away tickets at £30. Arsenal subsidised this further for their own fans, reducing the price to just £26.

And that is why I feel uncomfortable when Leeds United ran out yesterday with “FOOTBALL IS FOR THE FANS”.

Whilst the “Greedy Six” clubs who have proposed the European Super League should be criticised; other Premier League clubs should not take the morale high ground. They would all jump at the chance to play in the ESL if invited.

If the ESL was formed 20 years ago and Leeds United were invited to join, they would not have turned it down. The club literally bankrupt itself chasing Champions League money.

A West Ham United fan on social media tweeted that the “soul has been ripped out of football”. Just 2 years ago their fans were protesting that they soul have been ripped out of West Ham as the club moved to the London Stadium.

David Sullivan and David Gold are no better than Stan Kroenke or the Glaziers.

In 10 years time, with Alisher Usmanov and Farhad Moshiri financing the club, Everton could have replaced Spurs in the “Big 6”. Would they oppose the ESL then if they were in position to join?

Newcastle, like West Ham, have spent the last 4 or 5 years (maybe more) protesting their owner. Labelling him as greedy. By now pointing at the Greedy Six, they are begging to accept their own owners behaviour.

Football is greedy from the top down.

FIFA and UEFA are the head of the snake. The rest of the continental federations follow so behind.

They pretend to be acting “in the best interests of football” but the reality is they act in the best interests of themselves.

That is why we have ended up with World Cup’s in Russia and Qatar, and a European final in Baku.

Just 5 years ago, both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were banned from football for 8 years after a 2m Swiss francs payment by Blatter to Platini.

A total of 18 individuals were indicted following the 2015 corruption scandal.

These included the President of CONCACAF, the President of CONMEBOL, the Former President of the Brazilian Football Confederation and the Former President of Football Federation of Chile.

A second round indicted a further 18 individuals.

UEFA are not against a European Super League. They are against themselves not running a European Super League.

In their last accounts, UEFA generated £3.8billion. Much of it through the Champions League and selling TV rights.

Whilst much of this money goes to clubs across the continent and beyond, a lot of it ends up in the pockets of UEFA officials.

In 2018, UEFA announced that its president Aleksander Ceferin earns a pre-tax salary of 1.56 million Swiss francs ($1.64 million) for 2016/17.

Ceferin’s pay in 2016/17 is similar to FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s 1.53 million francs ($1.61 million) salary in 2017. FIFA also said Infantino is eligible and also receives living expenses.

Football allows these men to live a life of luxury. Staying in the most expensive suites in the most expensive hotels. Eating in the most expensive restaurants. And all expensed through their organisation.

And the next level is no better.

The Premier League was literally set up as a break away from the Football Association and Football League to make more money, and to funnel more it those at the top.

Every club in the Premier League owns a single share. An equal voting right. The Premier League’s greed is the greed of its members. The clubs.

So whether you are Arsenal or Manchester United, Aston Villa or Leeds, Burnley or Sheffield United. All support the greed of the Premier League.

And then you have Sky.

Sky are no better than the federations. They do not care about fans.

It is all well and good Gary Neville ranting about the European Super League, how it could kill football and it is not thinking about the fans. But where is his voice when Arsenal have to travel to Liverpool for a 5:30pm kick off on a Saturday with no trains home after the game?

Where is Carragher’s voice when Sky schedule Brighton v Newcastle on a Monday night? Fans having to travel the length of the country and take 2 days off work just to follow their club.

Sky (and BT and all other media outlets) do not care about fans. They only care about profits.

And then we have the players.

Whilst many players have spoken out against the ESL, how many of them are going to refuse to re-sign a new contract with their club? Or look into cancelling their current contract?

If Manchester City come in for Patrick Bamford or Matty Cash this summer, both players will sign on the dotted line.

So let’s stop trying to take a moral high ground.

Premier League clubs outside the Greedy Six would jump at the chance to join the ESL.

UEFA and FIFA have both tried in the past to expand their own tournaments to generate more money

Sky Sports do not care about fans

The only reason these bodies are complaining is because they were not allowed to be involved in the set up of the ESL. They fear it could damage their own finances. And that is what they care about.

So please, no more T-Shirts from Leeds. No more Aston Villa tweets. Stop pointing at others greed when you are no better.

Keenos