Neville slams European Super League proposals and calls for points deduction

Neville is among the many not impressed by the proposals and, during commentary duty for Manchester United's hosting of Burnley at Old Trafford, hit out at those reportedly involved - including his former side.

“I’m not against the modernisation of football competitions. We have the Premier League, we have the Champions League, I don’t think anyone can deny," he told Sky Sports.

"But I think to bring forward proposals in the midst of Covid, in the midst of the economic crisis, is an absolute scandal.

"United, and the rest of the ‘Big Six’ clubs that have signed up to it, against the rest of the Premier League, should be ashamed of themselves.

“The European Super League - are Arsenal in that? They’ve just drawn with Fulham, Manchester United are drawing with Burnley.

“I can’t concentrate on the game, me, they should deduct all six teams that have signed up to it. Deduct points from them all, to do it in a season is a joke."

UEFA are due to announce their proposals for an expansion of the Champions League to 46 teams on Monday, which would come into effect from 2024.

What a wonderfully 'impartial' view certain parts of the media are presenting! The level of hypocrisy is quite incredible.

Question I have is: historic clubs? How are Spurs and Arsenal invited, and yet no Nottingham Forest, steaua bucharest, red star Belgrade, psv, Ajax, feyenoord or any German clubs for that matter?

The issue here is of course money. The current format is simply unsustainable. TV money and the globalisation of the sport is at the heart of the problem. Clubs in England for example could literally do nothing on the pitch but still pick up 100m per season. Money that the top Spanish clubs and those in serie a miss out on.

I love how they suddenly want to talk about the 'working man's game' and it being a power grap! Brilliant. As if the top clubs in England have helped or tried to reduce the price of tickets despite the amount of money they make each season!

Long story short. Legally, neither UEFA, FIFA or respective leagues will have a leg to stand on if they decide to ban players from competing in the respective leagues or international competitions.

I'm not personally all for the super league but I'll also like to see what it will bring. That instead of automatically being against change like these dinosaurs.

what are you on man, how can you not see this as being just another step away from competitiveness? and legally UEFA and FIFA are DEFINITELY allowed to ban players from playing in their tournaments. you are deluded if you think otherwise. UEFA and FIFA wouldn't even have to "ban" by the normal definition of banning. They can just say they aren't eligible to play according to whatever rule they choose to make. They are the governing bodies and they literally can make rules to say that those who play in those competitions are doing something illegal. Just as in every contract a player has that says that they are only allowed to play for the team they are signing with, players/clubs have contracts with the associations and governing bodies.
They've already announced that they will ban those teams who compete in the super league from their European tournaments. At this point its just a standoff - because UEFA and FIFA also know that if the super league (and the players from those teams) decides to play chicken with UEFA and FIFA and don't play in their tournament, people will potentially lose interest and lose commercial revenue. Meanwhile the super league has to get their clubs/players to back their position with the fallout being that they can't play in World cups or major tournaments with a very limited career, its going to be hard to convince players to do that.

I would actually love to see a stand off for the first year and see all those teams disqualified from the champion's league and everything and see an exodus of players from those teams moving to smaller teams and spread the competitiveness around, that would seriously be such an amazing thing.

Football needs competitiveness at its base, even if FIFA and UEFA haven't really been worrying about that for a while now because they are corrupt and greedy themselves, this super league removes that last bit of competitiveness and last hope for those glorious moments fans live for. This kills the teams who aren't invited to it. Imagine supporting Everton for instance and now never having a chance to compete for glory. How can you not see this killing off football. Football doesn't work if the top teams have a monopoly on the fans because it becomes uninteresting.

Really naïve view on how this would turn out milanlamiacazzo. Change is fine, this is much more than change though.

The best possible outcome from this move is that UEFA and FIFA get a wakeup call and realise that if they want to fight this, they need to look at themselves and become what they are now fighting for; competitiveness.

Yet another non-European with zero clue as to the rules around labor, right to work, and the regulations that govern them. Such rules and regulations override any company, organization, or Association. It might be worth for you to read up a little as to the rules and regulations that govern the right to work on this continent before you A. pretend to support a European team and B. talk utter tripe.

A sovereign state that is outside the European economic area can make amendments to rules and regulations that are approved through its parliament. But that rule only applies to within its borders. This though doesn't apply to football as the competitions are continental and not restricted within its borders. So any unilateral decision to treat the 'top 6' differently will have the premier league / the UK government at odds with the right-to-work regulations when it comes to its clubs competing on the continental stage.

It might be best to stick to cricket or rugby related discussions, fella.

I'm surprised how so many people are against it. Its much more exciting to watch the best clubs from each league face eachother every week instead of waiting for them to meet over many years. The current leagues have become predictable and boring as the same top clubs are always dominating them.
Now we get a real chance at seeing which league is truly superior with the European league.

I'm even more happy as we The Arsenal deserve to be among the top clubs competing with eachother. The following proves why:
1) the only team to go invincible in a 38 game season
2) we have the 3rd most league trophies
3) our long streak of not missing out on champions league qualification more than any English team.
4) most fa Cup trophies

It's good that its based on money because it wouldn't be exciting if clubs who couldn't afford top players could join the league.

Milanlamiavita.... You could have easily presented your point, knowledge or otherwise, without the dig at him not being from Europe. There is no "the only true fan allowed" position and your comment is akin more to bigotry. The topic is interesting and I know, I would like to learn more, so I save my opinion, but I am American, so I assume my voice is irrelevant to you?

Being American is not a football handicap, I promise you. I won't know the complete ins and outs of the contracts binding teams to the rules and regulations or the politics involved in governance, but I know the game quite well.

Greatone gave an opinion, and should it be wrong, help educate for better understanding. Where he lives, and who he supports should not be a factor as football is a global game, not reserved just for Europeans.

That said, I am really interested in how all of this could play out. A "Super League" has been talked about for a very long time, and the impact would be a landscape change for sure.

Personally, I would love to see the current Champions League revamped a bit, with added teams on a more global scale. Each respective league has its qualifiers, just like today, but you introduce other continents. The Club World Cup is a bit of a joke, in my opinion, so mix the two, and you can get a beauty of a world club competition.

Sure Euro teams would dominate, but I have seen some nasty Brazilian or Argentinean teams throughout the years, and always wondered how they would fare in a true world competition.

@Darthfooty.

The new 36 team champions league format is due to be announced this week.

Greatone can be excused because he comes from a place that is built on mistreatment, skewed laws and land stealing. I don't expect him to understand the legal challenges faced if a mere footballer isn't allowed to ply his / her trade. These would have been the same dinosaurs who would've barked when Bosman tried to free himself from the shackles of being treated like a commodity by his football club.

@Footy-watch.

This isn't the 'English super league'. This is the European super league. I know Arsenal have won things at home. But if they're invited, then so should clubs with much richer history at the European top table. Nottingham forest, PSV, Ajax, Porto, Benfica etc.

There aren’t many clubs that contributed historical more than Forest. First to wear colours, first to wear shin pads. First to test offside, first to test ref whistle. You also have the likes of Everton who have won the league more than Chelsea, city and Spurs.

Had to come back to the forum to see how the football fanbase was reacting to this madness.

I'll keep it brief in terms of my opinion..
This is the single worst sports related venture I've seen in my life, can't really understand how some people can back it up.
The implications of this league bein implemented are enormous and could be the end of the sport as we know it.
Thankfully It is very unlikely for it to go through as it stands right now.

What do you guys think? With all things considered, would you like to see this competition/format implemented?

'The implications of this league being implemented are enormous and could be the end of the sport as we know it.
Thankfully It is very unlikely for it to go through as it stands right now.'

😂😂😂

Clubs were chosen not because of their performance, but of their revenue ( Leicester is better than Arsenal in any regard). Plus if this competition is meant to be generating for cash inflow for the firms, don't they forget that the financial fair play has been scrapped, and that in a couple of months the clubs will be able to host fans. The real disgrace was during the midst of the pandemic, April 2020, they fired staffers while sitting on big cash reserves. And then they prance around and they say 'We love our NHS', bad comedy.

This competition will lower the value of watching a Real Bayern compared to before for example. I wasn't against nations league, but this new thing is stupid.

Question I have is: historic clubs? How are Spurs and Arsenal invited, and yet no Nottingham Forest

Arsenal is 3rd most successful club in England, even Spurs got double the trophies of Nottingham.

I'm surprised how so many people are against it.

Because it would ruin all the leagues? What's the point of having Premier League without Arsenal, Chelsea, Man. United, Man. City, Spurs? La Liga without El Clasico? I can understand 400 million entry money for these clubs is good deal, but fuck off. As Neville stated, there should be massive fines, I don't really care if they relegate us at this point, it's absolutely disgusting. Glad to see PSG, Bayern and Borussia being against it. It' a disgrace, but so is UEFA. Sport created by poor, stolen by rich.

lmao, you absolute classic ignorant, I lived in Europe playing football for 10 years, obviously I know nothing about football in Europe. Spent 3 years in Italy and there were so many that were just as ignorant as you; "the only opinion that counts is my own or someone who is exactly like me" You genuinely know nothing about me yet you've formed an entire opinion based on your own preconceptions. No one assumed anything about you until you decided to show to us how you are as a person.

In terms of not being able to make adjustments. In case you haven't noticed which you clearly mustn't have or otherwise you are just a fool (but I will give you the benefit of the doubt) the leagues themselves have said they will be combatting this with everything they have got. Notice the big ass statement from the La Liga president. THEY can govern themselves and just because FIFA can't tell each league specifically what to do, doesn't mean each country's league can't do what they want with their own country's clubs. To top it off. FIFA can not allow people for their own competitions: CWC and World Cup. UEFA can disallow players/clubs for their own competitions; Europa league, Champions league. How dumb are you to think that the governing bodies don't have control over their own competitions ahaha.

For those that are for it. You have to actually think about the game as a whole. The game is based on its fans. If the fans start to lose interest then the money which everyone knows football revolves around will dry up quick. If all the money and fans are with the top teams then the smaller teams or teams that aren't in the Super league will struggle. You have to think that there will be a knock on effect to that. The bigger teams usually get their best players from the smaller teams (there really aren't THAT many home grown talents in a squad of 25-30)

Of course it would be amazing to see these teams play against each other constantly. But that'll be short term. When Real Madrid vs Juventus becomes commonplace it'll soon become trivial. So why not do the world cup every year? I don't see anyone calling for that, because it diminishes the memorability, the high-stakes environment that football needs to get the best spectacle for the fans.

Don't be naïve, don't be like Milanlamiastronzo ;)

@expertfootball11 agreed, wholeheartedly, it's a decision based entirely on non-footballing reasons by businessmen

People thinking this is a good idea. You're all pre-teen, twats, who knows nothing about the importance of sustaining the good sportmanship, competitive nature that we currently have in European football. Out of all my days of sticking by this club, this one's going to be the absolute last straw for me. I don't want to watch us playing against the likes of Real Madrids, PSGs, Juventus, etc, on a weekly basis. That's what playing in the CL is for, hence the prestige around being in the goddamn tournament. This is just a pathetic quick-fix of an idea that naive kids cry for, which actually shows how disappointing reality really is. End of.

I get that all clubs have been financially crucified from the pandemic, but sometimes there are moral grounds that need to be taken in order to get things back on its feet - this pathetic idea of a so-called "elites" club will leave a huge scar in football's name, should it actually go along. There is nothing but greed and dollar bills written all over this shit.

I'm all for punishing the club by deducting points in their league table. I just actually can't believe that people in this forum are entertaining this move. You're all fked in the head.

Quite confident they havent been 'financially crucified' except for a few, plus as I said, end of FFP + fans will return quite pronto.

well that's who they are aiming at iHeartfootball. The kids and the people who pretend to like a team. The "untapped market"

"think of all the potential money!" /s

Aw here we go. The classic 'I was in Italy for 2 weeks and played 5 a side football in the park'. Interesting how you speak of ignorance and yet somehow didn't pick up much knowledge relating to the right to work and the rules that govern them. All you learnt was cazzo and stronzo. What next? Tell us that the ball should be egg shaped or we should have stumps instead of goals?

@expertfootball11. FFP? Both man City and Psg were due to be banned from competing in European competitions due to effective money laundering, but ultimately the powers that be cowered repealed the bans. FFP is only there to punish the smaller teams or the ones who actually want to follow rules. UEFA has already shown that in order to make these clubs happy, they're prepared to change the rules they put in place to combat mismanagement and overspending.

@iheartfootball.

Moral ground? Haha. Moral ground, smaller clubs, the plight of clubs further down the pyramid, working man's game...!

The cheek to suddenly use such arguments.

What moral ground? Even before the pandemic, 90 percent of clubs in the Premier League made so much money that they could've effectively not allowed a single fan into stadiums and still make profit. Go and look it up.

Moral ground? The price of tickets to watch premier league games continue to increase, despite clubs making more and more money each season. Why wasn't Gary Neville crying about that prior to this news?

Arsenal went and sacked a poor mascot all the while they were paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to players who weren't even in the matchday squad.

Just look at the amount of clubs who have suffered bankruptcy over the past few seasons and decade. Why wasn't the pyramid able to jump to their rescue if it was such a successful system?

Moral ground? Chelsea are owned by a conman, man City are owned by a country at the centre of extensive human rights abuses and of course money laundering. Umpteenth number of takeovers have happened involving shady shareholders. And you are talking of morals and ethics? brilliant.