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.

Football fans should give it a chance, it sounds like it would be entertaining. I hope the top teams from every league joins. It would be even better to have a World Cup league consisting of the top clubs from the best leagues in the world

Football fans should give it a chance, it sounds like it would be entertaining. I

What's the point of having Champions League?

It would be even better to have a World Cup league

What's the point of having World Cup then?

question is .... will u still support ur fav team if this comes to pass

It still sounds like an upgrade to the champions league.
The reasoning for the outrage of fans is flawed as football was overtaken by money many years ago. It seems like most fans have been in denial of this fact and still are. I'm good with either outcome, good football and competition is the only thing that matters as a fan

good football and competition is the only thing that matters as a fan

Bigger team playing more often doesn't egal good football though. On the paper, Barca vs Juventus or Real vs Manchester City sound like treat but if it happen between 2 to 6 times a year, its gonna start to lose of its flavour. Especially if one team is in an advantageous position in their group and play defensively for the whole 90 min. More group match games isn't exactly what I would call an upgrade from what we got in the CL.

Also, the fact is that the CL is gonna change to have more games as well in the near future mean one thing, the number of match the players will have to play will explode. Big team will have lots more of injuries and team who don't participate in the super league will propably have large advantage in CL since they will play much less game.

But the worst part for me is the whole 15 club that founded the league and 5 club invited depending on their performance on the previous years... This mean the 15 clubs that founded the super league will alway be able to play in it, no matter if they play terrible football and somehow end up relagated in second division.

As for the 5 invited clubs, without any criteria being clearly established, it really feel like the direction of the league could just pick whoever they fancy and since their basically the different club owner of the 15 clubs who found the league, they could play favorite and pick teams they appreciate over teams they lost against in CL or something similars. No prove its gonna be like that, but that how it sound as of now.

If that wasn't enough, the menace of European team players who are part of a team playing the super league could miss out on playing for their national teams... That would be terrible for some of them. I mean, imagine England without Kane, Sterling, Rashford, Macguire, Stones, etc... My point is, it would make a lot of natioanal team weaker in international competition.

All in all, I get their goal is mostly to make more money and not particularly to hurt european football as a whole but the way things are going, it feel like they will only suceed in causing a division between them and the rest of footballs teams that won't participate.

@footy_watch just because we are at a bad point already with money taking over football, doesn't mean that it should be allowed to continue down that dark road
@algerino boycotting requires all the casuals who don't care enough about it to suddenly care enough to boycott it. It's a shame but it's like EA and FIFA, they keep releasing the same crap and the people who care might boycott but never enough for EA to care. I really doubt the fans boycotting will be numerous enough to affect this whole thing

It still sounds like an upgrade to the champions league.

How is this upgrade to Champions League? We are one of the funding clubs playing absolute shit football, with even worse results. 15 permanent teams which can play absolute crap and still be in the competition? It's a joke.

Of course I'm not surprised by the fact that we are in with our greedy owner who hasn't been on Emirates for like 5 years, not caring about values of the club. Ever since AW left our club which was defined as a classy one turned into absolute piece of crap. Whenever it was firing the mascot, firing people from the staff and then you stand up and get 350 million injection, relegate us, put us at the bottom of the leagues like they did with Rangers, do it with every single club.

Put Villareal and AS Roma in the EL final, give PSG title, absolute rubbish.

Is there any other sport you like to watch?

"Qatar has made a great implementation in human rights. The 2022 World Cup will be the best in history." - Infantinto

lol fuck off, UEFA is mad that someone else will be getting more rich than this corrupt mafia

Reading this thread was interesting. A lot of passion, as there should be when giants of the game are saying this will end the sport as we know it.

I don't really provide hot takes on this forum anymore, but my initial reaction was one of disgust. Forget the big arguments, but for starters I just like the game the way it is now and am wary of change. Once I got over that I looked deeper, and found some genuinely awful clauses, such as protection for founding members, etc.

I don't want this and I'm not happy it's been tabled.

That said.

Based off of who signed on, it's pretty clear that every European team who is financially of a certain size signed up with the exception of PSG (whose entire existence is soft diplomacy to Europe from Qatar), and Bayern, who literally couldn't due to 50+1. Every other team that met the standard signed on. This is not about individual teams, leagues, or even footballing cultures. This is about some of the richest people in the world trying to protect their investments by bypassing the risks associated in the ever-turning wheel of European soccer. In the business world, this is an absolute no-brainer, and I've said on here for years that because of that it was inevitable.

There has been a large backlash against the so-called "Americanization" of European soccer and how it's resulted in this outcome. For those who are unaware, this isn't how American sports operate. The big four, particularly the NFL and NHL, and to a smaller extent the NBA, have reverse-order drafts, hard salary caps, and other measures designed to ensure PAIRTY. There is no such measure in anything I can see to ensure parity in the super league. That's not an Americanization, that's just billionaires covering their asses.

So some of the richest people in the world are screwing over passionate fans to get more rich. For European soccer, this isn't news, and one could argue (and have argued in various scholastic endeavors) that a super league, if created, could be traced back to the breakaway of Premier League clubs in 1992 from the Football League. This breakaway was opposed by most in the game at the time, saying that this would result in the English pyramid being top heavy, and they were proved right. Mainstays in the Premier League don't get relegated, and teams that get promoted have a tough time staying up. It's often said colloquially that the worst place for a club to be is in the Championship and without parachute payments, as the difference in financial potential, for some teams, is as much as x50.

But what was the outcome? We all watched. Why would that be different now? Can you honestly tell me that you're going to stop watching the sport or following the best players in the world? People swore up and down they would then, but the opposite happened, more fans, more money, more greedy owners...and new breakaways for more money.

But maybe too, we should look at the the response. Who is angry? Everton, Wolves, West Ham, etc, are examples of English clubs angrily denouncing this when we all know if invited, they would've accepted. FIFA has strongly responded, when their ethics have been questioned time and time again, as well as putting a World Cup in Qatar of all places, which has resulted in thousands of people dying. UEFA has responded more angrily than any party, and that's simply because a super league would neuter the Champions League, UEFA's golden goose, and so UEFA has more to lose here than any other institution, club, league, or otherwise.

So what should we do?

1) We should not assume that this league will fail

This league is going to be the most successful league on the planet, bar none. Anyone who doubts that is utterly delusional. If the domestic leagues kick out the clubs involved, they're doomed to play second fiddle for the foreseeable future.

2) The only real action to be taken here is legal action - from nation-states

Refusing work permits and limiting access while increasing taxes via policy would hit the super league where it hurts: its bank account. We've already seen some headway on this, but I doubt that any one country is willing to actually fight this fight, more like sticking their finger in the air and seeing the way the winds of public opinion are blowing for some free political points. It's sad, but reality.

3) Understand that you, as a fan, are meaningless

I have two degrees in Sport Management, and one thing has been made evidently clear throughout that has seriously damaged my love of sport.

The club doesn't care about you.

It's an utterly parasocial relationship (google that) which relies on your emotion to keep you engaged with a product (which is anything the club produced). The reality is that sport is a business different from any other because it relies largely on emotional connection to sustain its operations. There is no other product you consume so mindlessly in your life, and these billionaires are counting on that. Maybe they will lose you. That's a risk they're willing to take. If they can make 5 new Arsenal or United fans that will watch super league games in America or India or something, that's worth far more than you and your dedication to your club for the last 20 years.

This understanding is often missed by football supporters. "Muh passion" is really considered by some to be more important than tangible outcomes, like money. Which brings me to my next and final topic of discussion: the game isn't for you, and hasn't been for awhile.

4) It's not about you, and in your lifetime, never was

We hear tirades about VAR and such and hear terms like "game's gone." The reality is that the influence of an individual supporter in non-owned clubs is less than nothing and the influence of individual supporters in fan owned clubs is still very limited (see: Barcelona).

The game that you thought you had was impossible in an economy of scale. And lucky for you, there are clubs where that economy of scale has yet to exist. The lower leagues have what you want, because they haven't been offered to opportunity to make themselves bigger than their individual supporters yet. But it's marred, because you know deep down that if they did, they'd make the exact same decision that the breakaway clubs just did. Even then, it's a relationship of convenience, not actual passion.

Well, that's all I have to say. Maybe some of you will even read it, for me it was kind of therapeutic just to say all that. I can't speak for everyone else, but I'll probably limit my passion more to the MLS, where there's still a semblance of parity, and refocus on the NFL, where it actually exists. Returning to my roots, so to speak. How ironic, that to go to a game that's actually fair requires me to return to a country where so much is not.

@sunflash, good summary of whats been going on for a while, especially about businessmen and risk management.
Although I think the implications are that this is a stepping stone towards the Americanization of football. since it will be giving 250 million euros to every club who competes in it, its a workaround for a style of Americanization which won't look exactly like the American sports major league, but serves a similar effect. Any club that isn't getting that massive lump sum will never be able to compete for the same players that these clubs will be able to compete for. This can THEN lead to further steps once prices start getting ridiculously inflated that there is public backlash, this could then lead to a draft-like situation between the clubs in the super league or something, who knows. But it's what's happening all around us in most facets of our lives, governments, businesses and groups keep pushing boundaries to see how far they can go before there's genuine resistance. I suspect you know, from what you've said, exactly how that turns out: we keep putting up with things as its the new norm.

@Sunflash Good share, incredible stuff as usual but very sad as well. I'm hoping you are wrong on some of those point and thing won't be as bad, but honestly, i doubt it. Thanks for the analysis though, it was very interesting to read.

@Sunflash I'd give you million likes if I could. Everton did release a statement about ESL, however if any club would deny the opportunity, there's no way club like Everton would deny the chance of playing with biggest clubs in the world and guaranteed 350 million.

I would also add:

• FA can't kick 6 teams out of PL because they need 75% of the votes, which means 15/20 teams, that's imo the reason why Spurs were invited.
• La Liga won't kick Barcelona and Madrid because they would lose so much revenue.
• FIFA can't ban players, hell FIFA gave the world cup to Qatar, they can't say anything.

I'm not happy with this decision, but in the longer run, biggest loser will be UEFA and their mafia greed. They can't say anything about how they give a damn about fans, because they don't.

Didn't plan on posting again, but a video came out this morning that summarized a lot of what I said quite well, and went further in regard to parity, which I didn't do here, but believe strongly. I disagree with his final conclusion on the failure of a super league, but everything leading into that is accurate.

.

Listen, corona already screwed up Euro 2020 and could still screw up WC 2022 + the Qatar scandal + this shit now. They wanna kill the WC even though it is the most beautiful of all football competitions by far

@Footy_watch he never cared, if you asked him for any player from the club he would probably say Alexis Sanchez, this is just a business for him, all money are going into Rams.

BREAKING I understand Chelsea are now preparing documentation to request withdrawing from the ESL

So Chelsea will now pretend to be good guys, while Roman can still launder money into club and I guess Mansour and his City will now follow.

Man City pull out of Super League

as expected.

WE ARE WITNESSING BRILLIANCE

Woodward resign

Is this day ultimate win for United fans?