European Super League Football.

[Workingman]

Judges have ruled that FIFA and UEFA acted illegally, as monopolies, when threatening to put in place restrictions on clubs / players under the original plan. The Judges also did not endorse the ESL so allowing for it to be tried again... and that is now the plan = ESL Mk2 with a different format.

However, what the Judges didn't rule on and what the admin of the ESL seem to have missed, is the response of the fans. It was not FIFA and UEFA who killed the ESL it was fan pressure on the clubs involved - they killed it.

I have been reading a few football blogs and it looks likely that the fans will also kill ESL2. Then there is the issue of individual Football Associations and what they might do. The Judges said nothing about them in their ruling. According to the armchair experts there are quite few spanners for them to throw in the works.

[TheOstrich]

I'm not sure what format this Mk 2 plan entails, but to be honest, I wouldn't think the "traditional" fans would welcome it any more than they did Mk 1.
But hey, it's never been about traditional football fans anyway, has it, just corporate entertainment and television rights.

I don't buy that television presentation they showed on the BBC news tonight one bit.
" "For the fans", my a... ", if I might quote Ricky Tomlinson

[Workingman]

The format is sort of NFL meets the Premier League meets the Champions League.

64 teams in leagues of 16 - Star, Gold and Blue as playing leagues - then another 'pool' with potential movers to the Blue league for the next season.

Apparently, and this is not confirmed, there will be promotion and relegation between the leagues, but come the end of the season all the teams in the Blue league get relegated and the top 16 in the "pool" get promoted.

It all looks like a fix to keep the top 20 or so teams in the Star and Gold leagues with the rest making up the numbers. The rich get richer, as always. Why teams outside the five big leagues (Prem, La Liga, Le Ligue, Serie A and Bundesliga) would want to be involved is unclear. What is in it for the Scots, Danes, Dutch, Belgians etc?

Global TV rights and viewing are said to be free via an app, so that will probably mean adverts all the way.

That's all I have ATM.

[cruiser2]

Television is killing sport Matches are being played at the times when the TV staions want to show them. So you can have several games
with big clubs on the same day but at differenttimes so they don't overlap.

When I was young befroe TV took over, evry match started at 3.00 p.mon a Saturday afternoon.

[cromwell]

I agree with Cruiser - football is a money racket these days.

FIFA is wanting to increase the number of matches played in the "World Club Championship"; doubtless to get more money in for FIFA, as UEFA has more money than them.

Gianni infantino, the current head of FIFA, lives in a palatial villa in Qatar. I wonder why they got the World Cup...?

[Workingman]

..... UEFA has more money than them.

Of course it does, it takes a cut from the five most profitable national leagues in world football. UEFA doe not need FIFA, but FIFA sure as Hell needs UEFA.

[cromwell]

FIFA are now wanting to play the WorldCup every two years. More $$$$ for them.