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    #1

    Uefa refuse to rule out Europe-wide Super League

    From Times Online Nick Szczepanik
    March 17, 2009


    Platini prefers a return to a more inclusive European Champions Cup

    Uefa has refused to rule out a Europe-wide Super League to replace the Champions League and Uefa Cup after leading European clubs discussed the idea last week.

    Michel Platini, the Uefa president, is prepared to listen to plans even though they may go against his personal preference, which is for a return to a more inclusive European Champions Cup competition.

    A meeting of the European Club Association (ECA), which represents 137 leading teams, in Nyon, Switzerland, discussed the possibility of a three-division Super League of around 20 clubs per division, to start some time after the present Uefa television and marketing deals expire in 2012.

    “Everybody knows my philosophy about European competitions,” Platini said. “But the world is changing and we must be careful about that. If it was up to me, I would revert to European Cups as they were at the beginning, with just knockout rounds. But we must listen carefully to any suggestion. If (clubs) come and talk to us, we would listen to them and then decide.”

    The first club to approach him may be Barcelona, whose president, Joan Laporta, is a close ally of Platini and seen by ECA as an important contact with Uefa. AC Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Porto and Lyons are believed to have been the prime movers behind the plans, with Bayern Munich in the vanguard of the opposition.

    A European Super-League has been mooted at least twice before, but the global economic crisis has increased the urgency with which clubs are seeking ways of maximising profits. Some estimate that the new league could increase profits tenfold by comparison with existing revenues from the Champions League.

    Studies of professional sports in the United States have led some ECA clubs to favour a model along the lines of basketball’s NBA. However, the ultimate aim of a closed league with no relegation from the bottom division and a salary cap would probably fall foul of European laws.

    Existing domestic competitions would continue alongside the European league, but larger leagues such as the Barclays Premier League and La Liga in Spain would have to cut the number of teams in order to create fixture space. Somehow it all sounds like one more excuse for Sir Alex Ferguson to complain about fixture scheduling.
    "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."
    -- William Blake
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    #2
    Not the main point I know but there's another dig from The Times about Ferguson.
    .
    Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.



    May the Lord bless this post.

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      #3
      think we discussed this ages and ages ago! - i think it could be a reality, what effect it would have well I don't know, surely for you average man in the street football fan it would be bad - though part of me is intrigued on this would work - things like promotions to the league, domestic cups, etc ec -

      ie imo you could only have say 16 maybe 18 teams in the league - now realisticly you would prob relagate the bottom three - but how do you work out which three to promote, cause surely it would mean to be that seasons winner of each domestic leagu, so potentially have like 12 teams with a fair shout that they should be promoted
      i own everton fans on the internet....that's what i do

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        #4
        It is just about the ****est idea floating around the football world at the minute in my view. All but unworkable and ruins all the good bits of both national and European competition as they stand. I admit it is a slightly better idea than that really odd Scottish - Portugese - Someone else league that was proposed a few years ago but that is about the best I can say about it.
        "The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind."
        -- William Blake

        Comment

          #5
          Originally posted by PTP View Post
          think we discussed this ages and ages ago! - i think it could be a reality, what effect it would have well I don't know, surely for you average man in the street football fan it would be bad - though part of me is intrigued on this would work - things like promotions to the league, domestic cups, etc ec -

          ie imo you could only have say 16 maybe 18 teams in the league - now realisticly you would prob relagate the bottom three - but how do you work out which three to promote, cause surely it would mean to be that seasons winner of each domestic leagu, so potentially have like 12 teams with a fair shout that they should be promoted
          You could have a mini-league competition between the 12 (or however many you like) contenders. Perhaps you could also introduce an element of knockout competition to cut down on the number of matches the teams would have to play.

          It would work like this. Let's say there are sixteen teams. Four groups of four teams playing in a mini-league would narrow it down to, say, eight contenders (the top two in each group). Then you could have a draw where a top team plays a team that came second home and away. To give the group winners a reward for topping their group, they could play the second leg at home. Then the four winners would move through to a semi-final. And then a final.

          Because they're all champions of their domestic leagues you could call it the Champions League.

          Hey presto, problem solved.







          .
          Suppose you have a physicist and a sociologist standing at the side of a field, observing a set of events unfolding on the field. The physicist does [describes] it using the terminology of mass and velocity and frequency of radiation and the rest. And the sociologist does it by describing it as a rugby match.



          May the Lord bless this post.

          Comment

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