And so it begins. Man u and liverpool in talks over euro league

[Bluerhap]

Greedy Barstewards!

 

[Balogun1]

The Glazers have had it in their long term plans to have some sort of franchise/no relegation system, be it in England or European

Might explain appointing Olé.

 

[Teddyjohn]

This would get boring extremely quickly.

 

[Cooperfan]

If they create a closed league then it defeats the object of sport. That would reduce interest in that league over time. Teams could be the best in their country, including England etc, and not have access. What's the point?

They virtually have a closed shop now but at least they throw the odd bone out.

 

[sonofbunk]

No coincidence it’s American owners leading this.

Endgame is an NFL style closed shop with play off determining the winner. Matches played around the world.

Actually if you look at the MLS last season it was two 12 team conferences.

 

[Johnny Fontane]

The rest of the league should let them go. A European league that is a closed shop will get boring very fast.

 

[Johnny Fontane]

Man U are not the team they have been but they are still the name everyone wants to see and for this factor there is every chance that Rangers and the Scum could be invited to this. 18 team in a PL followed by an 18 team Championship would be good IMO. Looking at the teams these are the 1s that I think are guaranteed:
Man U
Liverpool
Chelsea
Man City
Arsenal/Spurs
Bayern
Dortmund
Inter
Juventus
A.C
Real
Barca
PSG
That leaves 5 more teams for the leagues used or additional leagues of The Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Greece and Turkey.

Even if it wasn't to go down that road and only 18 teams from the big 5 leagues having it then it will mean all other countries would look at forming leagues similar. This could have huge potential for us and may allow us to break away from Doncaster and his cronies but it wont happen without the 2nd best team in Glasgow joining us as the TV stations will want the Old Firm.

There is no chance any team from Scotland gets invited to that. No chance any team outside of the big 4 or 5 leagues in Europe is invited either. It's all about entertaining armchair fans in Seoul or Dubai or Singapore, not about creating the best or most interesting league. Get the "fans" to buy the tv package them have them sitting at home head to toe in their replica gear cheering on Manchester Reds.

 

[BluebellsPuertoDelCarmen]

Never saw that coming ....

 

[Northhiglander]

We are going to have to agree to disagree here mate. I totally understand where you are coming from but the draw of Rangers and Celtic is still much bigger. No matter where you go in the world there will always be some sort of Rangers or Celtic supporters club.

The point though is not who has the biggest fan base but who can attract the biggest TV audience and therefore biggest advertising revenue. Rangers and our neighbours don’t do that. We live in a small country. Sky audiences don’t show huge numbers for our games compared to the big teams in England. Go abroad and you see the pull of Manu and Liverpool is way greater than ours.

 

[roffey]

German clubs won’t join (apart from FC Hollywood) because their fans won’t allow it. IMHO

 

[DavieM]

So this is the real reason behind "Project Big Picture" then. Who could have guessed they had something like this brewing in the background that would see the elite getting even richer.

I don't see this getting off the ground because the existing teams in these leagues would not be able to compete financially with these teams now in any shape or form. The financial gulf would be verging on silly.

There is also a major chance they could kill the golden goose because this move would instantly devalue the EPL and broadcasters wouldn't be falling over themselves to pay vast sums to show the best league in the world, when even those big clubs involved seem to think it isn't all that.

Be interested to see what the likes of Klopp and Guardiola come out with as they have said their players need to be playing far less football - yet their owners want something far, far different.

 

[oranje-viola]

Man u would currently finish bottom of any european league.

They are rotten.

This didn’t age well haha

 

[daven37]

Load of utter pish.

Driving the working class football fan further away from their team.

Absolutely kills football stone dead by turning it into an epic borefest.

If this was to happen I hope the rest of English football would tell man u and Liverpool to go fxxk themselves when it goes tits up and they come begging to be let back in.

 

[bigy]

All these teams need their domestic games. If you had a top league of Man Utd, Liverpool, Bayern, Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, etc. Only one of those teams is going to be successful. Will all the other fans used to success accept being near the bottom of the table? IMO they would get bored very quickly.

I see UEFA have came out against it. I can't see it happening.

 

[byebyethehihi]

There's an almost Harlem Globetrotters feel to this.