Could Saudis challenge uefa champions league

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gabrielamato123

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Is there a possibility that the Saudis come in and challenge uefa champions league by offering crazy money to teams the same way that has been done in golf,everyone seems to be sick of the the way uefa run the game.How would uefa react.
 
gabrielamato123 said:
Is there a possibility that the Saudis come in and challenge uefa champions league by offering crazy money to teams the same way that has been done in golf,everyone seems to be sick of the the way uefa run the game.How would uefa react.
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The rejection of the European super league suggests not.
 
It depends really. I think if it was a direct competition to the CL and wasn’t anything like the Super League was then it wouldn't too outrageous.
 
Davie Weir said:
It depends really. I think if it was a direct competition to the CL and wasn’t anything like the Super League was then it wouldn't too outrageous.
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That was my thinking instead of a closed shop everyone would have the chance to compete but finances would blow uefa out the water
 
gabrielamato123 said:
Is there a possibility that the Saudis come in and challenge uefa champions league by offering crazy money to teams the same way that has been done in golf,everyone seems to be sick of the the way uefa run the game.How would uefa react.
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If they want a league with no fans they could.
 
Plenty would do somersaults if it was a European Cup and the top 32 nations Champions were invited to a free for all knockout?

Plenty say they want it after all.
 
Their current venture into golf and the obscene piles of money they’re burning to attract players to play in the their “LIV Golf” league it suggests anything is possible.

Harder to achieve in football because of the fan powers / pressures - but, eventually I think we will see some sort of ‘Super League’ happen - just preferably not Saudi backed.
 
Pirlo said:
Doubt it very much. I wish UEFA would revise the CL set up though to give teams a fair chance instead of revising it for the sole purpose of making sure the biggest teams are always the heavy favourites and the smaller sides have little chance.
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It is now basically said super league run by uefa. Shat themselves and gave in. How this basically went unnoticed tells its own story.
 
LM2187 said:
Their current venture into golf and the obscene piles of money they’re burning to attract players to play in the their “LIV Golf” league it suggests anything is possible.

Harder to achieve in football because of the fan powers / pressures - but, eventually I think we will see some sort of ‘Super League’ happen - just preferably not Saudi backed.
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The new format champions league will effectively be the super league.
 
I think the Saudis, Qataris and other Arab states use their riches to buy influence in Europe (and The USA) so are unlikely to make a hostile move against the extant institutions. They will certainly use the threat of withdrawing cash or setting up alternative competitions as a stalking horse to elicit more favourable trading terms but, unless Uefa or another client organisation does something that they see as hostile and extreme, they stand to gain more inside the tent. And they see the gains as far more than just in sporting terms.
 
gabrielamato123 said:
Is there a possibility that the Saudis come in and challenge uefa champions league by offering crazy money to teams the same way that has been done in golf,everyone seems to be sick of the the way uefa run the game.How would uefa react.
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Money they'd need to offer and the push back they'd get from, well just about everyone, would probably rule it out.
 
The Saudis have ripped off the bread and butter doing the pilgrimage Hajj, for the watching

They get away with 9/11 and journalism abductions.
 
Opta said:
Look at the reaction to the Super League. Would never happen.
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I think the main reaction to the super league was that certain teams were to be guaranteed a spot every year.. which goes against the principles of a fair competition. If they hadn’t made an absolute balls up of the way they structured and presented it they’d probably have done it
 
UEFA would probably jump in to bed with them and give the Saudi's some concessions that they can host the semis & finals, or even worse have some european club mini world cup held there..... the rogues who run UEFA wont want to see their regular brown envelopes dry up.
 
Just like the proposed super league, UEFA and FIFA would hammer any players or teams involved. No way would they handover their monopoly on football.
 
Haven't they already sanctioned a club world cup with 32 teams in Qatar or was that binned?
 
No. Golf is an individual sport, not a football club with a fan base mainly local to its home city and country. If the Americans can’t commercialise it with the Super League then the Saudis have no chance!
 
Mr Bear said:
UEFA would probably jump in to bed with them and give the Saudi's some concessions that they can host the semis & finals, or even worse have some european club mini world cup held there..... the rogues who run UEFA wont want to see their regular brown envelopes dry up.
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Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of agreement in the next 5-10 years that somewhere like Saudi Arabia, Qatar or UAE hosting a European Final. As you said UEFA will need to find more brown envelopes to chase as they’ve had to fall out with their Russian Friends.

PSGs president seems to have enough influence on the UEFA hierarchy to make that happen.
 
While we all know CL is a farce basically a super league my feeling is anything involving Saudi money would be worse , it would be an invitation event , same teams every year sold to Asia and Far East.
 
gabrielamato123 said:
Is there a possibility that the Saudis come in and challenge uefa champions league by offering crazy money to teams the same way that has been done in golf,everyone seems to be sick of the the way uefa run the game.How would uefa react.
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Not if there’s a three foreigners rule. :)
 
UEFA are very amenable to brown envelopes as the ridiculous Qatar World Cup highlights so you never know.
 
Would be interesting to see the champions league try a World Cup format where the games after the group stage are single game knockout games. UEFA seem to be making things more commercial however they throw money at the teams that are in the champions league. Not sure the Saudis would capture the imagination the same way
 
The Super League was never ditched, only postponed.

Eventually, they’ll find a way of making it acceptable.

Though that was an American plan, not a Saudi one, so what they do remains to be seen. Seems likely that they’d try something though.
 
Pirlo said:
Doubt it very much. I wish UEFA would revise the CL set up though to give teams a fair chance instead of revising it for the sole purpose of making sure the biggest teams are always the heavy favourites and the smaller sides have little chance.
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You mean like Spurs ,who last won a trophy in the mid 90's ,and last won the old First Division in 1960/61 and who qualify for this years Champions League,never happen mate keep the big greedy clubs happy and introduce the Europa Conference league,keep the peasants happy,not on par,but a bit like the new money for winning the league cup here and fat Doncasters salary,money money money
 
The super league is eventually going to happen, just a matter of time. Spanish and Italian clubs and supporters still want it. The English clubs are the only reason it never happened and the clubs themselves were all for it until the fans who go to games protested against it. The majority of foreign fans won't have a problem with it and as those numbers continue to grow for the elite clubs as football only becomes easier to follow and watch. They will eventually just go through with it knowing most fans won't give up on their clubs because they play in a super league and the amount of money they make soars.


I give it another 10 to 15 years until Real Madrid and Chelsea are playing in Bangkok or Shanghai on a Wednesday night super league match.
 
Hopefully not. Golf is more about the individual whereas football retains that level of team pressure. But where monster money is involved nothing can ever be ruled out.
 
PortoyMortoy said:
The super league is eventually going to happen, just a matter of time. Spanish and Italian clubs and supporters still want it. The English clubs are the only reason it never happened and the clubs themselves were all for it until the fans who go to games protested against it. The majority of foreign fans won't have a problem with it and as those numbers continue to grow for the elite clubs as football only becomes easier to follow and watch. They will eventually just go through with it knowing most fans won't give up on their clubs because they play in a super league and the amount of money they make soars.


I give it another 10 to 15 years until Real Madrid and Chelsea are playing in Bangkok or Shanghai on a Wednesday night super league match.
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Once the effects of huge and increasing TV cable money flows into the MLS over time, I can see it happening. When the English and Euro giants can no longer have their pick of players...
 
I posted years ago if you could “buy” a league.

What’s to stop the Saudis buying the SFA and making the prize money in Scotland ridiculous?
 
shug1971 said:
It is now basically said super league run by uefa. Shat themselves and gave in. How this basically went unnoticed tells its own story.
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Correct. But I'm not convinced that it's the end of the matter, more kick the can down the road.

Eventually the bigger clubs will once again feel that smaller clubs are taking money out of their pockets and it'll come back in some form. And as you mention uefa have already caved and likely will again with a members only CL
 
Johnny Yen said:
Where money is involved, never rule anything out, ever.
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Every chance of it,given the amount of Arabs in football. If the so called super clubs want to go,then good riddance to them.
Let the rest of us reorganise and enjoy our football.
 
I remember a few years ago before the we argument, Gazprom were going to withdraw their UEFA sponsorship and have a 16 team Russian and Ukraine League with a $1 billion prize pot to get round FFP
 
Quite easily - as we have seen with LIV Golf they aren't really that interested in seeing a return on their investment they just want to disrupt the established way of thinking and gain control.

Obviously it would take a lot more billions than they are throwing at Liv Golf but they have a lot more chance of recouping most of it back by selling worldwide TV rights.

Money talks ...
 
So I am going to go against the grain here and say that it might not actually be the worst thing.

No bear with me on this

It may not be what people want but the threat of Saudi/foreign backed alternatives should/would in turn force UEFA to revamp their current formats to entice teams to stay or have them adopt/present something like the following

Now in an ideal world these European club competitions should be

Champions League - every champion and champion only of every member country of UEFA gets access to this tournament.

Unseeded knockout tournament so all teams in the pot and everyone can get anyone from the first round onwards.

No drop down to Europa

Europa League - every 2nd & 3rd place from every UEFA country. 4th place also available to those with a high coefficient. Let’s just call that the top 6 leagues in Europe for talking sake

4th places play effectively playoffs to get into the main draw.

Main draw then either a straight knockouts with domestic 2nd place teams being the seeded as opposed to coefficient.

Or it could be a league format, win the group (8 of them) to go into a group of winners which is another league (4 of them) win that league and you’re into the semis as it’s the winners of the 2nd round of league tables then a knockout semis then a final

This then incentivises winning games in the league for a higher league position as opposed to settling for 4th (such as Arsenal etc) it also incentivises going for it every game as you need to win the league to go through therefore in theory creating more enjoyable football.

***spitballing this Europa league format as I go btw so it may come across as nonsense***

Conference league - scrap the name and bring back the Cup Winners Cup. Win your domestic cups then you get a place in this. Every country (may be wrong on this) has two domestic cups therefore it is 2 places per country. If a team wins both domestic cup then one of the two places goes to the other finalist in the cups (a one off game between the two other finalists of the domestic cups, winner gets the spot in Europe?)

Make it a traditional knockout tournament, each round over two legs.

The above then allows them to hopefully push for a revamp of the Club World Cup. If all regions adopted a similar format of 3 tournaments then it means the Club World Cup becomes a more robust and interesting tournament

While I am here, what I believe should happen for international tournaments is if you win your regions tournament (Euros, CONCACAF etc) then you automatically get a spot at the following World Cup. There seems to be a real disconnect between these tournaments and the World Cup for some reason.

I understand there are a lot of moving parts here so I’m aware that it’s not just a case of do this tomorrow but realistically it could be done and personally, I think it would make for a much better brand of football and really incentivises domestic clubs to strive for higher places in the domestic leagues and give it their all in the domestic cups

Whether this comes from UEFA or a breakaway group backed by investors from around the world, it very much could work


I eagerly await for this to be torn to bits.
 
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If they returned it to the traditional knockout format, champions of all leagues, with no seeding and pooled money dished out according to progress and not your national population there would be a chance of acceptance by supporters but not by the big clubs from the top 4 leagues as they want money guaranteed. And the tv companies want big games guaranteed. Doesn't matter if the ordinary supporter is sick of seeing Man City play PSG yet again.
 
biodoc said:
If they returned it to the traditional knockout format, champions of all leagues, with no seeding and pooled money dished out according to progress and not your national population there would be a chance of acceptance by supporters but not by the big clubs from the top 4 leagues as they want money guaranteed. And the tv companies want big games guaranteed. Doesn't matter if the ordinary supporter is sick of seeing Man City play PSG yet again.
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And the sickening thing is that man city and psg are bankrolled by people that wouldn't miss not being in the champions league a season or two, but think what the money from uefa could do for the champions of Armenia or Estonia for example, but again it won't ever happen as tv companies are happy with the status quo and I suppose who can blame them? Most fans would rather psg v man city every season rather than two random European teams.
 
biodoc said:
If they returned it to the traditional knockout format, champions of all leagues, with no seeding and pooled money dished out according to progress and not your national population there would be a chance of acceptance by supporters but not by the big clubs from the top 4 leagues as they want money guaranteed. And the tv companies want big games guaranteed. Doesn't matter if the ordinary supporter is sick of seeing Man City play PSG yet again.
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We’re never returning to an unseeded knock-out tournament and neither we should.

I think it’s a little bit of a fantasy to suggest this is what fans want.

I wouldn’t be particularly happy about a random draw that puts us against Real Madrid in the first round and our Euro season is over - as we watch the Maltese champions defeat Red Imps of Gibraltar to progress to the next round.
 
rossco39 said:
Would be interesting to see the champions league try a World Cup format where the games after the group stage are single game knockout games. UEFA seem to be making things more commercial however they throw money at the teams that are in the champions league. Not sure the Saudis would capture the imagination the same way
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I remember at the height of the covid lockdown what was it 19/20 they did this for the quarter finals onwards and it was much more entertaining games, no fucking about, just 1 game, best team wins winner takes all.
 
BrooklynBlue said:
We’re never returning to an unseeded knock-out tournament and neither we should.

I think it’s a little bit of a fantasy to suggest this is what fans want.

I wouldn’t be particularly happy about a random draw that puts us against Real Madrid in the first round and our Euro season is over - as we watch the Maltese champions defeat Red Imps of Gibraltar to progress to the next round.
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Luck of the draw though, I mean the next season we could get a good draw, and the money filters down through uefas leagues, if we're as big and massive a club as we think of might be a good thing in the long run.
 
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