European Super League plans announced

[Brekkie]

One interesting angle being discussed on social media in the last couple of days in response to complaints that the young are not as interested in football nowadays is that it is no surprise considering the weekly free to air exposure the big teams had in the Champions League has now completely gone in the UK at least (not sure of the situation elsewhere), with first live matches and then highlights going completely behind a paywall and as a result ratings being in the hundreds of thousands rather than millions.

I do hope the now verified plans for the Champions League do evolve some more in the wake of this (as they are poor in their own right) but wonder if the current plans, which see four more rounds and two more games per "match day" in the group stage, may see an opportunity for FTA coverage to return, especially as UEFA could then quote the obviously inflated figures as proof their new format is a success.

[James Martin]

I do agree there's not enough FTA football on TV. Even if it was just the group stages, if select matches were FTA (and they got first pick) it would not only increase exposure but be a nice shop window for the pay-TV games.

If not FTV, a major streaming service like Amazon would ensure wider availability - and if the purpose of the exercise is to hook in young people, then streaming is absolutely the way to go.