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Super League plans confirmed. Clubs plan to continue playing domestically. Superleague will have 15 founding members who play annually and 5 based on qualification, split in two leagues of ten playing home and away in midweek slots. Top 3 in each division plus 2 play off winners go on to quarter finals.
This would deliver 180 league games (min 18 per team) and 17 knock out games (over 7 weeks) if my maths is right correct, compared to the 48 (EDIT: x2) Champions League group games (min 6 per team) and 29 knock out games. Even if the teams were allowed to remain in the domestic leagues (which they say they will, but the leagues say they won't) it would almost certainly end their participation in the cup competitions.
https://www.skysports.com/football/live-...ve-updates
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56795811
Far from a done deal but the plans seem to have got further than ever before and would have huge ramifications for broadcasting deals - with both the Champions League and Premier League due out for tender soon.
@Brekkietweets
Maths is a little bit off there Brekkie - there are 96 group matches in the CL at the moment (32 teams, 6 matchdays).
This should go up to 180 in the proposed Swiss system (36 teams, 10 matchdays), plus some additional knockout matches apparently.
Given how heavily this breakaway has been condemned by UEFA and FIFA.... including players potentially being banned from other international tournaments.... would any broadcaster dare risk getting blacklisted too?
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It is entirely likely for this competition to have its own app / streaming service outside of the normal cosy broadcaster cabal. Failing that, Amazon Prime.
Note that Sky appear to not be in the running, going full bore both barrels at it during their coverage of Man Utd v Burnley.
The anger tonight is coming mostly from those who have suddenly discovered that they are an irrelevancy in the minds of football's elite moneyspinners - to whit the fans and the pundits/journos. I don't know if Roy Keane, Gary Neville et al are more angry at the clubs for forming their own competition, or for rendering them impotent.
The simple solution to all of life's fear
Join me my friends, and bring on the beer
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Ramifications for this could be huge for broadcasting deals. All sorts of talk around tonight from the Champions League being cancelled this season to players being banned from the Euros and World Cup, which surely puts the value of those deals into question too. Will certainly be the big story of the day tomorrow and makes the formation of the Premier League, which redefined British sports broadcasting, look small fry.
Comparing with the Premier League and although tonight it's clear fans are not central to the decision making of clubs have to wonder whether they would see a free to air component as crucial in getting the league off the ground, whether that is weekly highlights as with Match of the Day and the Premier League or one live match per round (or maybe less as there are 18 group games) as with the Champions League for it's first couple of decades. Similarly I suspect UEFA may revisit their free to air strategies too - although how broadcasters bid for not just the proposed but unwelcome European Super League but the remnants of competitions left behind remains to be seen. A direct streaming service for the European Super League is a good call though.
@Brekkietweets
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Not necessarily. As I mentioned while you were crafting your reply, there may be little to no need for a traditional broadcaster at all, although doubtless they'd want one, and BT are probably in line to be the ones to get it.
As for how non-linear coverage could work, you need only look at F1.
Within minutes of a race, highlights are on YouTube, for free. The race itself is available on linear TV, sure, but there's also the OTT streaming service F1 TV.
The simple solution to all of life's fear
Join me my friends, and bring on the beer
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There were rumours earlier that DAZN were interested in the rights. But as was discussed on the old place (or possibly here) the maths were struggling to fit for their new Serie A contract let alone a far bigger deal for this deeply unpopular thing.
https://twitter.com/MadridXtra/status/13...6384586765
The following statement was given by DAZN to Reuters earlier though:
“In relation to a report by Corriere dello Sport today, this and related reports are false. Neither DAZN nor Mr. Blavatnik are in any way involved or interested in entering into discussions regarding the establishment of a Super League and no conversations have taken place,”
James Martin
Unregistered
This is going to kill football.
Lots of talk of "boycotts" but what difference does that make, even when fans can return? You can not go to games. You can even stop buying shirts. In the top flight, TV is where the money is at. I seriously doubt any of those clubs have had major dents in the wallet by losing gate receipts in the grander scheme of things. Television revenue just completely overshadows it.
If it does go ahead, I can see a streaming provider stumping up, potentially to cover all territories where the games are played - so they'd be "host broadcaster" with language-appropriate punditry and commentary in each country. Amazon or possibly Netflix could be the new BSkyB in that respect - they've certainly got deep enough pockets to do it! Could see all games in 4K, etc.
Huge ramifications for Sky and BT though if they can't attract elite football, especially if the threats about not playing in EPL, FA Cup, CL etc. come true.
The whole thing seems crazy. When the EPL was formed it remained part of the pyramid. This, however... gonna be a lot of angry fans later today.
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:x Got that right, this is a major betrayal.
Rugby League's top flight won't be happy either, because of the name Super League. They're in enough trouble already without having their name pinched!
In fairness, the rugby league Super League is far from the only league to use that name, and there are a fair few in football already. But it is instructive as to how things could go horrible wrong. In a worst case scenario, we could be facing a situation like the 1997 Australian Rugby League season, with rival tournaments facing off against each other. And in that case the breakaway(backed by News Limited, ie Murdoch) ended up with a 50% share of the league for the next 15 years, which might have been regarded as mission accomplished.
But what will happen here?
One scenario could see this play as just an extension of the “leverage” play, with UEFA going back to the drawing board and coming back with a revised proposal that sees more weight to the “historical coefficient” and gives most of these clubs (possible not Spurs or Arsenal) guaranteed entry on that basis. What UEFA cannot do though, is guarantee the clubs entry on a self selection basis.
That won’t be fair and won’t wash. And ultimately that might be where this fails.
Another scenario sees the clubs back down in the face of possible expulsion from their domestic competitions, players excluded from international football, massive fan pressure etc. Might not happen though. All that will already have been factored in and they are moving when fans can do nothing due to Covid.
The other sees the competition move forward. That’s your ARL/Super League war scenario. The breakaway clubs, excluded from their own leagues, expand plans so that this becomes their new domestic league and play a full 38 game season with no FA Cup, EFL Cup or international breaks to distract them. They might still play on midweeks though, just to target UEFA where it hurts.
Genuine question here, but I'm seeing a lot of "this will ruin football!" style comments in various places online, including here. As a more casual viewer, how exactly will this new league ruin football? Are there no positives in having a new top tier tournament? From what I've read, nothing's being cancelled to make way for it, so is it just that it's breaking the traditional football year/schedule? Or is this taking teams out of the traditional tournaments? Please forgive my ignorance, I just haven't seen any real reasons why this is going to kill the game and most articles online - as with everything football based - assume a lot of knowledge.
From a broadcasting perspective, it's going to be competitive even if the publicity around it is negative, as I doubt many "boycotting" comments now would have any real effect - I suspect most avid fans of a team will continue to watch them play whatever the circumstance. The viewers will come, and the broadcasters or streamers will want them!
The BBC are also going to take a huge whack from this as well. I don't know the viewing figures for Match Of The Day but I would say if the Super League went ahead and the BBC stuck with the Premier League then a large proportion of the viewers specifically fans of the teams in question plus a proportion of "general" fans would desert the programme in droves and damage the BBC's Saturday night schedules.
<t>An Autie but not a naughty.</t>
Flux post_id=7843 time=1618824277 user_id=766 Wrote:Genuine question here, but I'm seeing a lot of "this will ruin football!" style comments in various places online, including here. As a more casual viewer, how exactly will this new league ruin football? Are there no positives in having a new top tier tournament? From what I've read, nothing's being cancelled to make way for it, so is it just that it's breaking the traditional football year/schedule? Or is this taking teams out of the traditional tournaments? Please forgive my ignorance, I just haven't seen any real reasons why this is going to kill the game and most articles online - as with everything football based - assume a lot of knowledge.
From a broadcasting perspective, it's going to be competitive even if the publicity around it is negative, as I doubt many "boycotting" comments now would have any real effect - I suspect most avid fans of a team will continue to watch them play whatever the circumstance. The viewers will come, and the broadcasters or streamers will want them!
What is being proposed is that this will replace the Champions League, and the teams would stay in their domestic tournaments (though in all likelihood there would be no room for the EFL Cup for the English teams involved). However it can also been taken that the teams involved will likely be expelled from their domestic leagues if this goes ahead, though perhaps there’ll be no hasty moves on that front and time given to come to a peace deal (as I say, probably involving more spots for clubs based on “historical performance” to qualify - the problem being that may not guarantee all 12 rebel clubs a spot).
The “ruining”, I suppose, comes from the fact that the same teams would be guaranteed entry every year. No more race for top four. No possibility of a Leicester winning the league unexpectedly and qualifying at the expense of a “big club”. While there’s some talk of “solidarity payments” it’s unclear what sort of money will go back in the game and the lions share will go to the competing clubs. Which is kind of the whole point of it really.
If this goes ahead there will be huge broadcaster interest, though it will be interesting to see if Sky or BT were to bid, as that could damage their existing relationships with the current leagues.
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"Solidarity payments" = Bribery.
Be interesting to see how the shares of the clubs and broadcasters are affected today. Removing qualification for Euripe removes a big selling point for many games - Sky get mocked for it but they do a pretty good job of making games feel important and the PL has grown in recent years because the days of the same 4 clubs qualifying for the Champions League year in, year out, have ended. As things stand only two of the big six would qualify this year - hence their desperation for a tournament with automatic entry.
Also have to wonder if long term removing live FTA coverage of the CL has made this move easier for the clubs - the Champions League feels somewhat out of sight compared to a decade ago.
@Brekkietweets
One thing I can guarantee is that there will be no suspension from any domestic league. Premier league rights without Man UTD and Liverpool are effectively worthless in most international markets.
Domestically good luck getting £7m a game from Sky for Fulham and Wolverhampton.
Absolutely but it’s the only substantive sanction available.
What about the others?
Kick them out of the Champions League/Europa League? They want to leave, that’s the point.
Kick them out of the FA Cup/EFL Cup? They probably be happy to be out. The EFL Cup has been treated as a development competition at best and an inconvenience at worst, for years by most big clubs.
Stop the players playing internationals? The players might be annoyed, but the clubs will be happy they don’t have to risk their well paid talent on someone else’s behalf.
Expulsion from the Premier League and the threat of it is basically the only power of substance the associations have to fight this.
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