Alone in the Park - it's the Prem 2020-21 thread

Not the only 6-0 victory of the evening

"I once launched a multi-billion dollar plan to break away from the Premier League and launch a European Super League that would irreversibly restructure the finances and competitive nature of club football forever that lasted two days..." pic.twitter.com/kIIhcdzrg1

— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 20, 2021

I think everyone is out but Liverpool.

... oh hold on, Liverpool are out.

Liverpool Football Club can confirm that our involvement in proposed plans to form a European Super League has been discontinued. In recent days, the club has received representations from various key stakeholders, both internally and externally, and we would like to thank them for their valuable contributions.

so who won it in the end?

liverpool

As a result of listening to you and the wider football community over recent days we are withdrawing from the proposed Super League.

We made a mistake, and we apologise for it.

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 20, 2021

at least you got an apology! this was man u:

We will not be participating in the European Super League.#MUFC

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 20, 2021

Arsenal are the only ones who've apologized, meanhwhile I think Levy was still trying to pass it off as a good idea at the wrong time.

Lol, will look at Spurs in a bit xp

This has been an absolutely incredible example of fucking around and finding out https://t.co/kt3rwb3Ypd

— a tired dad (@mathaiaus) April 20, 2021

By the way, UK media, it was Jock Stein who said "Football is nothing without fans" not Matt Busby.

Need more men of principle like Roman Abramovich in English football

— rockets fall on rocket balds (@stitzch) April 20, 2021

Well now I just don't knoe what to think!

Liverpool statement is almost comically offhand. It's almost like they don't give a shit

Arsenal's apology will look terrible when something similar happens in 2-3 years.

tough to blame arsenal as they can't make the champions league on their own anymore

europes premier club competition deserves winks, nketiah, holding and sissoko gracing it tbf

lol god knows what the conversations btw jw henry and klopp were like cos henry looked super shook in his twitter apology.

Why did it fall apart SO quickly? It feels like City (and possibly Chelsea) were maybe planning to bail all along at the slightest whiff of protest they know was coming, and stitch the others up?

City had the least to gain from ESL, and scuppering by bailing way more effective than not accepting in first place (plus could hedge their bets this way)

I think the failure to secure Bayern and PSG scuppered it from the start

But the weirdly tossed-off nature of the announcement, branding, etc is difficult to fathom. I mean if you're going to do this, at least look like you mean it. Instead, they snuck out the news late at night and then were too scared to even defend it in public. It's all deeply odd

1. We say in Soccernomics: "Anyone who spends any time inside football soon discovers that just as oil is part of the oil business, stupidity is part of the football business." https://t.co/lB7ZD4tAji

— Simon Kuper (@KuperSimon) April 20, 2021

They still thought they could go ahead without PSG and Bayern though. And it could have still looked like momentum was with them rather than against them. A club joining and then pulling out is worse than just not joining in first place

It feels like a power play, but not from the block of 12. Between the 12

I can accept that football owners are rather stupid, or rather maybe the correct blend of stupid and contemptuous of fans/'the game' to not get that this would be quite so unpopular with their own fans

I cannot see that they were totally blindsided by it tho, and hadn't taken a fair level of backlash into account

Also cannot think that they were that bothered by anything that fans could threaten

Likewise the few players/managers that would *actually* have done anything more than sulk

So i can only really see a piece of sublime ratfuckery from one or two of the "in" clubs or a plausible and serious legal/governance threat that they en masse missed or got completely wrong.

Or that its kites all the way up and markings have been taken for the next attempt.

Also, thought that kuper quote was going to have a little more bite re oil/football when i first read it tbh

The 6 were going to premier league meetings for a considerable amount of time knowing the ESL plan but not letting on about it to the other 14

Is it really that inconceivable that something similar wasn't happening within meetings of the ESL 12?

Some of the legacy clubs might have thought they mattered more than they do

It feels like a power play, but not from the block of 12. Between the 12

Which was won by Bayern.

City won imo

In England. UEFA still hate Man City.

You dont have to sweep the board at once

And uefa gave them a pass on ffp iirc

It's definitely going to be much harder to challenge their dominance. We've avoided a future in which the PL is dominated forevermore by six clubs and more or less guaranteed one where it's dominated by two, and the PL is still arguably the least predictable of the major European leagues.

Bayern have had a mediocre season and have all but guaranteed their ninth consecutive title, PSG have had a terrible one and are still favourites to win Ligue 1. Only once since 1990 has any team other than Inter, Juve or Milan won Serie A, etc. The misty-eyed homilies from politicians and UEFA about the beauty of football being that anyone can win aren't going to lead to anything likely to change that.

They didn't give them a pass, Man City took it to arbritration and won the case, I'm sure that went down well at UEFA.

idnrc so, but uefa not having any power/role over city as demonstrated still makes my point stand that they won as much as they couldve, i think

Jol otm btw

Have to wait to see the dust settle but right now City looking the biggest winners here - Especially if they can get the press to paint this in a certain way, though thats just a bonus)

Real the biggest losers.

Whats jol said, ive switched browsers and the search is frankly useless

Just a general quote about the football business being a lot more amateurish than it might appear to the outsider.

obviously on a much smaller scale it reminds of after the ITV digital crash, and loads of tinpot clubs suddenly with an ITV digital sized hole in their revenue (probably 100% British owned clubs I should add) conspired to make a Prem 2 based on some woolly nice new stadium/*big* club criteria and strand the likes of Scunthorpe in league 1 forever. That didn't really get past the flying the kite and see what happens stage iirc

And the WaPo is the winner. The article argues that those against the Super League are evil nationalist populists who are against both democracy and liberal capitalist globalism. Well done, lads. This was a belter! https://t.co/PvLaHDnc82 pic.twitter.com/V41GRIrG6H

— Michael S (@ScanlanWithAnA) April 20, 2021

it seems the Washington Post have come up with the most American worst possible fucking take on this!

Worst takes in descending order:

3) those against super league are nationalist reactionaries, see Washpost there

2) liberals undermining competitive spirit w participation trophies etc causing big clubs to have sense of entitlement to success- can't remember, think it was some radio phone-in bullshit

<quite a gap to the tete de la course>

1) Super league is an insult to the memory of the Duke of Edinburgh, says Ian Holloway

wait, ascending order

lol Holloway plumbing new depths of zaniness

Serie A club Inter Milan confirm they have withdrawn from the European Super League

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 21, 2021

Unlock career mode points to play as ESL teams

Asked whether the project could still happen after the exits, Agnelli told Reuters: “To be frank and honest no, evidently that is not the case.”

“I remain convinced of the beauty of that project,” he said, stating it would have created the best competition in the world. “But admittedly … I mean, I don’t think that that project is now still up and running.”

“I’m not going to say how many clubs contacted me in just 24 hours asking if they could join,” he said, declining to name them. “Maybe they lied, but I was contacted by a number of teams asking what they could do to join.”

“I have had speculation to that extent that if six teams would have broken away and would have threatened the EPL, politics would have seen that as an attack to Brexit and their political scheme,” he said.

“If you tell me other methods for putting together such projects … if you were to ask the authorisation of others, I don’t think you would have carried out a project like this. The relations are there, I have seen relations changing in time, some people I am quite sure that people will be open and talk to each other. I don’t think our industry is a particularly sincere, trustworthy or reliable one in general.”

pic.twitter.com/RRyVsEeXlU

— Ireland Simpsons Fans (@iresimpsonsfans) April 21, 2021

Amazing would many sanctimonious clowns have forgotten the formation of the premiership and the champs league and sky and sudden grown consciences

I think Barcelona are still in there but, perfectly, this is coming down to the two scummiest football teams in Europe: Juventus and Real Madrid.

It's a shame that Normal Football Guy seems to have sacked off twitter

if barca don't withdraw then they can wait for the esl to be formally declared dead and therefore not have to pay a withdrawal penalty no?

A league with just Real and Barca in it playing 30+ times a season would be... fine by most of their fans, and certainly all the media and TV I'd guess?