Arsenal has been approached by organisers of a new European Premier League about their participation in the FIFA backed tournament that might overshadow the Champions League.
Just a few days ago, Premier League clubs had to deal with rejecting a new league format championed by Liverpool and Manchester United called Project Big Picture.
Both Premier League giants have been involved in the European Premier League as well as they look to form a new competition.
Sky Sports claims that as much as £4.6 billion is being put together by financiers to help bring the European Premier League to reality.
Arsenal is one of the top six teams in England that have been approached alongside teams from Germany, France and Spain.
These teams have been approached already and are currently in talks to become founding members of the competition.
The report adds that as many as five Premier League teams are expected to be signed up when the competition kicks off, as early as 2022.
The teams will face each other in two-legged fixtures like the current Champions League and the top sides will play for the money in a knockout format.
From what i understand this is fuelled by American billionaires and wealthy people who are just doing it for money. For me playing puppets to teams like Barcelona, Madrid etc is not desirable at all. They all want to set up something that is totally for the super clubs, run by super clubs and probably as bent as a nine bob note. English football playing English teams with English history and rivalry is what football is all about. I have to say as well, with what is going on in the world at the moment, all this is very disturbing and worrying. I see no problem with the present set up in football, anything else will be a disaster for English football. I dont see a point of setting a competition up for the elite, run by the elite and dominated by the elite, for their purpose.
“English football playing English teams with English history and rivalry is what football is all about.”
I am not English but I agree with you completely. They should flush the Champions League down the toilet for all I care.
Sorry what i mean is playing your own national leagues, wherever that may be. For us it is Arsenal in England.
Exactly. I love the EPL and the Championship. I enjoy watching from time to time different European, South American and Asian leagues.
I am not fond of club international competitions.
My national League is torture and unwatchable.
Well said Reggie, it’s utterly disgusting that a group of elite billionaires is playing with the game we all love at a time like this. More importantly, they all show scant disregard for grassroots football in the UK, it is clear to me that Manure and Pools power grab last week was meant to usher in this era of the new European Premier League. The money on offer to EFL clubs was nothing more than a pure bribe, that once it ran out it would be a case of you’re on your own now. Football fans need to come together and make these billionaires know we will not let them ruin our game. Enough is enough.
SM, i for one are not interested in the slightest in European football as our main course. As a desert its great but we should look to our own nations football as the staple diet. Plus i dont think the prem as ever been so competitive as it is now.
This is an attempt to hijack football history and tradition and to make it a money driven commodity that will overshadow national leagues and international competitions. It will eventually lead to clubs having a say on the players and them being contracted into an exclusivity that will make football the romance the passion and the following disappear into a money spinning league with no soul.
Unfortunately it will come down to money as it always does. I don’t want to see it happen, but with the huge rise in player salaries, transfer fees, and greedy agents, something has to give. Players won’t take less, neither will clubs or agents; fans already pay enormous prices for tickets, so the revenue will have to come from somewhere, especially during this pandemic.
A realist, as Jon Fox would say, has to think that eventually it will go the way of a European Super League. Which club wants to be left out of this elite money making competition? Will a club stay away while their neighboring English clubs make tens or hundreds of millions?
Sadly I see this as a question of “when” and not “if.” Use your head and not your heart, and based on the spike in wages, fees, and transfer costs, it will turn this way unless fans will fork out even more money for tickets.
Disagree with me if you wish, but please avoid the insults.
Durand , Since you, correctly , call me a realist, I will answer for myself rather than be a subsciber to what you think will happen.
I do NOT agree with your prediction , not at all! In stark contrast, I belive that, in the end, fan power will come together to thwart these disgusting billionaires who want to completely dictate to all of us what we can and cannot do.
I agree with your prediction about what these bilionaires INTEND, but I much disagree with you about their chances of succeeeding in this total takeover. My article will explain why , in depth and wil go into detailabout future fan/club relationships.
IT IS INFACT THE FINAL PART OF MY TRILOGY ON FAN/CLUB RELATIONS.
I would much appreciate your input once you have read it! I HAVE GREAT RESPECT FOR YOU INTELLECT but on thisone I take a polar opposite conclusion.
WITHOUT THIS OPPOSITE CONCLUSION, OUR GAME IS EFFECTIVELY DEAD AS A PROPER SPORT AND WOULD BECOME A WORTHLESS FRANCHISE ONLY.
Hoping this final part will appear tomorrow! It wil lbe a great in depth analysis of where I see football going in the years ahead and will give full reasons why ,with evidence for my conclusions, not just half baked theories!
Thank you Jon, I appreciate your kind comments, and what’s more that you understood I was in no way attempting to speak for you, but merely for the pragmatic common sense you often reference.
I also hope this League doesn’t come to fruition, but money talks, and very loudly in matters of sport.
I envision networks will benefit immensely from the creation of a new league, and the owners, broadcasters, FIFA, etc… will eventually congeal in support.
Other teams in other leagues will push for this, if nothing else than to gain exposure to the vast riches we have seen resulting from the English PL.
Sad to say, but I agree with you.
The EPL and Sky TV changed football and the greed that has ensued by the owners, agents and players bears not the slightest resemblance to what I grew up with.
Liverpool would now be in the European Cup not a league. The best in England playing the best in Europe.
As an older person I have these ‘old fashioned ideas’ about football and the community it serves. I support Arsenal as a result of generations of my family doing the same. Nowadays, with matches distributed around the world it seems that community is a very different animal. It’s not to say that a worldwide fan base isn’t welcome, it just doesn’t get what home nations football means to us. My nearest club was Barnet and at the time they played in the Southern league, eventually gaining promotion to Div4. It didn’t matter if you started at the bottom; there was always a chance for promotion Will that possibility of reaching the pinnacle be destroyed because of a few billionaire investors want to carve it all up for themselves?
The only people who pay for this will be the fans, dearer merchandise, dearer watching and dearer travelling. Not much in return for your outlay either except watching the super clubs hoover it all up.
If Arsenal take part in the new super league they will be a mid table team . They will be playing
against teams who have skimmed the best players.
There is so much a manager can do by instilling a hard working and full of running players
in the end class will tell