The soul of Arsenal has been taken away by Konstantin Mitov
Well lovely Arsenal people, what’s worse than the football Arsenal is playing and our lame league table position? I’ll give you a hint, it comes somewhere from Denver. This football club has been rapidly sliding down the more Kroenke got a hold of it, and now, if ever it was under any doubt, it’s clear that we are a money cow for an American businessman.
We signed up for the so-called “Super League” which you probably have already heard about, but there are a number of seriously wrong and potentially devastating things about this. Firstly it’s plainly unfair to football as it proclaims some teams as “super” making them somewhat more special than others, and destroys fair competition by letting teams in a money making competition without any penalty.
We are 9th in the league. We do not deserve to play in Europe based on our league performances and we won’t unless we win the Europa. This has made Thursday night special, because it means something. I remember that final of the CL in 2006 and I cried so hard when we lost, but I’ve been dreaming ever since that day that we would go back to the final and win it this time.
What will it mean now, when it’s pre-arranged in an NFL style competition driven strongly by the American owners of British clubs? Here it’s called football, not soccer, and I hope this is strongly disallowed, even if it means severe punishment for Arsenal and the rest of the so-called “top 6”.
This league is all about the cash. Look at the teams behind this. Barcelona are in great debt. They’ll struggle to keep Messi and hardly have the money to improve their squad, so surely they would welcome a nice cash injection falling from the sky. Real Madrid and their incredible wages? Someone has to pay those too.
AC Milan? When was the last time they qualified for the CL? Remember a good old snake called Ivan Gazidis that’s been working hard with JP Morgan to forge the deal? Is that the best club in the world JP Morgan? United have been on loan for years, surely their owners would like to make some cash? Liverpool are also a driving force behind this, and again American owners.
I can make a list long enough to cover the sun why this shouldn’t happen, but even the fact that we are in it for the same reason Spurs are in (THE MONEY) is disgraceful. I can hardly understand why City and Chelsea with their unlimited cash supplies would back this, except of the fear of missing out?
This is so shameful, because unlike other teams in that super league, we were built on values and history. What would Herbert Chapman think of this? Arsenal has always been a classy club, but what has been happening since we left Highbury for the promised land has been catastrophic. It’s just so disgusting reading how this “tournament” would “help” football. Pathetic from Arsenal to sign up for this.
I think we can all agree that FIFA and UEFA are far from exemplary governing bodies, with corruption spilling out of every exit of their buildings, and it’s not like sports haven’t seen breakouts in professional sports before. Gary Kasparov was world champion when he left FIDE and created the Professional Chess Association and even played his world championship match against Nigel Short outside of FIDEs Jurisdiction.
The Professional Darts Corporation left the British Darts Organisations and the 16 players leaving included all active former world champions at the time! This happened because the players, who are the integral cog of the product, thought the governing body doesn’t do anything to reverse the lack of coverage, therefore funds coming into the sport. But what the super league tries to do, is ensure that everybody who may or may not make it now (just like Arsenal may not), will get a free cash subscription.
Here’s where it gets tricky though. The fanbase of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United alone is probably more than a billion or even 2 billion people worldwide. Threatening to throw the founding clubs out of their respective domestic competitions disrupts football more than you can imagine. Real Madrid and Barcelona gathered 50% of all La liga revenues for years, because they are the crown jewels there. If you take them away, the TV coverage of their league would drop catastrophically and so will the money.
The same will happen to the PL if you throw out Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd alone. Imagine what will happen to Sky sports subscriptions if the premier league drops the big 6? They’ll probably be out of business. This league is only to make the rich richer, nothing else.
Executives from clubs as big as Juventus, Real Madrid, Man Utd. and so on don’t just leave their places in the ECA and other european football organisations unless this move has been carefully thought out though. So what happens next?
Hopefully there will be a massive fan backlash. Maybe it will be the final straw, that eventually tips fans to stop buying merchandise, drop their season tickets (if fans return to football any time soon) and boycott such behaviour. Clubs have been ripped out of the fans, which are basically what keeps them alive.
I respect what German clubs have done by not getting involved in this competition. Hopefully the governments across Europe will interfere here to protect the integrity of football. Respect to Jurgen Klopp for coming out and saying in a very calm fashion that the CL is the super league we need and making an opposition to decisions which have very clearly been made without the concession of the players or the coaching staff.
I wish someone at Arsenal had the bravery to do this as well. I honestly feel like Arsenal has been ripped away from me and this latest decision makes it extremely simple – Kroenke has to go. In any way shape or form possible, this leech must be obliterated from Arsenal football club. Is it possible though? I don’t know, but if we as fans want to have any dignity in supporting this club, it’s our duty to make the most possible to deny this fake “competition” and get this American leech out of the club ASAP.
Konstantin