Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has warned the Premier League that the biggest threat to its existence is the proposed European Super League.
Six Premier League clubs joined others from Spain and Italy to form the Super League last year.
However, they faced a serious fan backlash in the aftermath, and the EPL clubs pulled out of the agreement within 48 hours.
The power they possess was evident by the temporary collapse of the idea when they all backed out.
However, Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid have continued to push for its success.
They have been fighting in the courts, but it is unlikely that Premier League clubs will join again.
Wenger spent two decades as manager in the English top flight, and he was asked to predict its future. He told Sky Sports:
“What I would say, the Premier League has become the biggest league in the world today, where is the threat?
“Threat comes from the Super League.
“I was really amazed that six clubs signed up for the Super League, because that is the main threat.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It is hard to see the Super League idea become a success again, but the EPL must be careful not to underestimate the comeback ability of its protagonist.
The competition must do its best to stop its club from joining it, and that will significantly weaken it.
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Wenger is probably right that it’s the “biggest” challenge to the PL but the author is also right that it’s unlikely to happen.
When the 6 PL clubs pulled out it wasn’t so much the clubs’ power that was in evidence, it was the *collective* power of their supporters.
If one club pulls out, they’d be replaced. When 6 out of 12 pull out the whole thing is dead in the water and they only did that because their supporters protested very loudly.
The reality is that clubs didn’t duck out of the ESL because they gave in to the fans’ viewpoint, but because they realised that the fans would not give in to the clubs’ wishes – if the fans are angry about the ESL they will boycott it, which means there’s no money in it (and in the meantime the club may get chucked out of the official competitions which is a lose-lose scenario).
Supporters Trusts should work together more, I don’t think they realise the power they have – football is only interesting to business because of money, so if fans stop paying, there’s no money in it for them.
On principle, I stopped paying to watch live games on TV years ago when the price of Sky Sports became obscene. If enough people did that, football would become unattractive to the business types.
It has been made very clear that any PL team opting out to join the so called super league would never be able to return.
I did acknowledge the reasoning that Josh Kronkie gave, but the backlash from supporters was so extreme and collective, it was inevitable that the idea would fail.
AW predicted the idea that a “super league” could happen, warning about the consequences of it.
If he is still concerned, we should all be ready to react in the same way again and let the kronkie’s know we, as supporters and fans, would boycott it as vehemently as before.
I’ve lost track of the legal cases (better things to do tbh) but last I saw Juventus/Barc/RM were trying to push through various legal challenges – one of them iirc was to prevent clubs being banned by national or European associations.
The ESL business model was based on clubs also playing in domestic leagues. They wanted 15 permanent members and 5 who qualified each year based on performance in their national leagues. Obviously they can only do that if the clubs are also playing in their national leagues, so they’d need legal confirmation that they can’t be hoofed out.
The idea of permanent members is the worst part of this. It means 15 clubs setting themselves up as permanently the biggest, richest clubs and the others chasing crumbs from their table. That’s not sport, that’s business – and bad business at that.
It seems you and I are certainly on the same page Ken – that fans must boycott it if it happens. I lost faith in fan power when they accepted the ludicrous fees TV broadcasters charge, but I was really happy to see that they came out in force against the ESL. I can only hope that if it actually goes ahead in future that fans won’t pay to watch it – voting with their wallets is the true power of supporters.
I don’t think politicians will allow the break up of our domestic league and then for them to go play a (European super league) I’m sure they would change legislation to make
Clubs and the competition listed or of national interest….
OT..
Palace playing well, our first half performance looks more controlled than Liverpools, although they have most of the possession they look a bit flat… but I expect Liverpool to score….
Eze is a real talent
Yes Zaha scored but it was eze who created that chance with some great skill. Unfortunately Zaha spends to much time on the floor but is a menace 😬
He should’ve scored again. I don’t like Zaha he’s like Sterling all they do is complain
The EPL is bigger than any ESL and most European teams know that, that is why it is a little more desired out of England. The whole history and set up behind English football is too big to be pawned off into a spurious Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona run competition. It wont happen in English football, they need us greater than we need their Mafia style influence.
OT Zaha’s goal!!! He’s still got it!!! Could HE be out mystery winger 🤔🤔🤔Only joking, but I wouldn’t say no, even now!!!
And now… the Nunez red card and the overall result!
Liverpuddle not having the best start to the season and it seems Darwin will get a long ban for that – he provoked the Palace guy with the first go then when he got shoved, delivered a full-on headbutt. Minimum 3 game ban? Could be longer.
Palace are looking pretty good to be fair – they may have lost 0-2 at home to us but they had injuries and their pre-season split their squad in two, so we may have been lucky when we played them (Vieira said in post-match interview “this game came too early for us”).
I suspect they’ll be up around the top 8 this year contesting the EL places.
Good run and finish by Zaha, but the way Eze controlled that ball out of the air under some pressure, leaves two Liverpool players dead in the water and threads it through perfectly for Zaha… excellent.
It seems our academy got that one wrong 🙁
Interesting to see palace attack Liverpools right side, like they did us, and their goal came from that side to. Palace away is a massive banana skin for a lot of the top teams it’s looking better than first thought our victory there..🤔
Good point, it seemed likely vs us that they saw a player (White) not playing in his best position, but perhaps it’s a tactic they plan to do anyway (unless they see Liverpool’s right side as weaker too).
We might’ve dodged a bullet by playing them in the first game though – Vieira said the game came too early for them. They had injuries (3?) and their pre-season was stuffed up when half their squad were not allowed into the country on their tour (sounds like their admin people need to shape up a bit?).
I feel a bit sorry for Palace – not only the issues above, but they play us, Liverpool away, then City away in week 4. That’s a seriously tough start that could sap the belief from their side early in the season.
How and why is this non story about a corpse that was killed by hanging drawing and quartering by fan power Europe wide being touted as a possibility? It is a dead parrot. It has ceased to be . Bereft of life, it has gone to meet its maker. and has joined the choir invisible. But likie a downmarket Dracula film, JA HOUSE OF HORROR , seeks to try reviving it.
This non story is about as believable as a Dracula fantasy movie. At least Transylvania exists, which is more than you can say for this nonsense article.
If it wasn’t so laughable, it might have been reading, if only for fantasy value!
When clubs like Leeds Utd & Nottingham Forest fought for long years to get back into the PL only to be deserted like is sad and it must never be allowed to happen, we as fans must reject this idea all out.