Question:
According to some football experts, a new "European Super League"
will inevitably succeed the current Champions League within the next
decades. That means the top clubs of the best leagues in Europe will
leave the national competitions in favour of a new supra-national
European Super League.
Now I ask you.What do you think about this plan? Would you support or
reject it? Please, give some reasons.
So far as I am concerned, the plan ought to be trashed as soon as
possible. The only thing behind is to make more money and it is
absolutely against the interest of the fans. Only a few people are
rich enough to follow their own team around whole Europe to watch
live the away matches. But that's it. The officials of these
influential clubs want the fans to pay for a commercial tv account.
In addition, good old traditional football events would become
history, e.g. derbies like Everton v Liverpool or Schalke v Borussia
Dortmund etc.. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against modern
ideas if they are useful. But if FC Barcelona v ManU becomes usual
business, it, in the long run, cannot be regarded as an equal
replacement for those local rivaltries which are usually drawing big
crowds. But instead of being a seasonal highlight it will loose it's
pulling power.
The remaining clubs, however, will be involved in a more or less
boring national competition without the best players.
Please allow me a brief excourse to German Icehockey.
A few years ago, the German Icehockey Bundesliga was booming, booming
and nothing but booming. Then they have had the wonderful idea to
copy the NHL.They created new clubnames with NHL touch, e.g. "Star
Bulls Rosenheim" (in order to push merchandising) and without
relegation and promotion. And what, do you believe, has happened?
Right, it didn''t, or better, it doesn't work. The league have lost a
large number of fans and spectators because they were mocked.
What I intend to explain is that one can go to far with
revolutionary new ideas. Yes, football is booming. But the annual
change of rules and modes by UEFA/FIFA leads to general disgust. It
sometimes reminds me off the excessing bureaucracy in Brussels which
has unfortunately the same effect: to raise indifference.
Answer:
the question becomes, of course: if this thing *does* come into
existence, over our dead bodies, will you plunk down the money to watch
the matches?
and i guarantee you that enough people who would bemoan the mere existence
of such a league now would pay the US$20/match or therebouts to watch a
ESL match to make it worthwhile for the league fathers. *that's* the sad
thing, and i dare say that european football fans have even less spine to
stand up and not pay the dough for such a bad idea than american fans do.
chuck, who [as much as he's come to love soccer] can't even bring himself to
put money into american *cable*, let alone satellite, to watch matches.
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