I have to say that I'm pretty ambivalent about all this "outrage" from all and sundry.
- The Premier League was setup as a break away from the Football League in England. There was nothing altruistic about it. It was all about money, plain and simple. Sure there is relegation, but the relegated teams get a huge pot of $ relative to their Championship rivals which gives them an enormous $ injection akin to doping to increase their chances of bouncing back up. The PL complaining that someone wants to break away ... yeah, whatever. The PL loses probably 80% if its revenue of they kick the 6 out IMO.
- UEFA has bastardized the European Cup which was for the league champions, home & away knockout, to the Champions League and now to their new format, which basically means some teams (like Bayern who advocated for it) will likely always qualify, even if they have an off year. UEFA is all about $, earned on the back of the clubs. Their revamped comps BTW just mean more games for clubs, meaning bigger squads costing more $ (that they don't have to pay). Do they care about things like player welfare, do they F. Do they care about the $ to the clubs, do they F.
- UEFA has nothing. They have no venues, they have no teams, they have sweet F all. They are corrupt, money hungry
. What do they bring to the table for the clubs - a couple of competitions that the clubs can organize themselves and TV/sponsorship deals that the clubs also organize themselves.
- Some Euro leagues are patently uncompetitive - actually the reality is most are pretty uncompetitive. The same clubs share the top spots year after year. The complaints that this is about "competition" is nonsense. Leicester is an anomaly. The EPL is the most competitive league because of the money the clubs get, but that $ is only there because you have the Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. There is zero chance they get any deals like they have today without those clubs. The same for every domestic league and every Euro wide competition.
- Fans complain all the time if their club doesn't buy this player, or that player. They complain if their owners don't dip into their pocket to remain at the top table. The outrage in England in particular is hilarious. The clubs make more money from TV and global reach than any local fans. The local money is icing but not the cake. Where does the money come from. Barcelona are in debt of $1B. The 12 clubs have a collective debt of something live $4-5B. WTF do people think is going to happen from a business perspective.
- FIFA - a thoroughly crap and corrupt organization if ever there was one - complaining should give everyone pause to consider whether this is a good idea. An org that should be disbanded and buried in the dustbin of history. An org that allowed the WC to go to Qatar - where 6,500 workers have died. Where is FIFA's outrage over that, how many times have they threatened to pull it. FIFA, who are organizing their own Club WC - which clubs do you think they want to suck money out of for that?
- Agents have taken $1B out of soccer in the last few years. $1B taken out by agents. What are UEFA & FIFA doing - F all. Sure, they are making some sounds and what not, but, its not $ out of their pocket, so they couldn't give a crap. Suddenly they see a threat to their nest eggs and WOW, its all about integrity of the game ... INTEGRITY from F-ing FIFA or UEFA for that matter.
- Just as an example here, look at the Haaland rumors - $150M to buy, agent wants $20M, father wants $20M, he wants to be paid $30M annually NET. How to F do fans think this will get paid for?
I would think JP Morgan did their due diligence and this makes $ sense. These corps have the $ to fight any legal action in court. They can also wrangle huge concessions if they go back.
All the outrage, esp. from orgs that are crapping themselves as the golden geese are leaving ... F them, they are all about the $ (too).
