Bayern B*ll*x

[Ted Hughes]

Interesting that he's lauding Sir Alex Ferguson, the bloke who got Utd into the Champion's Lg by spending absolute shitloads of money year after year & then slating us for spending money. The only difference between Bob & Sir Alex is that it won't take Bob 7 years of spending shitloads of money to win a league title. (and Bobs not a piss stained drunken old cunt of course)

[ronk]

Gillie,

I would go further than that Mate. These guys have the power to say...Fuck your Champions League, It is we big clubs that attract the TV audiences and the revenue which keeps the whole thing afloat...So fuck the rest of you. We are setting up our own league, we have got the major global TV companies and major multiglobal industrial and financial giants as sponsors. We will be a multi billion dollar market and we will earn more money than you could ever dream of....THEY HAVE THAT POWER.

Furthermore...and more importantly, they also have the power to say..."...and we are keeping the fucking lot and not sharing a penny with you....and it is a private club...you are not invited.

If they shut the door and leave clubs outside permanently, then they unite those clubs against them. At the moment there's a theoretical hope and that's enough. Make it official and the situation changes, they become a rival league rather than lower divisions.

If it happens they'll go off and form a superleague with Chelsea, scum, Barcelona and so many big names. But cutting out Aston Villa, Newcastle and Spurs and Birmingham also means that they're not holding them back. They can go off and grow with the sky now being the limit.

The first thing the left behind clubs would do it look for a TV deal. Either Sky would come in with a huge money offer (okay) or a terrestrial deal could be worked out. Now how would Sky feel about a rival league with a bigger free audience? How will fans respond to free TV versus expensive alternatives. What about pubs freed from the huge fees they pay?

What you're talking about only ever works in terms of fear, uncertainty and doubt. It's only power lies in a threat where there are moderate means of bringing back the status quo. It's a bluff that won't be called as long as the hand isn't overplayed.

[Ted Hughes]

Gillie,

I would go further than that Mate. These guys have the power to say...Fuck your Champions League, It is we big clubs that attract the TV audiences and the revenue which keeps the whole thing afloat...So fuck the rest of you. We are setting up our own league, we have got the major global TV companies and major multiglobal industrial and financial giants as sponsors. We will be a multi billion dollar market and we will earn more money than you could ever dream of....THEY HAVE THAT POWER.

Furthermore...and more importantly, they also have the power to say..."...and we are keeping the fucking lot and not sharing a penny with you....and it is a private club...you are not invited.

If they shut the door and leave clubs outside permanently, then they unite those clubs against them. At the moment there's a theoretical hope and that's enough. Make it official and the situation changes, they become a rival league rather than lower divisions.

If it happens they'll go off and form a superleague with Chelsea, scum, Barcelona and so many big names. But cutting out Aston Villa, Newcastle and Spurs and Birmingham also means that they're not holding them back. They can go off and grow with the sky now being the limit.

The first thing the left behind clubs would do it look for a TV deal. Either Sky would come in with a huge money offer (okay) or a terrestrial deal could be worked out. Now how would Sky feel about a rival league with a bigger free audience? How will fans respond to free TV versus expensive alternatives. What about pubs freed from the huge fees they pay?

What you're talking about only ever works in terms of fear, uncertainty and doubt. It's only power lies in a threat where there are moderate means of bringing back the status quo. It's a bluff that won't be called as long as the hand isn't overplayed.

I would imagine that if the likes of Bayern found sponsors for a new league, City would find sponsors with 5 times as much money, for a better one. Barca, Real Madrid etc would sign up for that one.

[Chinners]

If the big boys feck off (us included) then the Prem will not florish imo ... it will just end up with the mass appeal of the current Championship. Breakaway leauge would be terrible for football whether we are in it or not. Don't forget we were one of the main clubs pushing for the Premiership thinking we'd do alright out of it ... that lasted well eh

[Ted Hughes]

If the big boys feck off (us included) then the Prem will not florish imo ... it will just end up with the mass appeal of the current Championship. Breakaway leauge would be terrible for football whether we are in it or not. Don't forget we were one of the main clubs pushing for the Premiership thinking we'd do alright out of it ... that lasted well eh

Tbh I think the Prem would do ok if a few top clubs fucked off. Obviously it would be a lower standard than the new league but there would still be a lot of big clubs left & the competition between them would become fierce. I recon the middling clubs like Villa, Birminham, Wolves would move up in stature & some of the old faves like Leeds, Sheffield Wed, Southampton would all get a new lease of life. There would also be a huge market for free loan players from the 'superleague' clubs.

When we were in the 3rd division, the idea of rags & Co fucking off & us eventually being promoted into a genuine competition, that we actually had a chance of winning, would have thrilled me.

[john68]

The Champions League is by far the richest club football competition in the World bar none. It generates figures that made me blink when I was trawling for info for the other thread.
It is those top clubs and their top players who have created the demand and generate that income via audience figures sponsors and partners. UeFA are only relevent if they have those elite clubs within their sphere.

The Prem is a good example. It is itself a private company and a breakaway from the Football League. Domestically, they attract the top players, the biggest TV audiences, the biggest sponsors and partners and generate the vast majority of the income. The football League didn't die but it suffered badly.
The same applies to the whole sport of Rugby League where SuperLeague broke away, formed its own company and the rest of the sport were left to wither and fade.

This is nothing to do with Football Clubs and the sport of Football, it is all about multiglobal football clubs, huge sums of money and greed....by invitation only.

[guv111]

Bayern needn't think that everyone has forgotten that they bought the European Cup with bribes in 1975.

[Ted Hughes]

The Champions League is by far the richest club football competition in the World bar none. It generates figures that made me blink when I was trawling for info for the other thread.
It is those top clubs and their top players who have created the demand and generate that income via audience figures sponsors and partners. UeFA are only relevent if they have those elite clubs within their sphere.

The Prem is a good example. It is itself a private company and a breakaway from the Football League. Domestically, they attract the top players, the biggest TV audiences, the biggest sponsors and partners and generate the vast majority of the income. The football League didn't die but it suffered badly.
The same applies to the whole sport of Rugby League where SuperLeague broke away, formed its own company and the rest of the sport were left to wither and fade.

This is nothing to do with Football Clubs and the sport of Football, it is all about multiglobal football clubs, huge sums of money and greed....by invitation only.

Football in this country is almost unique though. Imagine when we were in that final v Gillingham if someone had told us rags, Liverpool Arsenal & whoever were leaving the Prem. It wouldn't have mattered a shit. Then imagine how long all the fans of other teams would stay glued to watching Manure v Barca if Manure no longer played in our league system if there was a top of the table domestic clash on the other channel at the same time.

Sure, the big money would follow the big clubs but I recon Newcastle fans for example, would be watching Everton v Wolves rather than us v AC Milan, if they were all challenging for the Prem title & the result mattered to their chances.

[john68]

That is a fair point Ted but think on to the future. There is now a new generation that have no idea what football was like pre Prem. They accept what is around just because it is all they know.

Increasingly, TV is dominating where many fans allegiances lie. It used to be the local club but with the advent of Sky, Fans can follow their chosen team from anywhere in the World.
Also consider the local or domestic audiences. Compared to the global markets that the elite group are chasing, our domestic market is insignificant.

Some years ago, I had a conversation with a rags about them possibly moving from manchester to take up residency in the then proposed new Wembley. He used the argument that the local fans would never wear it. In honesty, the local fans would have only costituted a tiny percentage of their market. The rags would never have missed them, probably not even noticed they were gone.

[Rag_hater]

I think if the rags and the old G clubs fuck off to make a euro league then football in the prem will not suffer at all.And why are AC and Bayern etc gonna join a league they have little chance of winning whilst if they stay in their domestic leagues they will continually be a top club.Give that up to be a midtable club.I don't think so.

[zuricity]

A G14 league is a none starter. fans simply cannot take the amount of time off every other week to traipse all over europe. So you are restricted to seeing your team at home, akin to american football, where tv replays actually dictate the nature of the game. No way would games be fair, without tv replays, goal line tech, etc.

I'd be happy if united were to piss off to some g14 league after one season , it would be empty stadia, as it is now quite often in many countries.

[Bluez]

He doesn't seem to realise we are closer to meeting FFP than he thinks. We already have a huge increase in revenue over the last 12 months, top of the table, Champions league we have never had before and as we don't have any debt we start the season from 0.
The last huge loss was buying most of a team in one go and salaries paid to players signed before the FFP was signed do not count to the final figure but they do to the headline figure.

Clubs like Man Utd start the season on something like - 30 million due to interest payments.

[BlueinBosnia]

Football in this country is almost unique though. Imagine when we were in that final v Gillingham if someone had told us rags, Liverpool Arsenal & whoever were leaving the Prem. It wouldn't have mattered a shit. Then imagine how long all the fans of other teams would stay glued to watching Manure v Barca if Manure no longer played in our league system if there was a top of the table domestic clash on the other channel at the same time.

Sure, the big money would follow the big clubs but I recon Newcastle fans for example, would be watching Everton v Wolves rather than us v AC Milan, if they were all challenging for the Prem title & the result mattered to their chances.

That's a brilliant point.

People in Bosnia literally cannot grasp the idea that I don't really mind missing watching City games in the Champions League (I watched 3.5 of our fixtures), but at the same time will be glued to the screen for an entire afternoon of Prem football (have missed 1 of our games all season). I get comments like 'oh you're not a real fan, then' and 'how can you not care about the biggest football competition in the world?' from people who haven't even been inside a football stadium for the past 10 years, because 'there's no big games' or 'it's too much hassle'. Totally different football supporting angle. They also don't believe that English clubs rarely sell out for CL group games.

The CL has been marketed by UEFA as the be-all-and-end-all of footballing entertainment, and it's only really us and the Krauts (minus Bayern fans) who haven't bought into it.

[Chinners]

Spot on BIB. I'm old skool like that as well, I want us to dominate domestically first and then go and try to win the champs league. If we had won it this season of course I'd have been delighted but it would have felt like a cheat, only champions should be in that imo.

[BlueinBosnia]

Spot on BIB. I'm old skool like that as well, I want us to dominate domestically first and then go and try to win the champs league. If we had won it this season of course I'd have been delighted but it would have felt like a cheat, only champions should be in that imo.

I think I'm even older skool than you. The CL simply fails to raise the slightest bit of interest in me, full stop. I can't afford to travel abroad to games, will never be able to get a ticket to the final even if we're in it, don't agree with the heavy and strict commercialisation of it, and feel it makes a mockery of many of the values that I like in football.

[Chinners]

Agreed ... I was thinking more of the old European cup tbh but typed CL out of habit

[Rag_hater]

The CL IMO is what more or less a Euro league would be.
I don't think the big clubs will want to fuck off and make there own super league when there is this source of money.
They would be shooting themselves in the foot

[Hazy2]

The CL IMO is what more or less a Euro league would be.
I don't think the big clubs will want to fuck off and make there own super league when there is this source of money.
They would be shooting themselves in the foot

The CL is the mini bus the G14 hired to break away and when the time comes they will be gone. How football clubs outside the clique throughout Europe has not got together and ushered them out is beyond me. 20 odd years of getting shed loads of dough they the G14 are seeing MCFC come along with PSG and Mlaga and the Russian mob Anzni with or without the CL we are still richer than them, That was not in there biz plans, take away the CL they are fooked. So the next plan has top be break away and games popping all over the planet. Money is king for clubs and players.The hold up is Barca and Madrid who have a very nice arrangement going on in Spain despite the hatred the TV deal is bob on for them.

[guv111]

Spot on BIB. I'm old skool like that as well, I want us to dominate domestically first and then go and try to win the champs league. If we had won it this season of course I'd have been delighted but it would have felt like a cheat, only champions should be in that imo.

I think I'm even older skool than you. The CL simply fails to raise the slightest bit of interest in me, full stop. I can't afford to travel abroad to games, will never be able to get a ticket to the final even if we're in it, don't agree with the heavy and strict commercialisation of it, and feel it makes a mockery of many of the values that I like in football.

Same here. I thought I'd be excited to see City playing in the CL, but I could never drum up much interest in it at all. The prestige of City qualifying was far more enjoyable than the actual competition.

[BlueinBosnia]

Spot on BIB. I'm old skool like that as well, I want us to dominate domestically first and then go and try to win the champs league. If we had won it this season of course I'd have been delighted but it would have felt like a cheat, only champions should be in that imo.

I think I'm even older skool than you. The CL simply fails to raise the slightest bit of interest in me, full stop. I can't afford to travel abroad to games, will never be able to get a ticket to the final even if we're in it, don't agree with the heavy and strict commercialisation of it, and feel it makes a mockery of many of the values that I like in football.

Same here. I thought I'd be excited to see City playing in the CL, but I could never drum up much interest in it at all. The prestige of City qualifying was far more enjoyable than the actual competition.

Actually, can one of the legends get a poll going about this? Something along the lines of:

"If a breakaway European league were to be formed, with teams involved being required to totally sever ties with their own countries' leagues and other domestic competitions, would you want City involved?"