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This one is (as far as I can tell) is basically because they've priced the 16-24 year old market out of watching their teams legally. So they look at their data and see no one in that age bracket is watching anymore, when in reality they're all still watching just on illegal streams because they can't afford anything else!

All 12 teams should be banned from European competition for at least two years along with a hefty fine that goes directly into grassroots football. It won't happen in all likelihood, but that's the outcome I'm hoping to see.

Thats exactly what it is, if you are negotiating with someone you need to be in a strong enough position to walk away and move onto an alternative. I think this proposal is just that at the moment, these big European clubs will be prepared to start this alternative format if they can get away with it but I think the ultimate goal is to have more power and control within the current structure. And obviously more share of the financial pie as well. They are acting like a cartel and its up to the governing bodies and other clubs to make sure they don't get away with it. I made a

Pep making about as strong a statement against it as we've seen from the clubs involved, right now:

I think to be honest, a lot of people involved at those clubs will be taking in as much information as possible, seeing how things play out for a bit longer, before deciding how they want to respond. They're employees of these clubs first and foremost and need to be careful how they approach something that genuinely might just go away without their input. Every one of them that comes out and condemns it in any way is great, Milner last night for example did it during his interview and his post match tweet about qualifying for the CL. But I'm slightly hesitant to say that Tuchel, for examp

I saw some of it, yeah. The man is also the chairman of the ESL as it stands, it's not particularly surprising. I didn't see an ounce of credit in his theory that this would save football. He said without the ESL, football would end by 2024, which is absolute madness. I don't know how he has the gall to say football federations and associations are simply scaremongering when he comes out with crap like that. Goes on about poor ickle Real Madrid with their money problems too, I'd like to see him face up to a Bury fan with that crap.

People being thankful for Steve Gibson with this ESL launching. Wasn't he fully in support of giving the top 6 clubs all the power when he was all pally with Parry about a breakaway league? He's propsing the exact same thing as the big 6 to clubs further down the league and football pyramid?

I'm desperate for us to win this, but yeah, a Rotherham win would put them a point behind Derby with 2 games in hand, they could do it. Derby and Sheffield Wednesday both going down would be a beautiful karmic punishment to terrible owners.

They should be made to have Warnock, Monk and Strachan as their managers for a couple of years.

Chelsea are apparently submitting documentation to withdraw from the ESL. Sanity might yet reign. Good on the Chelsea fans for keeping up the pressure.

Its hard to know fully what the consequences of something like that would be. The Premier league product without the big 6 would not be as desirable to TV companies especially overseas, there's no doubt about that. Obviously then the income of every other club would drop and big name players would move on. Commercially it would probably be a bad idea but wouldn't it be great if sporting competition and integrity were put above that.

It’s a Wednesday game and today is only Tuesday!

The arrogance of these owners is incredible. They assume that if they ask the fans to jump, they'll say "how high?"... If they ask the fans to watch their new league, they'll say "what channel?", If they ask the fans to pay more of their hard earned money for it, they'll say "how much?"... They assume we watch football for entertainment. And that we want more of it. We don't follow football for entertainment. We follow it because... it's just what we do. How often do you feel "entertained" at a football match or watching your team on TV? Occasionally at best. And yet here we still are...

Sorry but the damage has been done. Chelsea and Man City both tried to pull a fast one on their supporters, now they're backing down. At least have the courage of your conviction. All 6 teams should be heavily punished by the FA. Massive fines/points deductions, whatever it takes to ensure they don't try this again.

Well it killed a few periods of boredom and allowed us to work off some righteous indignation about the evils of modern football. 😁

Well what a waste of energy that was.

Very disappointed MFC have not made a statement. We might never be a 'small town in Europe' again but I'll be gutted if we don't fight for the right for someone else to be. All 86 clubs are in this together. We need to protect our national sport and community clubs from foreign billionaire parasites while we still can.

Must admit, the giant outdoor soft play in the stadiums sounds fun!

Warnock may entertain today, but you will be sadly disappointed if you are expecting a game of football as well... last time I looked, it kicks off tomorrow at 6pm 🙂

Football being played in empty Stadiums has probably confirmed to the owners that fans are simply an irrelevance as the broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals still came flooding in. Gate money is important but with the potential riches for these Clubs it pales almost into insignificance. I'm guessing these Clubs may rake in say £60M from Season ticket sales but they are now talking Billions. Next they will see the rules changing to make handball only illegal in the 18 yard box and offside scrapped as it disrupts the flow and results in less goals. The actual goals themselves will be m

Seems likely. His interview this evening was batshit crazy. He sounded like he had more than a screw loose

Scene 1: Ext (Evening). [Neil Warnock, Kevin Blackwell and their wives are sitting in patio chairs under a full moon. A half-eaten sherry trifle slowly melts beside the patio heater] MRS B: And that was when the budgie fell into the mince! [Everyone laughs apart from Warnock, who is staring into space] MRS W: It’s so nice to be socialising again, even if it is outside. We had some great nights back in Rotherham, didn’t we? MRS B: Best three months of my life. I really miss catching up without watching the bushes in case the neighbours are spying on our car in the drive

Sounds like this could have been the tipping point that convinced them all to back out. FA told them they'd be kicked out of all domestic comps and the Government was willing to change laws to make it happen.

So now what happens? Do we go back to normal? Are we back to talking about 'the greatest league in the world' every week? Are we happy that foreign billionaires are destroying the identities of our clubs? Are we happy with the diving and cheating that happens every game? Are we happy with VAR? Are we happy that working class fans are being priced out of the game? Are we happy with corrupt organisations running the game? This could be a catalyst for things to change in football but I bet things will quickly go back to normal.

So you reckon Bettinelli will be back in goal tomorrow?

It's okay, I feel the same way. I hope Rotherham beat us tomorrow night. We have nothing to play for, and I'd much rather Derby go down than them. In fact make it blatantly obvious we're throwing the game, really *** that cheating *** Mel Morris off 🙂

Yeah was "always going in the summer anyway" wink wink.

Well if you have an online account, the official website should be fine. https://www.skysports.com/watch/sky-sports-football

To a point, but he can't make the team defend better. A lot of the goals we've conceded are from individual cock ups, they have nothing to do with NW. Sure he could change the way we play which overall might help, but he can't physically make players stop making the mistakes they're making..

I can't imagine why. I mean, surely they know they can count on all those "fans of the future" to throw their support and money at the ESL? 😁 Or possibly they just found out that what Smogzilla & Duvel said is correct - that the whole thing was a charade, aimed at extorting more money and control? I hope this is the case. But even so, the clubs (or their owners at least) will always now be tainted for their involvement.

I don't think he was saying it about the majority of the squad, he was going on about the 3 or 4 players who think he's the problem which was possibly related to the 'clique' comments he made. But that's probably because those 3 or 4 aren't on board with him right now, for whatever reason that is. It's not like he's wandering the halls of Rockliffe a lonely man, he still seems to have the majority of the dressing room on his side from his point of view.

Well thats just abdicating responsibility and extremely poor management. Its one thing to throw 1 or 2 problem players under the bus, but if he's saying that about the majority of the squad, several of whom have been brought in under his tenure, then he has no business being in football management. I mean thats worse than Mourinho!

Looks like NW is happy to take his last job and isnt really interested in making long term relationships with these players. just saying what he likes.

I certainly think it's an interesting thing to consider, if we broke off from them or simply banned them from competing alongside us until they put this stupid idea to bed, how the broadcasters would react. Who would they follow? Sky, for example, right now are protecting the Premier League with all the power they can. It's beneficial for them to do that. But if we split from those 6 and they had the opportunity of buying into what those clubs do next or just sticking by the Premier League and the EFL, what would they do? It seems like it should be an easy answer, follow the clubs with th

I think it is partly this, but also partly seeing if they could if that makes sense. If the breakaway comes to fruition, great that suits them. If it doesn't, but they force UEFA into more changes that suit those clubs, great. In a horrible way it is a bit win/win for them, the only caveat to that is if all the governing bodies come together and punish them at this stage. Which might potentially drive them to can the idea completely or drive them to push it through anyway.

I'm still not entirely convinced this isn't just an elaborate attempt to force uefa/fifa into more financial concessions for the big clubs. The ESL just seems so unworkable. They face legal challenges from all angles.

Warnock has hinted a few times in recent weeks about Saville and Spence having to prove themselves. Quite scary to think we could loose Betteneli, Archer, Stoj, Coulson, Spence, Saville, Wing, Johnson, Bolasie, Kebano, NML, Britt, Fletcher and Akpom this summer. It’s a big ass rebuilding job this summer. add in the effects of COVID on the clubs finances, Brexit and who you can and can’t sign and it’s such a huge task. add in an inept recruitment department and we could very well be sat on deadline day with the lights off at the Riverside and Warnock on SSN saying we are ho

If we played the U23s I'd actually give us a chance of winning. The guaranteed way to help Rotherham is for Warnock to pick the usual suspects. 😉

If anyone wants a rundown, this reddit thread is updating with his quotes: https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/mubvcb/florentino_perez_interview_in_el_chiringuito_de/?sort=top

So happy that MNF has spent virtually the entirety of the programming condemning the very idea of the ESL. So impressed by James Milner having the strength, whilst captaining Liverpool, to come out against it in his post match interview.

That's a fair point although I'd guess he'll be getting fully paid up either way. As this happens with him at every club, maybe it's no longer worth offering him anything longer than a one year deal, if you want him that is.

I agree, but I think the timing makes sense, if he wins the league cup at the weekend and they sack him after that it leaves them open to an unfair dismissal case, similar to the one with Conte, they brought him in to win a trophy, they can't then argue he was a failure if they were to win it while he was still at the club.

I don't think it's supposed to be a secret but the three cliquey lot causing disruption are Warnock, Blackwell and Jepson.

So RA then me .. got it

Well "more valid" in their eyes means "spend more money". They're just businessmen being businessmen...they follow the money and to hell with anything else. They understand nothing about football, or the history, tradition or heritage of the clubs they've bought. All they see are dollar signs. Club badges are just marketable brands. This has been going on for quite a while, albeit at a lower level, pretty much since the PL was created, but as Wilson said, its good to finally see the naked greed of these people thrust into the limelight. If any fans had any lingering doubts

It's like I said yesterday, they want franchises, where the actual location becomes far less important, and is simply about widening the potential broadcasting revenues. At the moment, the biggest/richest clubs in the world happen to be based in a handful of countries in Europe but there are billions of people who don't live in those countries. Why care about a Merseyside derby? Why care about basing your team in Liverpool at all? Put it in New York or Shanghai or Cairo. Have a global competition for the global fans, with kick off times spread out so everyone can watch a game at a conveni

Of all the offensive aspects of this proposal, it's the use of the phrase "legacy fans" that really makes bile creep up my throat. As if Qatari and Chinese subscribers to ESL+ TV will be more valid than people who actually support(ed) the clubs.

I don't know whether you've misunderstood my post or whether I have made my point very well, but let me make one thing clear. I don't think anything about this proposal is good, its a disgrace and I'd be over the moon if the 6 of them were turfed out for good. What I was saying is that all this moral outrage should have been happening years ago. The game that most of us grew up loving has been gradually eroded over the last few decades. It isn't about the fans or sporting integrity at the top, its about pure greed and has been for years. Just because the current system is better th

What currently exists is an imbalance, it's an imperfect system that is weighted in favour of clubs with more wealth who are more willing and able to capitalise and increase that wealth. But the system is still there, the possibility is still there for someone to challenge that, even if it requires investment to do so. 10 years ago, Leicester were in the same position we were, mid-table mediocrity in the Championship. Where are they now? I'm not saying we will end up there by any means but someone in our position could in 10 years be doing what Leicester are doing now with the right investment