Banter RDT 158 - Beers at Badgers

[HoneyBadger35]

If this thing goes ahead, I can see other clubs who qualify each season for this new league bypassing it in favour of the established UCL.

However, I don't think it will go ahead. Maybe, if it becomes a fully-fledged standalone comp (all breakaway clubs participate solely in the European League, adrift from their domestic leagues).

Thing is, it probably won’t go ahead. The Champions League is about to undergo a stupid format change that also helps protect investments by adding a past performance component. Talk of adding in more rounds, more teams, another tier to the European pyramid. You can finish last in your domestic league but if you’ve been a mainstay of the UEFA tournaments you can receive a wildcard berth.

The rich clubs are using this threat to basically get the UEFA changes they want, but they’ll keep trotting this out every six months until they get all competitions exactly in their image. It’s not the clubs or the fans, it’s a handful of entitled billionaires ruining it for everyone.

 

[Truckosaurus]

My imagination or is this the worst smoke haze Perth has ever had?

From burn off's maybe, but it was worse from the bushfire in the hills in the summer I think.

 

[Bender_]

From burn off's maybe, but it was worse from the bushfire in the hills in the summer I think.

Being in lock down at the time I guess most people may not have noticed.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Spend, spend, spend, spend, spend, but then a team like Leicester dares win a title, West Ham dare to push for Europe and its time to take your ball and go home.

Now the finances are cooked and you’ve decided sporting merit isn’t fun anymore. Does anyone have a banker mate that can sort this out? Piss off then. Have your Super League and if it goes bust then come back via the Conference North eighth division.

 

[ashley12]

These changes are just extensions of what has already happened for both the Premier League (project big six as mentioned by Badge) and the UCL (25 years ago only the top team from each country got it, and now its up to 5 from the biggest nations.

I'm for the project, only because there is a very good chance that UEFA comes down (which is what I am here for). It was already a shitshow driven by the rich, might as well bring down FIFA/UEFA while we are at it.

 

[MKMatty]

I’d probably stop following my club or defect if this league came in.

 

[Dazzler9]

I would gladly support a breakaway league in footy though.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

I would gladly support a breakaway league in footy though.

It’s a very different ball game to this though. The current footy format exists without any promotion and relegation, no global reach needing some sort of “Champions League” style best of the best tournament. Salary caps ensure that money isn’t the be all and end all, where some clubs inviting themselves to a monster pool of cash that’s inaccessible to the rest can pretend it’s merit based when they bring that big lump of cash back to the main domestic league. There’s an evening up system through the draft.

I could get around the addition of an FA Cup style tournament, like they’ve added in the Aussie Soccer world, but I don’t think it would really flourish. We consume football differently, most fans would have an AFL team and a preferred WAFL/VFL/SANFL side because of the way the comps are set up. The talent disparity is too big, and the “reward” for West Coast coming to town to play Frankston isn’t nearly the same as it is when a Man City gets drawn to travel to Crawley.

The AFL can get ****ed and a breakaway league with a shred of logic applied to it would have my support, but it’s not comparable to this morning’s soccer situation.

 

[Dazzler9]

It’s a very different ball game to this though. The current footy format exists without any promotion and relegation, no global reach needing some sort of “Champions League” style best of the best tournament. Salary caps ensure that money isn’t the be all and end all, where some clubs inviting themselves to a monster pool of cash that’s inaccessible to the rest can pretend it’s merit based when they bring that big lump of cash back to the main domestic league. There’s an evening up system through the draft.

I could get around the addition of an FA Cup style tournament, like they’ve added in the Aussie Soccer world, but I don’t think it would really flourish. We consume football differently, most fans would have an AFL team and a preferred WAFL/VFL/SANFL side because of the way the comps are set up. The talent disparity is too big, and the “reward” for West Coast coming to town to play Frankston isn’t nearly the same as it is when a Man City gets drawn to travel to Crawley.

The AFL can get f’ed and a breakaway league with a shred of logic applied to it would have my support, but it’s not comparable to this morning’s soccer situation.

Agreed.

 

[Bender_]

I do enjoy day-dreaming about being an tech billionaire and owning the Eagles just so I could do certain "* yous" to the AFL. Like deliberately spending over the soft cap for the off-field staff just coz I had the money to not care about the AFL's attempt to decrease the gap in clubs that cannot make themselves financially viable due either poor management or a saturated market. I also like to imagine pulling the team from the league the second Gil signed the 50 year MCG contract and telling him to * off we wouldn't be playing until it was rescinded.

I'd also sleep on a big pile of money with many beautiful women.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

I'd also sleep on a big pile of money with many beautiful women.

You should become a BigFooty mod.

 

[Keys]

You should become a BigFooty mod.

And join the establishment? Pfft

 

[Keys]

No interest in soccer and not across the finer details of this new league. However...

Seeing “merchant banker” and “breakaway league “ in the same sentence is never, ever a good thing. The ever increasing monetisation of sport is inversely proportional to its connection to the fans who are the bedrock of its popularity in the first place.

So I cannot see a scenario where this is a good thing. It’s being driven by billionaires for their own benefit at the expense of supporters and whatever remaining integrity sport has

Name one sport that has actually become better as a result of more money being pumped into it - and I’m not talking more popular, that’s a different argument, but actually better in a pure sense

 

[MrKK]

You should become a BigFooty mod.

Just paid for your new house!

 

[THE A5]

My imagination or is this the worst smoke haze Perth has ever had?

Should have seen the haze in Fremantle. It was actually purple

 

[THE A5]

So is Leeds in the super league?

 

[Mr Eagle]

You should become a BigFooty mod.

Moderatorhood: where delusions of adequacy can be put to good use.

 

[Mr Eagle]

So is Leeds in the super league?

Oh no, Leeds is much too northern and working class for that.

You know, like uhhhh... Manchester... and Liverpool...

 

[HoneyBadger35]

So is Leeds in the super league?

No, we’re about to be in the Champions League though when these money grabbing pricks get booted from the comp

Not exactly a Super League either when your participants lose to newly promoted Leeds, Fulham and West Brom.

 

[HoneyBadger35]

Jose Mourinho sacked at Spurs to continue the complete madness of these past 24 hours.

 

[kane249]

First 'casualty' of the announcement

Jose Mourinho refused to lead Tottenham players onto the ground for training in protest of the big 12 announcement apparently, and has now been sacked.

6 days out before they were due to play in the League Cup final.

 

[THE A5]

Jose Mourinho sacked at Spurs to continue the complete madness of these past 24 hours.

So he becomes the first super league coach to be sacked.

 

[kane249]

Read somewhere players and managers at the clubs involved had no idea this was due to drop today, the owners were the only ones who knew what was happening.

It hasn't sat well with people within the clubs.

 

[Dazzler9]

It won't happen.

 

[MrKK]

First 'casualty' of the announcement

Jose Mourinho refused to lead Tottenham players onto the ground for training in protest of the big 12 announcement apparently, and has now been sacked.

6 days out before they were due to play in the League Cup final.

Jose is a genius, now gets to claim he was sacked for taking a principled stand rather than for being years past it.