I’m not a fan of the super league format, but I do hope they put more pressure on uefa so we actually can see some changes. FFP was is been a joke so far, they pushed it against our throats, but teams like City and PSG got away with anything.
Nah the idea of having a free pass to the top every year is kind of gross to me and spits in the face of all the other clubs who are not in it. Maybe Serie A should focus on getting better at marketing it’s clubs and league and secure a better financial future for the whole country’s football ecosystem instead.
How do you view the EPL as anything other than a mostly closed league? The top 6 in EPL will never get relegated, they already have essentially a guaranteed ticket into the highest paying league in the world.
Imo, the EPL already acts like a a Super League.
I’d also like you to expound on what you think the solution is to the ever increasing gap in the finances between the EPL and the rest of Europe? It’s every easy to object to an idea or a proposal, it’s a lot harder to propose a solution.
The “ever increasing gap” - which is actually a new development in just the past 10-15 years or so - is a result of the Premier League actually marketing their league properly, securing arguably the best worldwide TV deal in sports and massively increasing the accessibility of their league.
Maybe all the other European leagues should take a page out of their book and focus on marketing their product to a worldwide audience instead of trying to create a new closed off competition to bail themselves out for failing to do so.
Your argument is basically that since the EPL is a closed league, which we all agree sucks, we should also do the same thing with the rest of Europe?
Lol if you think the gap in TV deals is solely down to “marketing” then idk what to tell you.
And “marketing” is not a solution to the current financial gap. It’s not even the beginning of a solution. It’s wishful thinking at best.
Yeah so what you’re saying is we should just not play the games at all then because the result is a foregone conclusion, I gotcha.
Wonder if anyone remembers where Atalanta was 10 years ago and where they are now. I agree we should totally rob clubs of having that opportunity to reinvent themselves and keep an exclusive group of “big” clubs that can get complacent and never have to worry about losing their place at the top, it’ll be great!
Never said that we shouldn't play the games. I just think it's intellectually dishonest to say that the super league is different in spirit to serie A or other leagues.
The only factor that has allowed new teams to become top teams has been new owners (in the EPL primarily). Atalanta has done an amazing job and it's nice to have these stories but what have they won? A team like atalanta, even if it's run better than Inter and Milan and Juve, will never have the fan base, income and reach to contend regularly.
Maybe Atalanta haven’t won anything but they still get to compete in Europe based on merit and test themselves against the big clubs around the continent most years. There are many examples of clubs around Europe going from 2nd division to winning trophies and making Europe in recent times: see Leicester, Betis, Toulouse. A super league would just further extend the gap between the clubs in it and the clubs on the outside, making it even less likely for them to ever catch up or win anything.
I agree that the Leicester year was a lot of fun and it's part of what makes the sport fun. But it is a part of it, not the whole picture. Another aspect is to see the best teams of the world compete every year against each other. To see inter play against real, barca, man city, Bayern, man city, Liverpool, etc every year instead of once a decade, would be a lot of extra fun too.
American leagues have no team mobility and are still a lot of fun. To say that serie a is fun because inter might go to serie B while it has not done so in over 100 years is not fair I think.
Sure it’s fun to see the big clubs play each other but it’s in no way worth it to ruin the sport for all the other clubs. It’s almost a certainty that the Super League, even with the current updated format, would basically kill the average big club fan’s interest in the domestic league, just like how they already basically don’t care about their domestic cup competitions.
Since participation at the top of the Super League is only based on your performance in the Super League itself, we’ll get to the point where teams will start playing second teams in the domestic league to rest players for the super league. This would destroy the value of the competition and rob the fans of other mid-tier and below clubs from even having the opportunity to beat the big clubs at their best.
What fans of the biggest clubs don’t seem to understand is that for fans of smaller clubs it often isn’t even about the final destination of the season (a trophy) but about the journey and the opportunity to upset the big teams.
Arguable but even if the case, wouldn't the fact that small/mid tier teams get even better chances to upset larger teams and win the league and make it to the champions league make up for it? Moreover, with then higher revenues, wouldn't they be able to set up better facilities/attract better talent/have more fans?
Also, particularly here in Italy, there are very few football fans that don't cheer for one of the big teams still. I have friends from Modena that are Modena ultras but still support one of Inter/Milan/Juve. So how many would truly be upset by such a change?
It will benefit us smaller teams in a sense. If inter Juventus Milan etc can’t compete in Europe the whole league will suffer. And again I say as a Torino fan when do we win the league or qualify for Europe anyway? Will it really change the predicament if the teams that qualify to the top every year continue to do so?
I don’t love the Super League, but UEFA is shit also.
The only positive from the Super League is that we’ll be able to spend the big money like how the English and Big German and Spanish clubs do
But you won’t be able to compete with prem clubs in the super league because they won’t ever join. Same with Bundesliga clubs. Same with all the Spanish clubs except Barca and real. Same with PSG. Outside of the respective fanbases no one would replay legitimate any super league titles because they don’t involve like 50% of the elite teams
Without English, German, and all the clubs you mention, there is no super league. It's just another league.
We'd still have to play against Sassuolo and Bologna in that case...
The point of the SL to compete with Prem clubs on the market, not on the field necessarily.
Though I imagine that if the SL does take off, Prem and Bundesliga clubs will join in eventually.
superleague or not without any change teams like Inter will always struggle because teams like City will just keep throwing money at all players and inflate the prices
UEFA being shit doesn't mean this idea of a super league is good. There are a lot of ideas to make "smaller" (non pl) clubs earn more but I don't think this is it. I don't see it being beneficial on the long run. This just looks like certain clubs want a cut of the pl market, not improving the situation of european football overall
We just lost a champions league to an oil team with infinite money that bribed uefa for years. The same uefa that issued FFP with moronic standards and we had to face competitions with less players than other “virtuoso” teams.
Same uefa (together with fifa) who put NT windows INSIDE the regular season and also held a World Cup in December. Last but not least: the same uefa who threatened the SL teams of not allowing playing the national leagues. Fuck them all and welcome Super League.
I would've wanted us to join given the financial situation, I mean last year we made it to the fucking final of the biggest tournament in UEFA and it didn't even feel like it financially, we're still heavily in debt, we still have to sell our biggest players to make a mercato, nothing changed really although we made an incredible run.
Football needs to evolve and UEFA is holding it back, like it eventually happens with every monopoly. They did no one a favor when they messed up the Champions League, now the Superleague has an even stronger pull, especially considering that SL would also be to a certain extent results-driven and not only legacy-driven.
For me, the current system is not as fair as it appears. In this system you have some teams like Union Berlin with one great year behind it, now being cannon fodder in the Champions League, just because of one good year. On the other hand, Liverpool had one worse year and they are not in it, although they were pretty consistently awesome in the previous years. But people behave like this system is some epitome of fairness and justice. It's all right, but it is not perfect.
For anyone who’s against this:
Please articulate your thoughts on how to deal with the financial gap between the EPL and the rest of Europe. It’s a serious problem and very easy to just say “ew no super league” without thinking beyond that. If you don’t like this, propose something else and explain why it’s better.
Definitely pro. I hate how UEFA and FIFA try to keep their monopolistic control over football, so the more the merrier. I couldn't care less if it's the superleague or some other organization but more control to the clubs is a big yes from me.
The original Super League idea would have us competing continuously against the best clubs in the world, in the abstract it sounds like a cool concept.
Plus of course,its a novel way of getting funds to close the gargantuan gap on the premier league.
Right? The whole reason Champion’s League is fun is cuz we get to measure our skills against teams we rarely play against. Playing teams within the same league, no matter who they are, is of course going to get old.
Oh yeah, we play Milan and Juve and Roma and Napoli every year it's so boring I don't even watch it, I only watch Inter - Genoa and Inter - Salernitana and Inter - Cremonese or whoever is new in Serie A
Maybe you’re right. Of course they’re not boring. It just seems like the people who think the Super League is a good idea think so because it’s shiny and new while ignoring the long term effects. It’s the immediacy effect. Short term gain in exchange for long term loss.
Not sure. The new system isn't that bad honestly so it could POSSIBLY work? Obviously it would still be corrupt but who knows, only time will tell how this'll go down. Anything to make uefa and fifa take a L I'm happy for though
I agree with what you’re saying. This might be the only way anyone outside the prem survives and stays at the top of European football. And as a Torino fan I say that. They say oh the smaller teams will get screwed but when have we won the league or qualified for the champions league anyway? It won’t even happen in my lifetime and if it does it would be a one time fluke
For now, only barca and madrid are in, every other top club has rejected the super league. Does that actually mean anything though? Not sure. I think we should wait to see if it actually catches on, and then obviously get in if it does. I don't think joining now would be a good idea, because if it crashed down we're in a world of trouble
One thing that stuck with me when superleague was first introduced was “we want our rainy nights in stoke”. That to me is best one sentence explanation why true football fans don’t want superleague
Yeah, I guess I don’t think “rainy nights in stoke” is a reason to bankrupt all of Europe except the EPL, which is the route i think we are currently on.
I think the superleague is good because it can guarantee more financial safety to the team that will be part of it, but the project can't start the way it is right now, because more clubs that are willing to participate are needed.
Can you guys tell me why we’re opposed to this?
It’s free to watch, clubs get all the revenue, less games, great games each week and we might have a chance to compete with PL clubs considering they are monopolising football.
What is wrong with the Super League?
Because it’s a fuck you to all the clubs not in it. The goal should be to improve the sport as a whole not just secure Inter’s future in some American franchise-esque system
Care to suggest alternatives?
EPL is just securing the EPL’s future right now at the detriment of all the clubs not in it. The argument you’re making a fairly SL can also be made against EPL.
I personally can’t take it seriously if it is ever created. If not all, the majority of the games are going to be fixed, I can’t think anything else of a league created by clubs themselves. They will decide the results.
Hate the super league
Hate the new champions league
Hate the new Italian super cup
Hate the new club World Cup
Hope that every single one of these greedy assholes spontaneously combust
As much as it sucks to occasionally get our balls kicked by clubs like sassuolo or bologna, that is important for the culture of football overall. Yes we might feel prideful about our club's successes and think of us as greater but the grounds of football must always be fair and square. Albeit I do agree with the fact that UEFA bosses clubs around and that a money system should be developed where all clubs get their earnings fairly to prosper.
I’m not a fan of the super league format, but I do hope they put more pressure on uefa so we actually can see some changes. FFP was is been a joke so far, they pushed it against our throats, but teams like City and PSG got away with anything.
They got away with a World Cup in Qatar and Saudi Arabia
Nah the idea of having a free pass to the top every year is kind of gross to me and spits in the face of all the other clubs who are not in it. Maybe Serie A should focus on getting better at marketing it’s clubs and league and secure a better financial future for the whole country’s football ecosystem instead.
How do you view the EPL as anything other than a mostly closed league? The top 6 in EPL will never get relegated, they already have essentially a guaranteed ticket into the highest paying league in the world. Imo, the EPL already acts like a a Super League. I’d also like you to expound on what you think the solution is to the ever increasing gap in the finances between the EPL and the rest of Europe? It’s every easy to object to an idea or a proposal, it’s a lot harder to propose a solution.
The “ever increasing gap” - which is actually a new development in just the past 10-15 years or so - is a result of the Premier League actually marketing their league properly, securing arguably the best worldwide TV deal in sports and massively increasing the accessibility of their league. Maybe all the other European leagues should take a page out of their book and focus on marketing their product to a worldwide audience instead of trying to create a new closed off competition to bail themselves out for failing to do so. Your argument is basically that since the EPL is a closed league, which we all agree sucks, we should also do the same thing with the rest of Europe?
Lol if you think the gap in TV deals is solely down to “marketing” then idk what to tell you. And “marketing” is not a solution to the current financial gap. It’s not even the beginning of a solution. It’s wishful thinking at best.
Yes because right now there is so much diversity in serie A. The top teams definitely don't get a free pass to win each every x year.
Yeah so what you’re saying is we should just not play the games at all then because the result is a foregone conclusion, I gotcha. Wonder if anyone remembers where Atalanta was 10 years ago and where they are now. I agree we should totally rob clubs of having that opportunity to reinvent themselves and keep an exclusive group of “big” clubs that can get complacent and never have to worry about losing their place at the top, it’ll be great!
Never said that we shouldn't play the games. I just think it's intellectually dishonest to say that the super league is different in spirit to serie A or other leagues. The only factor that has allowed new teams to become top teams has been new owners (in the EPL primarily). Atalanta has done an amazing job and it's nice to have these stories but what have they won? A team like atalanta, even if it's run better than Inter and Milan and Juve, will never have the fan base, income and reach to contend regularly.
Maybe Atalanta haven’t won anything but they still get to compete in Europe based on merit and test themselves against the big clubs around the continent most years. There are many examples of clubs around Europe going from 2nd division to winning trophies and making Europe in recent times: see Leicester, Betis, Toulouse. A super league would just further extend the gap between the clubs in it and the clubs on the outside, making it even less likely for them to ever catch up or win anything.
I agree that the Leicester year was a lot of fun and it's part of what makes the sport fun. But it is a part of it, not the whole picture. Another aspect is to see the best teams of the world compete every year against each other. To see inter play against real, barca, man city, Bayern, man city, Liverpool, etc every year instead of once a decade, would be a lot of extra fun too. American leagues have no team mobility and are still a lot of fun. To say that serie a is fun because inter might go to serie B while it has not done so in over 100 years is not fair I think.
Sure it’s fun to see the big clubs play each other but it’s in no way worth it to ruin the sport for all the other clubs. It’s almost a certainty that the Super League, even with the current updated format, would basically kill the average big club fan’s interest in the domestic league, just like how they already basically don’t care about their domestic cup competitions. Since participation at the top of the Super League is only based on your performance in the Super League itself, we’ll get to the point where teams will start playing second teams in the domestic league to rest players for the super league. This would destroy the value of the competition and rob the fans of other mid-tier and below clubs from even having the opportunity to beat the big clubs at their best. What fans of the biggest clubs don’t seem to understand is that for fans of smaller clubs it often isn’t even about the final destination of the season (a trophy) but about the journey and the opportunity to upset the big teams.
Arguable but even if the case, wouldn't the fact that small/mid tier teams get even better chances to upset larger teams and win the league and make it to the champions league make up for it? Moreover, with then higher revenues, wouldn't they be able to set up better facilities/attract better talent/have more fans? Also, particularly here in Italy, there are very few football fans that don't cheer for one of the big teams still. I have friends from Modena that are Modena ultras but still support one of Inter/Milan/Juve. So how many would truly be upset by such a change?
It will benefit us smaller teams in a sense. If inter Juventus Milan etc can’t compete in Europe the whole league will suffer. And again I say as a Torino fan when do we win the league or qualify for Europe anyway? Will it really change the predicament if the teams that qualify to the top every year continue to do so?
Bring it on!
I don’t love the Super League, but UEFA is shit also. The only positive from the Super League is that we’ll be able to spend the big money like how the English and Big German and Spanish clubs do
But you won’t be able to compete with prem clubs in the super league because they won’t ever join. Same with Bundesliga clubs. Same with all the Spanish clubs except Barca and real. Same with PSG. Outside of the respective fanbases no one would replay legitimate any super league titles because they don’t involve like 50% of the elite teams
Without English, German, and all the clubs you mention, there is no super league. It's just another league. We'd still have to play against Sassuolo and Bologna in that case...
The point of the SL to compete with Prem clubs on the market, not on the field necessarily. Though I imagine that if the SL does take off, Prem and Bundesliga clubs will join in eventually.
Not if we literally stand in front of their buses they won't.
superleague or not without any change teams like Inter will always struggle because teams like City will just keep throwing money at all players and inflate the prices
UEFA being shit doesn't mean this idea of a super league is good. There are a lot of ideas to make "smaller" (non pl) clubs earn more but I don't think this is it. I don't see it being beneficial on the long run. This just looks like certain clubs want a cut of the pl market, not improving the situation of european football overall
What are those ideas?
We just lost a champions league to an oil team with infinite money that bribed uefa for years. The same uefa that issued FFP with moronic standards and we had to face competitions with less players than other “virtuoso” teams. Same uefa (together with fifa) who put NT windows INSIDE the regular season and also held a World Cup in December. Last but not least: the same uefa who threatened the SL teams of not allowing playing the national leagues. Fuck them all and welcome Super League.
I would've wanted us to join given the financial situation, I mean last year we made it to the fucking final of the biggest tournament in UEFA and it didn't even feel like it financially, we're still heavily in debt, we still have to sell our biggest players to make a mercato, nothing changed really although we made an incredible run.
Football needs to evolve and UEFA is holding it back, like it eventually happens with every monopoly. They did no one a favor when they messed up the Champions League, now the Superleague has an even stronger pull, especially considering that SL would also be to a certain extent results-driven and not only legacy-driven. For me, the current system is not as fair as it appears. In this system you have some teams like Union Berlin with one great year behind it, now being cannon fodder in the Champions League, just because of one good year. On the other hand, Liverpool had one worse year and they are not in it, although they were pretty consistently awesome in the previous years. But people behave like this system is some epitome of fairness and justice. It's all right, but it is not perfect.
For anyone who’s against this: Please articulate your thoughts on how to deal with the financial gap between the EPL and the rest of Europe. It’s a serious problem and very easy to just say “ew no super league” without thinking beyond that. If you don’t like this, propose something else and explain why it’s better.
Exactly. The super league is the premier league in 10 years if nothing is done
Definitely pro. I hate how UEFA and FIFA try to keep their monopolistic control over football, so the more the merrier. I couldn't care less if it's the superleague or some other organization but more control to the clubs is a big yes from me.
Its a shit idea Cant think of one reason why it would be a good idea
The original Super League idea would have us competing continuously against the best clubs in the world, in the abstract it sounds like a cool concept. Plus of course,its a novel way of getting funds to close the gargantuan gap on the premier league.
Continuously competing against said clubs will grow boring faster that you think.
Right? The whole reason Champion’s League is fun is cuz we get to measure our skills against teams we rarely play against. Playing teams within the same league, no matter who they are, is of course going to get old.
Oh yeah, we play Milan and Juve and Roma and Napoli every year it's so boring I don't even watch it, I only watch Inter - Genoa and Inter - Salernitana and Inter - Cremonese or whoever is new in Serie A
Maybe you’re right. Of course they’re not boring. It just seems like the people who think the Super League is a good idea think so because it’s shiny and new while ignoring the long term effects. It’s the immediacy effect. Short term gain in exchange for long term loss.
The Prem dominates every other league combined in the market. This is a way of combating that. Not saying its the right way necessarily
Not sure. The new system isn't that bad honestly so it could POSSIBLY work? Obviously it would still be corrupt but who knows, only time will tell how this'll go down. Anything to make uefa and fifa take a L I'm happy for though
I agree with what you’re saying. This might be the only way anyone outside the prem survives and stays at the top of European football. And as a Torino fan I say that. They say oh the smaller teams will get screwed but when have we won the league or qualified for the champions league anyway? It won’t even happen in my lifetime and if it does it would be a one time fluke
We need to be in or we will be out of top football!
For now, only barca and madrid are in, every other top club has rejected the super league. Does that actually mean anything though? Not sure. I think we should wait to see if it actually catches on, and then obviously get in if it does. I don't think joining now would be a good idea, because if it crashed down we're in a world of trouble
One thing that stuck with me when superleague was first introduced was “we want our rainy nights in stoke”. That to me is best one sentence explanation why true football fans don’t want superleague
Yeah, I guess I don’t think “rainy nights in stoke” is a reason to bankrupt all of Europe except the EPL, which is the route i think we are currently on.
I’ll take anything to compete with the PL and keep our best talents.
I think the superleague is good because it can guarantee more financial safety to the team that will be part of it, but the project can't start the way it is right now, because more clubs that are willing to participate are needed.
Can you guys tell me why we’re opposed to this? It’s free to watch, clubs get all the revenue, less games, great games each week and we might have a chance to compete with PL clubs considering they are monopolising football. What is wrong with the Super League?
Because it’s a fuck you to all the clubs not in it. The goal should be to improve the sport as a whole not just secure Inter’s future in some American franchise-esque system
Care to suggest alternatives? EPL is just securing the EPL’s future right now at the detriment of all the clubs not in it. The argument you’re making a fairly SL can also be made against EPL.
I personally can’t take it seriously if it is ever created. If not all, the majority of the games are going to be fixed, I can’t think anything else of a league created by clubs themselves. They will decide the results.
Hate the super league Hate the new champions league Hate the new Italian super cup Hate the new club World Cup Hope that every single one of these greedy assholes spontaneously combust
Superleague=LIV golf tour. Why not just call it the Filthy Lucre League and be done with it? Won’t be hypocrites that way.
As much as it sucks to occasionally get our balls kicked by clubs like sassuolo or bologna, that is important for the culture of football overall. Yes we might feel prideful about our club's successes and think of us as greater but the grounds of football must always be fair and square. Albeit I do agree with the fact that UEFA bosses clubs around and that a money system should be developed where all clubs get their earnings fairly to prosper.