- Transfer fantasies abound as no one wants to look at child abuse in football
- Arsenal: When has it ever been as good (or as utterly stupid) as this?
Today anniversary’ Dr Jimmy Patterson – the man who helped unravel the truth about Arsenal’s early years.
By Tony Attwood
You might recall that when Super League was announced, and Arsenal announced it was in,there were mass protests against the concept. There were banners, protests outside clubs and a universal condemnation of the project in the media.
Untold Arsenal didn’t join in the condemnation. In fact we rather liked the plan for the simple reason that it looked like a way to break the hegemony of the FA, PGMO, and Uefa, three organizations that we feel are corrupt and/or incompetent.
But the media in England can never be accused of not knowing what side their bread is buttered so they quickly whipped up some fans in protest, and the project in England fell apart within three days.
And so the media proudly proclaimed the launch and collapse of the concept in a trice, and that was that. Except that three clubs kept the Super League banner flying, and now a new piece of research has shown that in the UK the majority of football supporters like the idea of a European Super League.
At the end of last year a European Union Court of Justice ruling found Uefa’s prior authorisation rules (which blocked the formation of the Super League in 2021) were contrary to European Union law. Since then it seems the feeling of some fans has changed, especially for fans of Manchester City and Chelsea – both clubs that are under investigation under Financial Fair Play regulations (which it is imagined would not exist for Super League).
The current proposals are for a 64 club competition for men’s teams and a 32 club competition for women. 72% of fans who responded to the survey were in favour of the idea, with support especially high among the 15 to 24-year-old age group. This included 85% of the Manchester City fans who were interviewed.
Of course, the research didn’t ask people why they now wanted to support the Super League, but it is interesting that the two clubs with the biggest support for the project are two of the clubs being investigated by the Premier League for their finances. It is not impossible that those voting for the Super League, see it as a way of letting clubs with access to vast amounts of money being allowed free reign in spending it.
The one exception of mass support for the project among the traditional Big Six was Tottenham Hotspur, although even here there was a majority of fans in favour – but only just (55%). It is possible this is because, recognising how difficult it is for Tottenham to win anything under the current setup (last trophy, the League Cup in 2008), and just five top four places in the last 11 seasons)l, the fans realised that under the Super League arrangements, they would be even harder pressed to win anything.
Quite what the Premier League, Football League, Football Association and PGMO (the ultra-secretive organisation that runs refereeing for the Premier League) would do in response to this development is not at all clear. The League could issue a notice saying that they forbade their clubs from being in the Super League, but it is possible the courts in England would reject this.
That is still uncertain since the ruling that banning the Super League lsat time round was illegal came from Europe, and these days the UK is quite happy to say that European rules don’t apply in the United Kingdom.
Of course, there is likely to be quite a backlash from clubs in the Premier League that are not included in the Super League concept, and it would be possible for the Premier League still to try and eject any club in the league that then also joined Super League.
But if the project goes without clubs from the Premier League that would unbalance the Champions League considerably, since quite a number of top clubs would not be in it, as they would be playing in Super League instead.
TV companies however would undoubtedly like the idea since all the matches would be televised and that makes even more football on TV available, which means more income from sponsors and advertisers.
But it is also worth remembering that when the European Cup was launched, for the first 13 years English clubs refused to take part – following a diktat by the Football League under the overlordship of Alan Hardaker, who was fearful that the League’s unchallenged dominance and ability to issue new rules to suit itself at a whim, could be undermined. English teams first joined in 1968.
So continuing negativity from the FA and Premier League might be expected, with Arsenal and other teams in England finally being allowed to join in some years later. Unless of course, the clubs do walk away from the Neanderthals that currently run the show and take over control themselves.
You don’t break up a league on the back of a minorities conspiracy theories
Oh dear oh dear
I suppose a similar view, Al m, would be that you don’t make an understandable point on the back of a gramatically incorrect simple statement without any supporting evidence.
I support anything that may weaken the Crooked Refs Association and their enablers.
Do we stick or twist ? On the one hand we stick and say goodbye to Shedsea and ManCy115 .Then we still have the Pgmo fixing matches. And the corrupt FA.
If we twist we put ourselves into the unknown with all the other clubs similar to ManCy and Shedsea cheating their way to whatever.
TV money may well dictate where Arsenal goes .
Personally I’d stick but with the caveat that the FA and Pgmo drastically change .
Gary Neville on the Super League – “It’s pure greed”, “It’s a criminal act against football fans in this country”, “What world are these people living in?”
Roy Keane on the Super League – “They couldn’t care less about the football supporter”
Ironic, considering the fact that the TV companies couldn’t give a damn about the supporters when re-scheduling Premier League matches at short notice after fans have already bought their tickets, many of them for away matches with late kick-offs and return travel on public transport is not possible.
Crocodile tears.
Les Martin
I’m with you on this. Better the Devil you know.
I think our problems could, I say could be fixed over night.
Firstly, create a European pool of elite referees. Oh sorry, that already exists in the shape of the @international’ referees.
No referees can referee in their own Country.
No PGMO, just an international governing body that evaluates, demotes, promotes referees based on performance, mainly adherence to the Laws Of The Game.
They are overt and talk to the media.
It’s as simple as that.
Wont happen, because put simply the people that run our game, the media, SKY TNT etc. want this chaos because within chaos you can manipulate things as much as you want and it’s very difficult to isolate what is Incompetence, Bias, Cheating, Corrupt, etc.
Once, you have order it is much easier to spot any or all of theses things.
Once you have overt accountability it is easier to see who is up to standard and who isn’t.
Once you can isolate those that are not up to standard you can search for one and take appropriate action. Re train, sanction, dismiss, depending on the reasons.
It is that simple.
In any case, I just don’t see any guarantees that it will create a level playing field and the risks involved are just way too high for me.
So again, it’s better the devil you know, just fight to change it.
Tony,
It was not thirteen years that English clubs didn’t enter the European Cup, it was one 1955-56 when Chelsea as champions were told not to enter by the Football League. Fortunately the next season Matt Busby insisted champions Manchester United would compete and the rest is history.