Yeah, while I could see this was a bad idea, the level of vitriol that emerged
against it surprised me.
It seems there remains some belief that non-American football has a level of
'love of the game' that has, IMO, long ago been squeezed out of most major
league American sports. When some people described the super league as just a
money grab, my cynical self said - of course it is.
David
On Wednesday, April 21, 2021, 6:52:54 AM PDT, Adam Bowie
<[email protected]> wrote:
This may all be of limited interest to this group, but I'd note that like most
sports, this now-dead league (48 hours alive!) was created with TV front of
mind. Selling the rights to some broadcaster for even more money than current
deals deliver.
All six English league clubs pulled out yesterday, including my club Arsenal.
At least one Spanish and two Italian clubs had pulled out at time of writing.
A league of three teams won't be much fun.
The proposed league had managed that rare thing of getting football fans,
players, coaches, football authorities, TV pundits, politicians of every hue,
and most of the wider population, all in general agreement that was terrible
and should be fought. That's quite a remarkable feat to achieve! Sports fans
rarely agree on anything!
I imagine there will be books written about this.
Meanwhile, I think a few mostly American owners (Hello to the Glaziers,
Kroenkes and Fenway Sports Group) have had their fingers burnt, and are likely
to face legislative action that prevents a similar move happening in the
future. It's an easy win for any government to enable. In Germany, for example,
clubs have to be 51% owned by fans. That was the reason that no German clubs
were in this league.
This is perhaps a reminder that while sport is theoretically similar across the
world, the closed shop league structure familiar to most major US sports fans,
and very profitable for teams'* billionaire owners, is not much loved
elsewhere. Simply put, the backlash here was about the right to lose, and there
to be consequences for that loss.
You need to understand that this was not just sports news in the UK - this lead
headlines and dominated the conversation for the last 48 hours. Even today,
most newspapers either lead with the collapse of the league or at least gave it
second billing to the George Floyd trial result.
Adam
* I say "teams" but of course in US parlance, "franchise" is more accurate. And
I think those two words explain how the US owners failed to understand the
toxicity this move was likely to cause them. They will never recover. Fans will
hate them until they divest themselves of these clubs.
On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 11:38 PM Brad Beam <[email protected]> wrote:
Update: Of the six Premier League candidates announced yesterday, today only
Chelsea FC is left kicking collie bollocks.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Kevin M.
>
>I could only care less if it was cricket
>
On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 8:39 PM Brad Beam <[email protected]> wrote:
While the idea of top-tier football teams in leagues across Europe forming a
"Super League" is being continentally denounced, British Jimmy begs Americans
to care.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1384333967113932800
(When reached for comment, the New York Yankees reminded everyone that the Red
Sox are behind this - Fenway Sports Group also owns Liverpool FC - while the
NCAA's Power 5 football conferences responded tersely: "Yes. And?")
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/104885061.2541212.1619013841479%40mail.yahoo.com.
