The idea of a European Super League is nothing new. It has been mentioned several times since the European Cup became the Champions League 18 years ago. However I believe it is the way forward and it should now be implemented as soon as possible.
The league should consist of 18 clubs who would play each other on a home and away basis every weekend between the end of August and the end of April. The league would be made up of the top four clubs from England, Spain and Italy along with the top two from Holland, France and Germany.
The domestic leagues of those countries would otherwise remain the same, so if we take England as the example this is how it would work; Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and say Liverpool would go into the Super League leaving 16 clubs remaining. If six were promoted and two relegated it would bring the total back up to twenty. That would then be repeated further down the leagues to bring the total back up to 92. Promotion and relegation after that would be the same as it is now.
The Super League itself would not be a closed shop and would have promotion and relegation in the following way. Lets say the bottom three were from France, Italy and England then the Champions of those three domestic leagues would be promoted into the Super League while those bottom three would all be relegated back into their own domestic league again.
With regards to TV, well Sky could show all the Super League games live simultaneously with the viewer free to choose which game they want to watch. If these games were played on a Sunday then the domestic games could still be live at 12.45 and 17.30 on a Saturday as they are now. MOTD and The Football League Show would remain unchanged and there could be a highlights package for the European league on a Sunday night in the MOTD 2 slot.
What of the FA Cup I hear you ask? Well it would have to be moved to midweek but other then that nothing would change. Same with the Carling Cup. Obviously the Super League would make the need for a Champions League redundant but the Europa League would carry on with all the sides who would now be in the Champions League plus the others currently in that competition anyway.
So what benefit would it have? Well for a start it would make the domestic leagues more competitive. Clubs like Manchester City, Spurs, Aston Villa and Everton would all have the chance to win the Premier League title while even the smaller clubs like Bolton, Blackburn and Birmingham would all have a decent opportunity to play regular European football. The same would be the case in the other leagues around Europe.
So what about the logistics of the Super League? Well plenty of fans make the trips to Champions League away games already so selling 4,000 away tickets would not be a problem as we are talking about the top clubs in Europe here. From an English point of view our clubs would still have six games a season against their English counterparts and these would be so much more widely anticipated. Plus I'm sure fans of the big four in England would much rather see their club playing AC Milan and Real Madrid as opposed to Stoke and West Bromwich Albion on a cold November evening...
Okay, so that is the idea and this is how it would be set up. The first Super League would consist of the best 18 clubs from the five leagues mentioned above. So from England we would have, say, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, from Spain there could be Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villarreal and Valencia, from Italy it would be Juventus, AC Milan, Inter and Roma, Holland would have Ajax and FC Twente, France would be represented by Lyon and Marseille and from Germany we would have Bayern Munich and Schalke. Imagine how exciting that would be?
If we have a two week break over Christmas and the New Year the 34 league games could be played from the last weekend in August to the end of April with the domestic leagues running alongside. To be honest I cannot see too much wrong with this idea and I am convinced it would work but I'm sure some of you will disagree. So, come on lets have the debate...
Monday 29 November 2010
Thursday 25 November 2010
English sides back in the Champions League groove...but Mourinho again steals the spotlight.
An interesting week of Champions League action saw three of the four English clubs seal their qualification for the knock out stages with a game to spare.
Ironically the only one still not guaranteed a place in the last sixteen is Arsenal, despite opening their campaign with three wins out of three and a record goals tally of 14.
Of course the likelihood is they will still make it through, as they only need to beat the groups bottom side Partizan Belgrade at The Emirates in a fortnights time, but the fact that it has gone down to the last game at all is a major cause for concern for Arsene Wenger.
The away games at Shaktah and Braga stank of complacency and if the worst does happen on December 8th then they will only have themselves to blame for thinking the job was done after only three games.
In contrast Spurs have exceeded all expectations with a thrilling campaign that has seen them top a group containing the current holders Inter Milan. How much further they can go remains to be seen but judging by their efforts so far no one will fancy the trip to White Hart Lane, where they have rattled in 10 goals in three games.
Manchester United and Chelsea both eased through their groups with relative comfort and will go into the knock out stage among the favourites to go all the way, but an English winner looks very unlikely despite the final being held at Wembley.
Barcelona again look the team to beat, especially with Lionel Messi in unbelievable form, but Jose Mourinho got the better of them last year and he will fancy his chances again this time with new charges Real Madrid.
The former Chelsea and Inter Milan coach was in the news this week after it appeared he gave instructions to two of his players, Alonso and Ramos, to get themselves sent off at Ajax to wipe their disciplinary records clean.
The manner of the sending offs, both for blatant and not-at-all subtle time wasting, looks set to be investigated by UEFA but anything other then a fine for the club would be a major shock.
Once again Mourinho has bent the rules to suit himself and the fact that he is likely to get away with it again just makes a complete mockery of the competition.
Lets hope for the good of the game he is not celebrating at Wembley again in May as it really is about time that smug grin was wiped off his greasy face once and for all. Personally I would love Arsenal to be the team to do it but after recent events, alas, that appears to be very unlikely...
Ironically the only one still not guaranteed a place in the last sixteen is Arsenal, despite opening their campaign with three wins out of three and a record goals tally of 14.
Of course the likelihood is they will still make it through, as they only need to beat the groups bottom side Partizan Belgrade at The Emirates in a fortnights time, but the fact that it has gone down to the last game at all is a major cause for concern for Arsene Wenger.
The away games at Shaktah and Braga stank of complacency and if the worst does happen on December 8th then they will only have themselves to blame for thinking the job was done after only three games.
In contrast Spurs have exceeded all expectations with a thrilling campaign that has seen them top a group containing the current holders Inter Milan. How much further they can go remains to be seen but judging by their efforts so far no one will fancy the trip to White Hart Lane, where they have rattled in 10 goals in three games.
Manchester United and Chelsea both eased through their groups with relative comfort and will go into the knock out stage among the favourites to go all the way, but an English winner looks very unlikely despite the final being held at Wembley.
Barcelona again look the team to beat, especially with Lionel Messi in unbelievable form, but Jose Mourinho got the better of them last year and he will fancy his chances again this time with new charges Real Madrid.
The former Chelsea and Inter Milan coach was in the news this week after it appeared he gave instructions to two of his players, Alonso and Ramos, to get themselves sent off at Ajax to wipe their disciplinary records clean.
The manner of the sending offs, both for blatant and not-at-all subtle time wasting, looks set to be investigated by UEFA but anything other then a fine for the club would be a major shock.
Once again Mourinho has bent the rules to suit himself and the fact that he is likely to get away with it again just makes a complete mockery of the competition.
Lets hope for the good of the game he is not celebrating at Wembley again in May as it really is about time that smug grin was wiped off his greasy face once and for all. Personally I would love Arsenal to be the team to do it but after recent events, alas, that appears to be very unlikely...
Monday 22 November 2010
More competiitve yes, but is the Premier League really better on quality?
So, an amazing Premier League season continued with yet more strange results this weekend. Spurs coming back from 2-0 down to win at neighbours Arsenal for the first time in 17 years was possibly the 'highlight' but Chelsea going down 1-0 at Birmingham was not far behind.
With Liverpool already suffering a spell in the bottom three and Manchester United looking a pale shadow of the side that won the Champions League just two years ago it seems that the days of the 'Big Four' might be coming to an end.
But for all the unpredictability of the league this season lets not kid ourselves that the quailty has improved. In fact I would argue the opposite is true. Yes, the gap on the top four has closed, with sides like Spurs, Manchester City and Aston Villa now all ready to challenge, but when the likes of Sunderland, Bolton, West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle have all occupied Champions League places at various times this season you really do have to question the quality at the top.
I accept that Bolton and West Brom have been playing some good football this season but come on, the fact that they are even challenging for Europe just shows how the standard of the top sides has slipped. As for the others, well don't get me started...
Further down the table we have other boring sides like Birmingham, Blackburn and Stoke. Yes, all difficult to beat at home but the emphasis is on not losing rather then trying to win and setting out to merely stop the other, better, sides from playing. Is that really good for the game?
Don't get me wrong the Premier League has become far more competitive and unpredictable this season but don't try to pretend that the quality has increased. The fact that our clubs failed so miserably in the Champions League last season is testiment to that.
Lets not forget that Chelsea won the Premier League scoring over 100 goals last season, the first time that had been achieved in the top flight for nearly 40 years, yet they were nowhere near good enough when it came to competing against the best teams in Europe, and the same could be said of Arsenal and Manchester United.
The fact remains that this Chelsea side are not in the same league as the great sides of the recent past; like Manchester United's treble team of 1999, the Arsenal Invincibles of 2004 or even the Chelsea sides that won the title in 2005 and 2006.
They may have smashed 6,7 and 8 goals past the likes of Sunderland, Aston Villa and Wigan last season but that said more about the deficiencies of the opposition then anything else.
So lets enjoy the openness of the Premier League this season, lets enjoy sides like Sunderland beating Chelsea and Newcastle beating Arsenal but lets but lets not kid ourselves it is the best league in the World...
With Liverpool already suffering a spell in the bottom three and Manchester United looking a pale shadow of the side that won the Champions League just two years ago it seems that the days of the 'Big Four' might be coming to an end.
But for all the unpredictability of the league this season lets not kid ourselves that the quailty has improved. In fact I would argue the opposite is true. Yes, the gap on the top four has closed, with sides like Spurs, Manchester City and Aston Villa now all ready to challenge, but when the likes of Sunderland, Bolton, West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle have all occupied Champions League places at various times this season you really do have to question the quality at the top.
I accept that Bolton and West Brom have been playing some good football this season but come on, the fact that they are even challenging for Europe just shows how the standard of the top sides has slipped. As for the others, well don't get me started...
Further down the table we have other boring sides like Birmingham, Blackburn and Stoke. Yes, all difficult to beat at home but the emphasis is on not losing rather then trying to win and setting out to merely stop the other, better, sides from playing. Is that really good for the game?
Don't get me wrong the Premier League has become far more competitive and unpredictable this season but don't try to pretend that the quality has increased. The fact that our clubs failed so miserably in the Champions League last season is testiment to that.
Lets not forget that Chelsea won the Premier League scoring over 100 goals last season, the first time that had been achieved in the top flight for nearly 40 years, yet they were nowhere near good enough when it came to competing against the best teams in Europe, and the same could be said of Arsenal and Manchester United.
The fact remains that this Chelsea side are not in the same league as the great sides of the recent past; like Manchester United's treble team of 1999, the Arsenal Invincibles of 2004 or even the Chelsea sides that won the title in 2005 and 2006.
They may have smashed 6,7 and 8 goals past the likes of Sunderland, Aston Villa and Wigan last season but that said more about the deficiencies of the opposition then anything else.
So lets enjoy the openness of the Premier League this season, lets enjoy sides like Sunderland beating Chelsea and Newcastle beating Arsenal but lets but lets not kid ourselves it is the best league in the World...
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