Comments on: Gazidis says Arsenal could join breakaway league.

By: wonderinggoon

wonderinggoon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:19:25 +0000

@Marc: Thanks for replying. I meant to ask why they would run the cup accordingly to our calendar when it is their cup and ‘their’ players. It’s just your other wishes I agree with and are my wishes as well, they make sense to me even when in reality they are as unlikely to happen in the near future as your last point about ACN timing which baffled me. I suppose idealistically that’s the reason why FIFA exists to begin with. Not so that other countries and leagues and cups play accordingly to our calendar, but to organize a new, better schedule to accommodate us all where every parties should be prepared to make some adjustments and gain shared benefits off it. Mission Impossible.

By: GodWoreTen

GodWoreTen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:49:56 +0000

I’m not too sure about this Tony, which is surprising as I usually find your views and those of (most of) this little Community of Gooners matches mine.
FIFA and UEFA are corrupt. Yes. The FA is corrupt. Yes. The administration of the EPL is corrupt. Yes.
But what would happen if a breakaway super league was formed? Who would administer that? The Clubs themselves? Represented by their owners, or in the Case of Real Mad / Bartha , their Presidents.
A Super League run by some of the football world’s most secretive (our own board), incompetent (e.g. Hicks & Gillet) or corrupt (everyone else but especially all the Italian Clubs – just look at Berlusconi) people around…
Not looking too good I think.
And, and this clinches it for me, when the fixtures are announced what is the ONE game we all scan for? Yes of course the Tiny Totts at the Ems. I wouldn’t give up our annual celebration of St Totteringham’s Day either. Yet the TTs won’t be in the Super League, or anything else that is Super.
Roll on Halloween!

By: Brickfields Gunners

Brickfields Gunners — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:21:24 +0000

Fifa ,Uefa and some of the smaller associations are often run by morons -
they come up with silly ideas without much merit and then backtrack when
the big boys complain.There had better be more consultations with big clubs
before major changes are made ,or else there will be breakaway leagues -
both domestic and regional.
For now lets just finetune certain areas to make it aggreeable to all.I still love to see Goliath being beaten by David.A very good post Tony.

By: Marc

Marc — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:53:22 +0000

wonderinggoon – So we don’t have players buggering off for 6 weeks in the middle of the season. If the ACN was held in the summer i.e. close season it wouldn’t be a problem.

By: wonderinggoon

wonderinggoon — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 07:33:11 +0000

Seeing as this is an older topic I doubt I’ll get an answer, but I’ll ask it anyway.

@Marc: Why would the ACN be held accordingly to our calendar instead of theirs?

By: sebjob

sebjob — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:54:24 +0000

how many supporters can already not afford to attend matches at the emirates? how has this affected the format of the arrangements, atmosphere etc.?

By: sebjob

sebjob — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:51:58 +0000

like Frichie says; who can afford this of the supporters? This is said to be one of the reasons why soccer as they call it has never cached on in the US. The travel distances will be too long, ticket prices expensive with travels. A playoff format from the premier version would in case be the only way. Then of course the premier league would only be a formality, as the teams would be more likely to play there with second string teams due to issues of fatigue and television revenue. It would be the death of most national leagues elsewhere, or the opposite with supporters seeking places they can actually afford as local leagues or other sport avenues. The English league has its success based on the large supporter base and their local affiliation, loosing that to commercial success is a big gamble

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:48:44 +0000

While I would dearly love to see Blatter & Platini suffer slow agonising deaths I do not want to see a European Super League. I enjoy the banter on a Monday morning after we’ve played the Spud’s or West Ham, I love the CL matches but both are important. The real solution is a breakaway series of leagues, you could have the English Spanish, Italian, German or whomever super leagues then playing in a format similar to the CL. This would give us the best of both worlds. You also have to consider that many players dream of playing for their country and see it has a huge honour, if we had a series of leagues all working together we could deal with UEFA and FIFA from a much stronger position, no more pointless friendly’s, no more cup finals with 20,000 fans from each team and 40,000 corporate seats, if Africa want to hold the ACN they will do it to suit our calendar not theirs. We might then just see football run correctly and for the fans not the arseholes in suits.

By: Adam Smith

Adam Smith — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 08:06:10 +0000

I think the whole Champions League is a farce.Two years ago Liverpool came forth and had to play a third qualifying round against the Belgian champions,Standard liege(which they were fortunate to win.) I understand perfectly that the group stages generate more revenue,but to me it should just be a straight knockout tournament,and the Europa Cup should be for the teams that do not get into the CL.At the moment it is possible to get two bites of the cherry, if one fails in the pre qualifying of the CL

in a nutshell,we play too much football.

By: tony

tony — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:44:36 +0000

i think thats a really bad idea. i thought tony was all for creating a level playing field for all clubs in the right manner. a super league will be at a disadvantage to those clubs not as big a your real madrids and barca’s . its interesting as it is now because you have surprises a few times like when porto won the cl. what needs to be done to make it more interesting is to seed teams according to their positions in their local leagues instead using those uefa coefficients. so for example vfl wolfsburg who were champions in germany is seeded higher than arsenal who were 4th in the epl. that way we get to see more interesting matches instead of the usual chelsea vs porto we’ve been seeing for the past god knows how many years

By: Adam Smith

Adam Smith — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:20:20 +0000

Is there a mistake on here.two identical posts by two different posters !!!

Anyway,I don’t see that as a solution.It would mean having upwards of a pool of 18 players for each league and both would be hard fought league.

Tony has a unique blog,and I am sure puts in a lot of work on a daily basis and IMO there are far too many Arsenal Blogs many with little or no comment, yet I fully understand that the number of visits a site achieves is the main thing that the owner looks for.Tony gave some remarkable figures the other day, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea if some of the other sites were monitored and approved before they are allowed to publish.It won’t happen,but it would eliminate some of the dross one reads.

By: Gooner1

Gooner1 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:36:40 +0000

An Arsenal First Team comprising our most accomplished and experienced players, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS

This post was originally written by StuartLondon and copied by Gooner1 – exactly the sort of thing we try to stop.

By: Tony Attwood

Tony Attwood — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:32:42 +0000

I have a feeling, LRV, that Arsenal did a deal directly with Setanta, and so the station folded when they folded, whereas other clubs did their own individual deals with TV production units.

Of course we’d all like to see the station up and running again, but I wonder just how much it cost to run that site. There was no income to speak of, the same old ads running all the time… and it was given away free with Setanta.

I am sure the same is true of the Liverpool site, but then they will waste money on anything without thought.

Meanwhile, new article up on http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk reflecting on a curious time when the club played a goalkeeper so injured he couldn’t bend down, and when one player made his one and only appearance for the club, and was never seen again.

By: LRV

LRV — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:16:42 +0000

FIFA & UEFA need to be cleaned up. There are far too many corrupt lunatics and greedy bastards in that fold to render any sensible tournament organised by those bodies ineffectual. They are constantly meddling in lopsided ways. The FA models itself along the lines of those two, which renders it valueless.

Honesty and transparency is urgently required. A review of their rules is also urgently required. One such review that will benefit all clubs is that “Each country’s FA shall pay all rehabilitation costs, including wages, of any player who gets injured while representing them in any tournament for the entire duration of the rehabilitation.” This will ensure that FA will take carefull considerations before (a) calling up players for needless friendlies; (b) carelessly using unfit players (who are not 100% fit), especially when they miss matches for their clubs. FAs will also no longer be able to ignominously dump expensive players injured while in their care on the clubs.

As for the Arsenal TV rights, I am absolutely livid that while Chelsea, Man-IOU and even Liverpolock can successfully run their club TV channels here in the UK, my Arsenal condemns our vast supporters to staying glued to a computer monitor to watch anything Arsenal. This is not good enough at all. So what’s the point of me even looking at a TV right that does not include the UK? Shouldn’t charity begin at home? Bolocks!

By: stuartlondon

stuartlondon — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:03:00 +0000

An Arsenal First Team comprising our most accomplished and experienced players, playing in the Super League, and an Arsenal Second Team comprising our most talented academy players, playing in the EPL, perhaps?

It could solve the problem of how to provide our talented younger players with opportunities to play meaningful football, until they are ready to graduate to full time first team duties.

We would still have access to entertaining home matches, with all the traditional rivalries preserved, played by a young team whose members were ambitious to prove themselves and progress to the Super League. It might also increase income to the club.

As for travel costs, it is no more expensive to travel to parts of Europe than to many locations in the UK. But the Super League away matches would need to be scheduled for weekends to avoid the necessity to take time off work.

Could such an arrangement work?

By: walter

walter — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:59:09 +0000

sorry to go off topic, but are you also living in a boring world these days.
JC, whatever happens to football and mega or minor leagues as long as Arsenal exist I don’t give a …. whatever.
As long as I can see the games on my tv or on my pc life is good. My football live that is.
So I will follow the Arsenal where ever they go, mega league or not. If I like it or not there always will be only one team in London for me.
Just let me know in time.

Would like to agree on the poster, Frichie, that said how we would pay all the travelling. Will it become a rich mans game then ?
Will, Jan met de pet (dutch expression – Joe with the cap – Tony should have a clue what I mean), be left outside the stadiums in that case ?

By: lordgunner

lordgunner — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:45:45 +0000

jazbo absoluty rubbish

i really don’t want this super league.people who think you will be watching great matches because all big team playing you are killing yourself.watch champions league game and only few are worth watching.and some of this big team have to finish bottom of this “super league”, do you think supporters will accept that on the long run…..no of course.
football is not about the big team only ,i love watching small team beating the best , that’s why football is great.
and what about team who come from smaller league or other division, what s the point building a squad if this big team leave
And more, who s gone be selected to play this league .too many question to let this to happen.i m against and hope it never happened

as for international friendly just a quote from Aimee Jacquet(french coach euro96/WC98): we were world champion of friendly match now we are world cup winner.
anyway it seem most complain come from English club.i m not a fan of them but they have been here for a long time l, live with it. if you dont like international match dont buy good players

By: Lud Vic

Lud Vic — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:21:07 +0000

I can’t see this happening any time soon without a major shake up of footballs governing bodies.

What we should do in the mean time to avoid these terribly timed international break(my heart)s
Is play a qualification tournament during closed season. Get it all done and dusted in the course of 2 weeks.
I for one would get quite exited to have that much football played in a short space of time. Gives a much better idea of who can handle the pressure instead of 2 years of protracted playoff’s in the middle of no where only to qualify and then get knocked out by Portugal in the semi’s just when the heat is turned up (well maybe not this time ha ha ha ha!!!)

By: Frichie

Frichie — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:52:10 +0000

Only issue I would forsee is, who the f*** could afford to travel to away games…but then again The Super 14 rugby is a great format of NZ,Aus and SA teams, so i dont think it would be a complete failure.

By: Ole Gunner

Ole Gunner — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:40:18 +0000

The Super League would work as long as Moaninho’s banned from it. Otherwise he’ll introduce his “shit-on-a-stick” brand of football, and ruin the whole brand.