19 Apr 2021 08:23:09
I expect there will be a few who declare their love for United is over because of the Super league, I won't be one of them, I will take a calmer view when we really see what it means. The club has embarrassed themselves a few times before and keep doing. Right now this feels a bit like the announcement of Kerry Packer for those that remember cricket in the 70's. it ended up revolutionising the game which had become stale. Has football become stale, a bit, yes.

Thing for me is how those who on here and elsewhere have defended the Glazers, telling us they were investing in the club, whilst they financially weakened the club, will now scream loudly about the injustice of chasing more money. Maybe if they hadn't chosen to ignore how the Glazers bought the club, racked up debts, then they might have thought twice before screaming. The loudest voices who support Utd in the media like Neville have hardly been vociferous about the owners, yet now scream greed. Ole himself talked about the owners investing in the club when they haven't put one single cent of their own money in. Now it all comes home to roost.

Matt Busby was a pioneer, took us in the European Cup when the FA were dead against it. In fact Munich happened when United were trying to get back from a European fixture and the FA insisted they could not put back the next league fixture. Everyone is up in arms right now but change happens and the experience says wait and see before screaming. What rankles me is this is about greed not to better football as Busby did in the 50's, yet too many fans, pundits and those in the game turned a blind eye to the greed and money drivers of existing owners.


1.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 08:41:24
Completely agree, if you wanted football clubs to remain community organisations, rules should have been put in place to ringfence them as institutions that must have some level of community ownership whether that's a members scheme or germamys 50+1 rule.

The idea you could leave the safeguarding of the game to sheikh mansour, malcolm glazer and family, kroenke, fsg and abrahamovic is laughable.


2.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 09:01:52
Spot on redman.
I am very interested to see what transpires.
Radical change is needed. What that looks like is still to be determined. English football is not sustainable in its current format. Clubs have gone bust many more will. Same as many local green grocers. The people moaning about losing their local green grocers have been waking past it for years to get to the shop that offers more value for their pound. Then when the green grocer or local store closes them those same people that have been waking past the shop in search of better value blame the greedy fat cats.


3.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 09:18:16
Gary nev must have been gutted picking up his big wages while clubs went out if business. He must have been disgusted when as a player he earnt so much he must be disgusted earning more as a pundit then most championship players.
Its the greedy fat cats that made Gary a fat cat.
Double standards and very short memories.
We lauded busby for having the foresight to bring us into Europe and rightly so.
Times have changed the proposal is far from ideal at the moment but I hope they find a way to make this work that is better than the existing proposal.


4.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 09:58:51
So a closed shop competition where selected clubs will make an obscene about if money with little or no regard of success?

You all think this will evolve the game? You think this will help the lower leagues?

If you think football is stale now, how are you going to feel in 5 years time when United are finishing in the bottom quarter of the Super League, with owners who have no incentive to upgrade the club because they have a lifetime pass to this competition?

Again, this isn't the re-branding of a league or cup. This is turning yoir back on the competitions we have played in for decades.

If this is profitable it will only be a matter of time before the Super League replaces the domestic league. Matches won't be held at Old Trafford, they will be held oversees because it is more lucrative.

Winning the league 20 times will mean **** all. Winning the European cup 3 times will have meant **** all.

All our history in the bin because we want to play in a shiny new tournament.

This is not the evolution of football. This isn't being done to improve the game. This is being done by scumbags owners who want to guaranteed revenue streams regardless of how well they done, because most of them don't have the stomach for proper competition.

It's already farcical having clubs like us in it. We're not elite, everything we do is amateurish. The fact that we've signed up for it will tell you it's a poxy idea, because the current regime havnt done much right in a long time!


5.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 11:35:20
Totally agree Mumbles. Redman and Ken how are you saying these things with a straight face. Football has gone stale and we’ve allowed money to dictate the sport but the ESL is not the solution to revitalise the sport it’s the opposite it’s the rich get richer while the rest suffer.


6.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 12:29:25
Monaldo07

I said wait and see what happens. Greed has been there for years. It’s not been a working mans game for decades, when I totted up the cost to go with my Season Ticket a couple of years ago it became prohibitive, that won’t change. I am not going to lose my head over it until I see where it ends up. Negotiations don’t start with where you want to end up.


7.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 13:09:12
Couldn't agree more Mumbles. These elitist clubs expect to earn hundreds of millions of pounds for simply existing while returning to their domestic leagues with an even bigger advantage than now. Why? Because they're fed-up with funding parachute payments and dividends trickling down the league. Where would these six super-league clubs be now without the pyramid? Decade after decade of footballing evolution, passion and achievements all washed away.

While being a United fan I am also a Peterborough United fan. We are on the verge of promotion to the Championship - which fosters dreams of getting in to the Premier League. As unlikely as it is, there's nothing like taking your season ticket to the first match on a sunny August day while dreaming of going to a Premier League match "this time next year". Dreams drive supporter passion. Those romantic notions will soon be gone. The football pyramid will erode. But very few of you in this thread seem to care about that. Shame on you. I suggest some of you take a long ponderous walk through the Old Trafford museum. Then look at your map to see how many EFL teams are in your area. Over time they will perish.

Talk about football becoming stale. I can't imagine a more stale product than this idea. No variety. No fear of relegation. No cup finals. A season over after half-a-dozen matches leaving pointless dead-rubbers for Hankok Tyers to flog their grip. No motivation for financially drive owners to invest. I also fall to see why playing Inter Milan or AC Milan is any more exciting than playing West Ham, Leeds or Newcastle in a packed stadium.

How about Aston Villa? Nottingham Forrest? They've won the European Cup. City. Arsenal. Spurs. Look on with shame. If this concept had happened in previous decades who would the elite clubs have been then? Had that happened it would not have been the six we have now. What would have happened if this happened when Denis Law back-heeled us in to Division 2? That cycle of change will be gone forever. Imagine being a Leicester City supporter right now. What a fabulous club. Has grown with style and dignity, won the PL and reached a Champions League semi-final from almost nowhere - all with a centre-forward plucked from non-league football. Goodbye to that folks!

Then we can look at the longer term impact. We do not have a college system in this country to raise future footballers. The collegiate system is vital to the NFL, NBA etc. It's a huge system geared towards athlete development. If the British pyramid crumbles, where will future talent be nurtured. This should not be risked. Or are we only interested in developing social media personalities that can do fancy Instagram tricks that need five buttons to be pressed on a Playstation controller? Where will young players be loaned to? Where will future managers and coaching staff cut their teeth?

It's disgusting. Red Man, I'm very disappointed with you in particular. This isn't akin to the vision and pioneering mentality shown by Busby, this is profiteering. Yes football has been a business, but up until this crop of owners arrived there was always an ambition to win as well. Now its evolved from being in the top-4 to being in an elite, self-appointed bunch of money-grabbing clubs that want to globalise an "entertainment package".

This does not compare to the formation of the Premier League either. This is step one towards a franchise model such as the NFL. How long before Manchester United play their home matches in Dubai? How long before Lou Macari's fish and chips will be Wong's Noodles?

My only hope is that the greed backfires and that somehow the love for our national game helps those left behind somehow prosper - though I have my doubts. Give me Peterborough United sitting alongside 10,000 other working fans rather than this contrived grandiose nonsense on a TV screen any day of the week!

RIP football.


8.) 19 Apr 2021
19 Apr 2021 18:41:00
Great post, BRD. Deserves to be pinned to the top of the page as a reminder.


9.) 20 Apr 2021
20 Apr 2021 07:47:51
BadRedDevil

I said it was about greed not the betterment of football. As is I don’t like it but I sense this is an opening gambit, let’s see what the end suggestion becomes before screaming you will never support the club again. I have taken lots of stick on here for saying about the greedy owners and virtually no one supported what I said, it has come home to roost, their greed has taken them in a whole new direction. The problem has been the denial of the owners greed for years, the multiple posts on here denying the debts were an issue, claiming the owners invested money well. I have said for years it was a problem but get ignored. Now they do this and people are surprised, that’s the issue. Greed has been the issue for the owners whole tenure, it became too expensive to go watch unless you were well off, I had to stop going to watch. Gullible idiots post nonsense about how the owners were ok. Now we have this but it took this to open peoples eyes when some of us have said it for years. I also don’t need to be told to visit the museum, I went when the stadium was a museum in the early 70’s, have done the tours, trodden the ground when it was a working mans game, when I could save my pocket money to go and stand on the terrace every other week.

Pin that at the top of the page as a reminder Nou.