Muzzy_Larsson

I don't get whatsoever what this has to do with the point we were discussing. I never said Leicester weren't a top club, they are but they're not in the stratosphere of clubs like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, etc, yet anyway. Those are the sort of clubs that wlll be after Tielemans if he can afford them and the likelihood is he would want to go. The likelihood is that 99% of players in the entire premier league would go to these clubs given the chance.

It's nothing to do with the terrible twelve at all it's purely a sporting point, whether you like UEFA or not champions league level is the highest level of club football and that will always be the case. Nothing to do with money what we're talking about here, purely sporting competitiveness. You contradict your own statement there about clubs breaking the mould yet the big clubs will always dominate, that doesn't make sense to me. Leicester are on a great trajectory and are threatening to upset the apple cart but there needs to be some sort of tangible indicator that reflects this, e.g. qualifying for the champions league and/or winning a trophy.

It's nothing about being poor and I never said Leicester were. We were talking about should Tielemans want to go should Leicester's valuation be met. For what it's worth if he weren't to sign a new contract and Leicester got a huge bid this summer it would be madness not to sell, whether the club is poor, flush or anything in between.

Champions league qualification is required to in any way back up that statement. You can't say you should be competitive against everyone if you don't even qualify for the competition that allows you to compete against these teams. If Leceister don't qualify he's not going to sit on his hands and say to himself "you know what I think we'd give Real Madrid a game so I'll just stay here". Your deluded if you believe that. Fact of the matter is if Real Madrid or Bayern or these sides come in for you and meet your valation your going to want to go, that applies to virtually every club in the world. It's reality.

That's completely not how the 50+1 model works. It's about fan representation, not grandstanding or havng the final say.

I wasn't talking about Leicester, hence "American owners". I was talking about over the piece, the EPL wouldn't be any worse off, in fact it'd probably better off without the swaithes of foreign owners who are only interested in the bottom line and the commercial appeal of the league. Like any conversation of such there are always outliers to that, of which King Power are undoubtedly one . For what it's worht anyway they seem hell bent on doing things the right way and have Leicester working as a self-sustainable club and not financially doping them up to the eyeballs with dodgy sponsorship deals and the likes.

With all due respect he's not, the highest level is playing champions league football season after season, winning trophies. He's not leaving to go to a club like Arsenal, for a ton of reasons, let's back to the real world, if he's going to go it'll be to a Bayern Munich, Real Madrid type club and as sad as it would be to s him go any of those types of club meet the valuation he's gone. I hope he stays obviously but if he would reject a move to someone like Bayern due to not thinking he's good enough then I'd worry about his mentality. No top player will think that way. He doesn;t seem to have that sort of mentality at all, he's already one of the key players in one of the world's best national sides so 'd back him to step up and become a key player in a side like Bayern and I imagine he'd be of a similar opinion. The best way to keep him here is by getting champions league football, continuing to compete for trophies and keep on growing as a club.

Who cares. Most of these owners don't put much of their own money in anyway, look at the Glazers at Man Utd, the club was bought and is run on debt/credit. EPL clubs don't need these american owners and the likes they generate more money as it is than any other league in the world through TV deals and the most expensive ticketing in Europe.

This is happening in Scotland as of next season for any match that isn't televised on Sky.

I think a fair scenario in terms of European competition would be the winners of the top 16 leagues in Europe gain direct entry to the Champions League. Teams finishing second in the top 6 leagues also go straight in as they'll need appeased somehow. That leaves ten places up for grabs via a qualifying route. Teams that finished second in their leagues outwith the top 6 but still in the top 16 would have to play a single to legged qualifier and then have layers of qualifiers below that for teams in leagues outwith the top 16. None of this dropping out one competition into the other carry on either. The above will never happen, things have gone too far in terms of greed, money and commercialism now but something like this would distribute the wealth more evenly and fairly, instead of concentrating it to the top 5 leagues as is currently the case, ironically who have and generate the most money anyway. It'd also restore the Europa League/UEFA cup to the strong and exciting competition it once was. Oh and I'd slap every side involved in this ESL farce with a five year ban from all European competition to teach them a lesson.

I think a fair scenario would be the winners of the top 16 leagues in Europe gain direct entry to the Champions League. Teams finishing second in the top 6 leagues also go straight in as they'll need appeased somehow. That leaves ten places up for grabs via a qualifying route. Teams that finished second in their leagues outwith the top 6 but still in the top 16 would have to play a single to legged qualifier and then have layers of qualifiers below that for teams in leagues outwith the top 16. None of this dropping out one competition into the other carry on either. The above will never happen, things have gone too far in terms of greed, money and commercialism now but something like this would distribute the wealth more evenly and fairly, instead of concentrating it to the top 5 leagues as is currently the case, ironically who have and generate the most money anyway. It'd also restore the Europa League/UEFA cup to the strong and exciting competition it once was. Oh and I'd slap every side involved in this ESL farce with a five year ban from all European competition to teach them a lesson.

UEFA are just a different shade of the same shite as the ESL cohorts.

It's not though every post is financially focussed. That's not practicality, the EPL and the rest of the clubs won't go bust if these six clubs leave so for that reason alone park the financial consequences at the door. Like I said this is so much bigger than just financially. Sometimes everyone has to suffer for the greater good and the best outcome in the future, however far away that is and this is one such occassion. I've been there with my own club where the death of Rangers cost us tens of millions each season they were out the league but it was a necessary evil to maintain sporting integrity.

Again I think he's talking about the principle of it and for what it's worth old frm fans visiting 2 or 3 times a season makes up a huge proportion of the budget of a lot of our clubs so there was a massive relative financial hit in Scotland for the smaller clubs. Not to mention the fact the TV deal got reduced also as there is a clause in Sky's contract that lessens the monies significantly if there are not four old fim games in a season. Not on the same scale as the EPL case but there was a significant relative impact your ignoring. This really needs to move from a financial issue to a moral and competitive one.

The 14 other clubs want to grow a set of balls here.

The premier league will still have more than enough money and likely still more money than any other league. Lke I said, that's the issue, stop thinking about money first, this is a moral, competitive and sporting integrity issue first and foremost.

As much as it sounds nice that ain't gonna happen, assets worth hundreds of millions, which is what the players are aren't going to just walk away for nothing.

Who gives a rat's shite sometimes what needs to be done is the correct and moral thing. Thinking about money first and whether the Premier League will or won't be the best league in the world is academic, that's exactly how these clubs are wired to think and why things are turning to shit.

Like I said, far fetched.

Far fetched perhaps but the govrnment managed to stump up 37bn for the test and trace system at the drop of a hat. Let the government buy these shysters out for bringing the game into disrepute and then similar to Germany sell 51% of the clubs back to the fans so they have the final say should anything like this rear it's head again. I get this would never happen, especially under a Conservative government but theoretically it's possible.

Agreed whether this happens or not these sides part of this cabal need to be made an example of or else it just gives sides a licence to do things like this with impunity.

That's still unfair though, it just excludes sids from all other leagues not worthy of the same level of participation as the big 5 leagues. Teams that let's not forget have knocked out some ot these 'super' clubs from the champions league in recent seasons, teams like Lyon, Monaco, Ajax, Porto, etc. The big clubs should be told to take a run and jump, they shouldn't be pandered to. European football and access to it should be attained on merit only and it should stay that way. If anything it's already skewed too much in favour of the top 5 leagues and all this does is grows the gap between the top 5 leagues and the rest. Ajax for example got to the semi-final a couple of years back and then had to play two two legged qualifiers the next season, after actually winning their league all to ensure teams that finished fourth in England, Italy and Spain could qualify directly. That's what's created this, forever giving in to the top 5 leagues and even that has been proved to not be enough. They should have been given short shrift long ago instead of UEFA constantly pandering to their every will.

I'm against it entirely but if it were to happen it would only be fair that they started at the bottom of the football league. What god given right do Celtic and Rangers have to leapfrog teams that have been trying to get out league 2 for years.

Most leagues in Europe have a a clutch or 1 or 2 clubs who tend to dominate. Look at Germany for example where there is essentially one and it's one of the top five leagues. Of course the league is worth saving to say anything other is just arrogant, commercialised nonsense that ironically is the exact sort of opinion that has led us to where we are now where greed and money is trumping all and football verges on eating itself. Your mindset is exactly that of these heinous clubs who want to bugger off. Shocking.

Gate receipts, sponsorship, tv deal would disappear, I could go on all day. The Old Firm prop up the professional game in Scotland, without them there wouldn't be one. Even with the Old Firm in the league there are guys in the Scottish top flight earning £500 per week.