End Of The Premiership

[thaimiller]

This has been on the cards for some years now, but this is a article from today's Sun that staes that it may be closer than we think.:-

FOOTBALL’S most powerful clubs are hatching plans for a European Super League which could destroy the Premier League.

Anxious Premier League officials are aware of the proposals and monitoring developments.

The Euro revolution would see the creation of three divisions — each with 20 teams.

Our Big Four — Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal — would be in the top division, forced to play 38 European games alone.

That would rule out any chance of them competing in the Premier League as well and would therefore spell the end of English football as we know it.

Premier chief executive Richard Scudamore has been alerted and would fiercely resist any moves to either abolish the Premier or reduce its size to accommodate extra European fixtures.

But that resistance could force English competitors in a European League to withdraw from the Premier League altogether.

Unofficial talks have already taken place between members of the influential European Club Association (ECA) to discuss the idea of a three-division competition involving up to 60 teams.

The secret plotters plan to get their lucrative idea off the ground by as early as 2012.

The idea, believed to be the brainchild of AC Milan, is to scrap the Champions League and UEFA Cup in favour of the new competition.

England has FIVE members of the ECA — the Big Four and Newcastle.

The Premier League’s Big Four would all qualify for the top division of a European League, while Newcastle would be involved in the second division.

The idea for the new competition was first floated at a UEFA strategy meeting in Switzerland last Tuesday.

And though it is not on the official agenda, the subject is sure to generate further discussion when the 135 ECA members meet this week.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas let the cat out of the bag when he briefed the French media of the talks following his team’s elimination from the Champions League last week.

Although the plans are still in their infancy, it appears the new league would be open only to members of the ECA.

That would mean only the five English teams with the highest UEFA coefficient would be eligible to take part.

It was the threat of a breakaway European League by the members of the former G14 organisation which forced UEFA to introduce the Champions League in 1992.

But this time the competition could go ahead with the blessing of UEFA. Their president Michel Platini said: “We are a democratic organisation who will listen to the views of everyone. We will seek the views of all the stakeholders then, when the time comes, it will be up to the executive of UEFA to decide.”

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At present, the plan is for the European League to run alongside any domestic leagues. But fixture congestion would make that proposal virtually impossible.

Any new competition could not start before 2012, when UEFA’s current deal for TV coverage of the Champions League expires.

But Premier League observers are convinced it could be years before all the problems are ironed out.

One source told SunSport: “No one has any idea how this proposal would work.

“How would teams qualify? How would they decide on promotion and relegation? How many teams would be eligible from each country? How do you fit in all the games?

“It wouldn’t be in the interests of any English team to leave the Premier League to play in a European competition. Manchester United fans would much rather watch their team playing against Manchester City, Everton and Tottenham than they would against Alkmaar, Porto and Zenit St Petersburg.

“English teams are dominating in Europe because of the collective strength and wealth of the Premier League.

“They would not want to jeopardise that by going it alone to play in a closed-shop competition created by European teams looking for guaranteed protection against failure to qualify for the Champions League.”

Last night the ECA appeared to cave in as criticism of the plans leaked out.

Executive board members issued a statement declaring: “The ECA is very happy with the existing European competitions.”

But it will do little to silence the concerns of fans.

[bkkjames]

A European "Super League" is a non-starter for Uefa chief Michel Platini, senior officials within European soccer's governing body said today, playing down media reports it was mulling plans for such a competition.

Platini was quoted by France Football as saying Uefa was prepared to discuss plans from European teams to create a continental league to replace the Champions League and Uefa Cup.

Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport said the project also had some backing from within Uefa.

"People should not mix-up the philosophy and reality. As far as the president (Platini) is concerned such a proposal (super league) is a non-starter," a senior official close to Platini told Reuters.

"He (Platini) is always open to dialogue and to look at ways of adapting and improving Uefa competitions in line with the times. But he has his own philosophy and beliefs about the game and one such belief is that he is dead set against a super league."

France Football quoted Platini as saying: "Everybody knows my philosophy about European competitions... but the world is changing and we must be careful about that."

"If it was up to me, I would revert to European Cups as they were at the beginning, with just knockout rounds. But we must listen carefully to any suggestion. If (clubs) come and talk to us, we would listen to them and then decide."

The European Club Association (ECA), which represents 137 leading teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid, talked about a "Super League" during a meeting last week in Nyon, Switzerland, France Football reported.

The Super League would be made up of three divisions with 20 to 22 clubs in each tier, the two newspapers said. Promotion and relegation would occur between the divisions each season.

European domestic leagues would remain if a Super League ever got the go-ahead, Gazzetta said, but the number of matches in individual championships would have to be reduced so that top clubs could play in both competitions.

Gazzetta said the global economic crisis had prompted the often-mooted Super League idea to resurface but gave no indication over when advocates wanted the tournament to start.

"Nobody in Uefa is working on a super league. It simply has not been brought up as a matter," another UEFA official said.

The official, with knowledge of a recent meeting of Uefa's strategy committee - comprising of representatives of the ECA, leagues, players and Uefa - also confirmed that the issue of a super league was not raised by the clubs at the meeting.

The Uefa Cup is being rebranded as the Europa League next season. Platini voted against the name change, but backed the expansion of Uefa's second-tier competition whose image has suffered since the rise of the more lucrative Champions League.

[Jimjim]

This is the like the extra premier league regular season game abroad, i.e. never going to happen.

[StevieH]

there's absolutely nothing of substance in that piece from the rag, total conjecture. the threat of a breakaway league is ever-present and it's the reason that uefa will never make any drastic changes to the champions league format for fear of upsetting the biggest, wealthiest clubs.