i think what you will find for the English fan that the amount of money to follow your team home and away in every competition would cost thousands. It would get you to about 60 games in a season. One Euro league would be about 30 games. It wont be a problem for the English fans..they will still travel home and away. I know United fans that spend £5k a year at the moment for the full season plus travel…Utd and Liverpool always sell their allocations. The thought of these massive games rather than trips to Hull etc would guarentee it..in fact i would be quite happy to pay a bigger fee for my season ticket to watch 15 or 16 home games against the best in Europe than what i pay at the monent to watch the 20 home games in the prem…quality not quantity. However, i think you are right for some of the other nations. You will find that on the mainland the away support is nothing like it is in the prem (please correct me if im wrong!) Having been to American Sports games i dont think football will become like that as the home support will always be vocal no matter what

however, you get close to a big downside in the comments when you discuss the burden of travel, but don’t quite get there….

one of my biggest disappointments about sport in America, generally speaking, is the atmosphere at the games. i put this down to the lack of travelling support and that there is therefore no requirement for home and away segregation. the visiting support is largely restricted to implants and vacationers intermingled among the crowd. what you end up with for the most part are spectators rather than supporters. beer, hotdogs, occasionally shouting out “you suck!” *yawn*

the clubs might be able to easily budget for flying around Europe, but the fans won’t and that will lead to the stadiums closer resembling what I’ve found in America and that will be a great shame.

the beauty of European competition from the fans’ perspective right now is that it is something different and special that has been earned. if and when it becomes the norm and away games mostly means playing the other side of Europe the game will be dead for a lot of fans.

It is an honour to play in it, but i think there is an increasing apathy from both fans and clubs when it comes to Internationals. Club football is where it is at. And its where the money is for the players. I couldnt see Wayne Rooney demanding a transfer back to Everton, just so he could kick a ball around in a white shirt

If the ESL was formed today and the big four from England, Italy, Spain, etc all joined in and their players were banned from representing their countries, could you imagine the World Cup next year without the likes of Rooney, Gerrard, Torres, Buffon, Del Piero et al???

Likewise, if the players are still interested in representing their country, they would seek a move to a club still under the FA, which then renders the ESL meaningless, as it would have lost all its stars!

UEFA and the FAs may not be able to convince the clubs to not form the ESL, but they can certainly control the players!

Oh and if someone from the FA is actually reading this, please give credit where its due. Thanks! =D

however, travelling around Europe is not a problem, the Champions League has shown that. United travel everywhere by plane for Prem games, or they have a chartered train that takes them to cities. As we know it can take as long to get from Manchester to London, as it does to get to Spain or Italy..so time and fatigue are not an issue.

If the teams break away from UEFA they will be able to negotiate a tv deal that dwarfs what they get from the Champions league. Teams like United make about £30m from winning a Champions League, and the same again from winning the Prem. With sponsorship and worldwide tv deals they would probably pocket about £100m before a ball is kicked, so there is no risk whatsoever when you add that up with any prize money and merchandising revenues they could potentially make as well

Its all about the structure of the debt. All business’ carry some sort of debt. I have no idea why people are up in arms about the issue. The Glazers loan is actually well structured and it would take United to be relegated sometime in the next ten year to stop that debt being serviced…they have also invested about £400m of their own cash which is no small commitment…same for Arsenal who stumped up a £350m loan for Ashburton Grove to be built. If the profits are sound, then a business will always borrow to further its ambitions. However, if you are Leeds Utd..borrow an extortionate amount to buy players with no operating profit, then you are going to go to the wall..simple economics.

All of these clubs have it pretty sweet now in that they have their top one, two, three or four spots to qualify and can play against inferior competition year after year to keep that place. In order to make the jump to a new super league, you would have to provide the incentive of higher revenue streams and guarantee that there would not be regulation. Otherwise why take the risk?

The structure of the thing though is an altogether more complicated question.
In some shape or form an opportunity should exist for clubs excluded initially to take part, ie
Manchester City, Tottenham, Everton, Sevilla, Valencia, Villarreal, Atletico, Roma etc., the kinds of club in various European domestic leagues that just bubble under their respective elites.

I think an initial “SL1″ should be the starting point with the usual Champions League suspects forming the core. Thereafter, tricky!

Me? I’m an old fashioned git and hanker after the days of the European Cup, Cup Winners Cup etc, where the holders are invited to defend their trophy and the competition does what it says on the tin, recent television money hasn’t necessarily been a good thing recently unless you’re a club chairman.

If, for example, some of the current Premiership teams are compelled to sever all ties and throw in their lot with the ESL would that association preclude them from taking part in the FA Cup, and if so, would the FA Cup be devalued? If my lot, Tottenham, were going to win the Premiership or Cup, I’d like them to do it by taking more points of Man U, The Arse and Chelski.

With luck this thread will run and run and throw up allsorts of counter arguments and questions.

Lo and behold, here we are writing about Notts County and AFC Bournemouth of League 2. I would never imagined giving a hair’s thought about that back then but certainly over time it caught on to me.

So while I’m in the group of people who would object the change initially, I don’t think we are in any power to stop it. Spurs could be champions of England, but the competitiveness would have rendered it meaningless.

I definitely like the SL1, SL2 and SL3 format. My criteria would be slightly different, although I understand yours is a base model. One representative per SL. Heck, I can even foresee the whole SL format replace the CL, and still have these teams play in their domestic league. Champions in SL1, runner ups in SL2 and so on. So if you take this year’s qualifiers, you’d get matches between Real Madrid vs Liverpool, and Man Utd vs Barcelona, which isn’t too bad an attraction.

However it is, I only see something like this happening in about 10-15 years. Cos ppl are stubborn. And the FA and powers that be are ppl like us (except we’re smarter!)