It is believed Perez will hold the chairman's role in the new league's structure, with Liverpool's John W. Henry, Joel Glazer of Manchester United and Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke as vice-chairmen. [Mail]

Americans massively behind it to protect their shares

The way var is being used for offsides is ridiculous. It should have been bought in to correct the clear errors. When you’re looking at such close calls today it really isn’t a matter of fact, it becomes a completely subjective and basically pot luck decision because when it’s that close you’re just relying on the subjective view of where the guy fancies drawing the lines, when the frame of the video is stopped and when the ball is deemed to have left the foot/head of the final pass.

On the penalty, first of all that is not a penalty. I think if the ref doesn’t give it then var doesn’t give it - that in itself is fair enough because it’s only meant to overturn clear and obvious errors. So for their penalty I blame the onfield ref less than var IF var is going by the rules of only over turning clear and obvious errors. For my mind I’ve watched that penalty a number of times and the thing that sticks in my throat is we’ve seen tens of penalties far more clear than that not given to us this season.

I still maintain we’ve barely had a single subjective or close var call go our way this season

When there was a lot of optimistic posts on here about our run in and having designs on finishing 7th possibly, I liked the optimism but had very little faith we'd attain it.

A word has come into more use with this club that I have been using as a reason we wouldn't go too much higher in the table: consistency. More accurately, lack of.

What I really think? We'll finish 9th or 10th, we won't move too much from where we are and I hinted that the club(s) we really need to watch aren't the ones above us but the ones around us, specifically Villa and Leeds.
Everton has a game in hand and are playing better than us and are 4 points ahead. With half a dozen games left, I fear too many things has to happen to catch them. The club we really need to worry about? Leeds. We'll have hard pressed to maintain 9th. We may come down to the final game or two to finish 9th possibly.

I'm also growing increasingly doubtful we'd beat Man Utd in the final if both of us get there. In fact, I think we'd have a tough time with Roma. And assuming we'll get past Villareal is also a bit too optimistic.

This image went round social media to show the limitations of Elneny. He passed this first time backwards. Look at where smith Rowe is. It’s also the fact Elneny has predetermined that he’s going to play it back before he even gets the pass.

The worse thing about VAR is that it has taken away the joy of scoring a goal. You can never celebrate until VAR has done it round of checks for offsides, fouls, handballs etc.

I am not sure what the answer is because without it there are so many wrongly awarded goals but it all feels so utterly joyless.

Exactly so.

100%, Every goal has to be analysed these days. Without it I’m not sure there’s that many wrongly awarded goals compared to what is occurring right now.

it’s changed the offside rule, without VAR our disallowed goal would never have been questioned. They are going to have to change the offside rule so it involves daylight or something. The players torso maybe. They are giving fractional marginal decisions

It’s simply a failed experiment

With Xhaka, ceballos and El Nenny in the same side we were always going to struggle. We need better back up in midfield it’s sideways or back usually

Stan Kroenke of Arsenal was eager for the Super League to go through. He was Perez's best 'mate' in this. Kroenke sees Super League as the way to make Arsenal "the biggest team in the world"


No.....the way to make Arsenal the biggest team in the world is to put your hand in your *%^@*** pocket

Bit of a depressing day on the football front. First we blow a really good chance to claw our way back towards the european qualification places, and then this European Super League proposal. My initial reaction to the latter is that I want no part of it and I would consider giving up my long held season ticket. I dont mean to be xenophobic but I find it annoying that its being pushed by these foreign owners (Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) who have invested in English football clubs first and foremost to make money and who dont seem to care about the game or the fans itself.

It’s a long time since Arsenal considered us as fans. We are customers.

It is disgusting for fans. For Stan, no. The less he has to do financially in support for the club, he's for it.

So many would be cut out of the big portion of the pie, let alone not be a part of it.

An easy way out to minimal participation, financially. Pocket more money, without effort.

Apparently Tottenham are the sixth English team signing up for it, along with Manchester City and United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. Don’t Tottenham have English owners?

https://www.football.london/premier-lea ... 3ae133acee

Oh I’m not shocked at all the bloke wants it. Or the glazers for that matter

In the most recent glory era/years we had dynamic players in the middle whose first mind was to look for a forward player: Fabregas, Vieira, Bergkamp when he played farther in the middle. We don't have such players. Okay, they are one off players but we don't have that type of player. Ødegaard could be one of those types. Its certainly not Xhaka and Elneny. Party's role isn't that but he's capable of it sometimes. Smith Rowe, Saka have that in their locker. But its Xhaka who controls the game when he's starting. The players we have don't believe they are skillful enough, or canny enough to do the feint, etc because they are more scared of being the one guilty of losing the ball in such a position and giving up a goal. We should have brought Fabregas back home from Monaco and fill in the position till someone else can be bought. There, I said it.

The breakaway 12 clubs makes no sense. Presumably they’ll be cut off from the FIFA/UEFA/FA environments. If so then where will they get their players from? Any player signing for them would have no way back. I just can’t get my head around it at all.

It's Joe Lewis. He's one of the richest British football club owners in the country. Worth close to £4B.

Like bromley I doubt it will happen. I wonder if it’s a side threat, or negotiating position, for something else they want. Also, why are Bayern and PSG not getting involved?

Exactly. That was my point Zed. Lewis is British. Indeed, he’s from London like the team he supports and owns. I was uncomfortable with the idea we should be blaming foreigners, if that’s what Bored was implying. If he wasn’t, then I immediately apologise to him. But it was the impression his post gave me. It was:

“I dont mean to be xenophobic but I find it annoying that its being pushed by these foreign owners (Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) who have invested in English football clubs first and foremost to make money and who dont seem to care about the game or the fans itself.”

I suppose at the heart of it you have a bunch of clubs sticking their fingers up at everyone else so they are assuming the rest of the footballing world would adjust their environments to accommodate this new super league structure. It’s that and everything else isn’t their concern.

It’s pretty crazy and gross especially the part about issuing a letter of intent which is very salesy.

I would have thought due to Bayern’s unique ownership they are less likely to be championing something radical and individual like this as they are proportionally owned by their own trading company like a privately owned organisation Rather than having a toupee wearing noncey owner from America who wants to run the club like his toy. Bayern are a real sporting institution.

I think so.
My main objection is its a crap idea that is driven primarily by profit rather than sporting merit and could end up damaging the fabric of English football. I think what leaves a bad taste in the mouth is the admitedly naive idea that owners of football clubs are also custodians, so when a cabal of largely foreign owners seem to be acting in a way which threatens to destroy English football culture which has developed over 100+ years, I cant help but wonder whether growing up in another country makes them more detatched from the role and importance that football has played in England. Its probably a correlation rather than a causal relationship but it doesnt look good.

They will throw big money at players wages but where will the money come from? TV money I assume. The chances of me paying any extra money to watch us is zero. I don’t see why UEFA could not ask nations to ban clubs from their competition (EPL) if they sign up. It is just greedy people trying to make even more money out of the golden goose. We need to be really careful here as a club. They probably are trying to scam some other deal by doing this but frankly the club is a disgrace for being involved.

Hello Bernard. No i'm not blaming foreigners i'm blaming the mindset of owners of any nationality who try to maximise their profits without really caring about the damage it will have on the fabric of football in this or in any other country. The fact that the English clubs supporting these proposals are largely foreign owned is an interesting fact, but its probably irrelevant. I cant believe that this scheme will become reality as it seems too radical and its just a way to put pressure on UEFA.

Not sure why everyone is getting so upset. Football sold out to the moneymen a long time ago when Sky entered the fray and this is just the next logical step for those owners who see their clubs as a massive money making machine to move it to another level by avoiding the financial perils of having to qualify for the CL.

If we don't win the EL this year and don't qualify for europe at all then who knows when we might find our way back into the CL. It could be years, if at all. No wonder Kroenke is all over this idea. It seems to me that we stand to benefit from such a breakaway move more than just about anyone else.

Sky, BT and Uefa are just pissed because someone else has the audacity to stick their snout in the trough.

I reckon Uefa should have increased the CL places in the PL 6, then at least all the so-called big 6 clubs would have had a decent shot at CL qualification every year, and that's all they really care about. As it stands at least 2 big clubs are missing out on CL revenue every season and that is why the European Super League is so attractive.

Its interesting that the German clubs havent supported these proposals (yet). I'm no expert but could it be because their clubs are structured in a way which prevent them from being run primarily as a rich persons play thing or investment vehicle?

I think so, Bored. I mean Kroenke is supposedly one of the big players behind this move and he doesn't even come to Arsenal games, bar the odd cup final.

Good ebening Socrates. I agree football sold out a long time ago so in a way it is a natural progression along the road of profit maximisation. But I still find it jarring to think that a handful of rich owners could set up their own league with no relegation/promotion whilst simultaneously destroying the footbaling culture of the country.

I can’t see this European super league happening. This seems like it’s a power play by those clubs to be used as a bargaining position for better terms in current competitions.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see the big teams in our league start talking about a more structured tv money deal here. The tv deal is split very evenly in the premier league, no matter if you’re top or bottom. I can imagine the teams with the most fans and the most watched on tv try to broker deals for more of the share of the pot as they are the biggest draw. Or even push for their own tv deal.

I agree but the horse has bolted and its too late to shut the stable door. The gravy train is in full flow.

Why not, Rich, its the next logical step, as Bored said, in maximising profits.

Well 5th place Villareal beat 9th place Levante
5-1 today.

Yep. Greed intensified. Something to boast about between rich, elite club owners to pass the time. Why bother having fans attending live matches, when all the TV revenue has to do is scoop up subscriptions worldwide. Doing that now anyway. Especially if/when more matches are play
ed abroad. All this does is narrows the playing field by removing the less endowed clubs. A playground sport only for the super wealthy. Like a high stakes poker game.

I understand what you are saying. Would you be happy if Arsenal were no longer in the EPL and every week you were just looking at what team we were playing in Europe. There may become issues about which grounds are available to be used. Not every team across Europe actually own their own ground. Players would likely be banned from their national teams as well. While that might not mean much to some European players, national games and the World Cup are a big deal to a lot of players around the world. Just say it happened. Having now been released, penalties could be enforced immediately and Arsenal could well be involved in some lengthy legal battles. Plus how do you think our current team would fare in games in a super league next season.

Apparently 9th placed Arsenal drew with 20th placed Fulham today as well but it has been lost because today the club proved how far we are from any values that I can recognise and appreciate.

If you didn’t see it live, I’d recommend watching on BBC iplayer tonight’s MOTD2 (on the Premier League highlights) and the MOTD listed as a separate programme on the FA Cup highlights but to all intents and purposes the same show. At the end of each part of it (MOTD2 on the Premier League and MOTD on the FA Cup) the presenter Mark Chapman and pundits Danny Murphy and Dion Dublin all speak very well about the super league proposals.

If this goes ahead then I will no longer follow Arsenal which I'm viewing as a positive right now.