nbthree3

LOC meaning Champions League, "League of Champions" the guy's French

You underestimate Football Twitter if you're calling them all bots. A lot of kids with plenty of time now school's finished for the day wanting bites

Not so bad after all hahaha, strip them!

The Mail article's been updated to post Masters' entire letter to the big 6 chairmen: Dear Chairman/Chief Executive, I am writing to inform you of what we believe to be an imminent announcement of a European Super League concept, potentially involving a number of Premier League Clubs alongside others from Spain and Italy. Based on our understanding of the proposed European Super League concept it would sit outside the auspices of UEFA and the current European sporting pyramid, offering 15 founding members permanent access from as early as season 2022/23, rather than via the historic access principles of annual sporting merit. The Premier League Board met this morning and I wanted to make clear its position based on the information we have at our disposal. Such a European Super League would be deeply damaging to the European pyramid, the immediate and future prospects of the Premier League and its member Clubs and all those in football who rely on our funding and solidarity to prosper. We believe such a concept would be hugely unpopular with football fans across the continent, in particular here in England, where progress via sporting merit is central to the history and traditions of the national game and the rightful aspirations of all Clubs and their fans. We do not and cannot support such a concept. Premier League Rules contain a commitment amongst Clubs to remain within the football pyramid and forbid any Clubs from entering competitions beyond those listed in Rule L9, without Premier League Board permission. I cannot envisage any scenario where such permission would be granted. It is the duty of the Premier League Board to defend the integrity and future prospects of the League as a whole, and we will have no choice but to do everything we can to protect and maintain both. The consequences of attempting to proceed with a European Super League would be the immediate destabilisation of the Premier League and the English game as a whole, at a time when it needs precisely the opposite. This is a time when English football should be coming together as we emerge from the extraordinary challenges of the pandemic. As previously evidenced, we would expect complete condemnation from all parts of the game, fan groups and the UK Government. This venture cannot be launched without English Clubs and we call upon any Club contemplating associating themselves or joining this venture to walk away immediately before irreparable damage is done. A media statement will be issued on behalf of the Premier League and, should the announcement go ahead, we will call a meeting of Clubs to discuss the immediate implications and the Board's recommended response. Both Gary and I are available to talk you through what we reliably know at this stage. Kind regards, Richard Richard Masters, Chief Executive

Mail claims Man City did agree just yesterday The big six of English football have signed letters of intent to join a new European Super League, which will be announced at 9.30pm on Sunday night. Manchester City were the last to agree, on Saturday, joining Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham in the breakaway, which will spell the end of competition in domestic and European football as we know it.

And just like that https://twitter.com/skysports_bryan/status/1383798916387270664?s=20

Vote by the PL board yeah, and it looks like they're going against it. Spent the weekend formulating a response apparently. 9:30pm tonight, we'll see if it happens!

All from here btw https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9484141/FIVE-Premier-League-teams-sign-European-Super-League-snub-UEFA.html

Breathe

Hold fire and see where we are in 4 games if Fulham win. Liverpool, Arsenal (which one, today's or the one that usually turn up to play us), Leicester and Man City might bring us back in the mix. 35 I'd otherwise feel confident being on!

It's further insight into what happened in September. It isn't what's happening now of course, that's private and we won't hear about that for a while. But it's interesting to see the extent the government did get involved despite claiming no involvement, from both the PM and the PL

That said it reveals truly the scale we're talking about, mental stuff. The Daily Mail can today reveal that the Prime Minister claimed privately that a Tory donor with close links to the Saudis contacted him over the Newcastle row and appeared to hint at getting a peerage in return for resolving Anglo-Saudi disputes. This newspaper can also reveal new evidence of the extent of Bin Salman's fury in his June message to the Prime Minister, with a warning that the UK economy would pay a price. The Crown Prince said: 'The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has opened its doors for the UK's investments in various sectors and initiated a mutually beneficial investment program with large amounts of funding. The EPL's wrong conclusion will unfortunately have a negative impact on both our countries economic and commercial relations.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9476763/Brilliant-Boris-said-told-Newcastle-deal-track.html Under the radar, this one...

Man City have to deal with that all the time, here's 1 of many https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/23/uae-human-rights-man-city-jailing-british-academic?CMP=share_btn_tw

The actual hearing's private but the outcome will be made public I think. The appeal regarding the chairman, I don't think that was known until March 5th when the club statement and judgments were handed down. The hearings for that was mid-January and late-February. In the 6 weeks since, yeah there's probably progress

It's like we're back a year with the amount of takeover reports! Something has to be up surely, why's it in a hurry now? Nothing we don't know btw in the above just more smoke to the ever-growing - but never went away - fire

https://www.premierleague.com/news/60542 adds a bit more, but is basically the above in short

The suggestion is that it won't be appealed, so the arbitration can be carried out in private. When journalists are saying the hearing hasn't taken place, I'm not sure how they would know if the process is a private one. Next we should hear is the outcome of whether the PIF and the state are separate or not. And that's meant to be expected by the end of the season so we shouldn't hear anything before then

If anything that's confirmed we're - or we were - in the middle of a geopolitical battle that's out of our reach