International weeks always make the hacks go a bit mad. Amazing that the bloggers always find stuff to write about whereas these guys are forced to tread over tired old ground.
I wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see Super League stuff appearing in the papers again yesterday, because there have been recent developments and there’s a huge court case pending against UEFA and FIFA for threatening to kick clubs out who become involved in it; the Super League organisers will almost certainly lose that case.
They’ve lost several others, in the lower courts, and this is the big one. They don’t really have much to work with; UEFA and FIFA are member organisations with clear rules and the Super League clubs are in violation of them.
Their chances aren’t great.
So, the Super League concept in its original form is a goner.
They have tried reaching out to clubs across Europe to reconstruct it and get greater buy-in but I think that’s a strategy doomed to failure. They claim to have talked to several clubs in Scotland, but they won’t name them. Of course not. Because the denials would be loud enough to wake the dead.
Oh, I don’t doubt they’ve got some interest here, just in case this comes off, but as I’ve written in previous articles the total number of teams who would be eligible to play in even the largest version is less than the total which currently play in UEFA’s three competitions, so for any club to publicly put their name to it might be riskier than the reward.
One club in Scotland will absolutely not be involved in any way, at any point, and that’s us. Peter Lawwell just got confirmed as the ECA Vice President, and they are an officially recognised body by UEFA, the only one that UEFA recognises to represent the clubs. Celtic are built in with the bricks at UEFA and UEFA’s opposition to this is absolute.
It is absolute. It is without question. And neither is Celtic’s loyalty to the wider family of European football via UEFA.
We might not like that, we might not like UEFA at times, but it is a fact that Celtic are considered a key club at the highest levels of the European governing body and that they know we are one of those they can absolutely count on.
I genuinely don’t know why this story comes up over and over again. Celtic will not participate in any version of it that is not sanctioned by UEFA and that ends the discussion before it even starts.
The SFA is opposed, and would severely punish any club from this country which got involved. The EPL is obviously opposed. Bayern Munich and the top clubs from Germany have already announced that they have no interest in joining the competition.
The idea is a complete non-starter.
Even if the ESL somehow wins its case against UEFA, so what? The clubs which want to go and join it will be kicked out of their domestic associations and their fans will be in open revolt because this is massively unpopular with supporters who recognise it for exactly what it is; pure greed and a perversion of the sport.
The obsession some in the media have with this idea is baffling.
It is fundamentally corrupt at its core, and something I would never want Celtic to play any part in at all. Whatever we think of the current Champions League, or the version of it to come, that competition remains a meritocracy; if you’re good enough you’ll be at that top table.
This would create a closed shop and the rest of the game be damned.
Whenever the press mentions us in connection with it, that suggests that the hacks just don’t understand this thing at all, neither what that tournament represents nor how deep our opposition to it goes.
Trust me when I say this; we are not joining a Super League. Celtic sees its future as tied to UEFA and to the re-ordering of UEFA competitions.
We have worked on the advisory committees which have helped those reforms along. We won’t be turning our backs on all that work, and all those years of moving up in those organisations.
The ECA was part founded by Rangers.
The liquidation of that club erased their membership as surely as it did the SFA one which they saw disappear. Sevco is lucky to have associate membership.
It is Celtic who now sit at the apex of that organisation, and we are one of the most respected clubs there. Our executives have sat on numerous UEFA committees including the financial control board.
Our loyalties could not be plainer.
If the media is going to continue writing this rot, they can leave us out of it.
All well and good the naysayers saying Nay to be fair but still there’s always the chance that those Nays become Yays at some point in the fiputure ro be fair still.
Also if the lacked luster teams like Sevco, St Etienne, Torino etcetera fancy a go to be fair given their lack of luster in the EUFA compos I’d say there’s a fair enough to middling chance of them taking the baton with both hands and running with it out in front of themselves for as far as they can go to be fair.
Still enough though it might cost them their league places to be fair but then also they’d have their own big super league to be playing in to be fair still also outwith EUFA’s juries diction to be fair and could be happy enough to be generating their own big enough income to be fair still an all though, no?
Let’s have another view for some balance on the business of the ECA
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/jun/09/european-club-association-silent-football-coup-javier-tebas
We are really talking about the Saudi invasion within sports currently?
Already have had a fair degree of success with individual sports like boxing and golf.
Made a massive move into the European football market during the summer also.
This whole issue comes down to greed and nothing else.
But the Saudi have far deeper pockets than Uefa and fifa combined.
With the level of greed within the game already, plus when huge money is involved then corruption goes through the roof also.
Course the scum would be interested in such a break away league with the money involved, and possibly the only possible way they could stay in business also?
Would all the scum cheerleaders be in favour also?
Possibly, with to hard to stomach playing second fiddle to ourselves, for years to come also, and the belief that they owe Scottish football nothing after there liquidation.
How much support have the Saudi involvement really got, is another matter?
It still has the potential to blow world football apart all the same.
Still believe that the majority of football supporters would be totally against it,especially within Europe anyway.
Would that still be the case on a worldwide basis?
Still wouldn’t like to say, surely Russian teams could be interested?
The CL already is nothing but a playground for the cash rich clubs in European football, where the best a club like ourselves can expect is to be able to hand out the occasional bloody nose to them, as things stand.
Might improve next season with the increased opportunities available, but will have to wait to see how that unfolds yet.
Regardless, we will still be miles behind with available budgets to most within it,and yet being the cash rich club in Scottish football?
Must admit that I don’t like where the game is currently, which isn’t easy to deal with, when we have the amount of passion for our club
They can shove their Fcukin Super League where the sun don’t shine…
I’d rather The Highland League – At least it’s not rigged –
Give me Clachnacuddin v Inverurie Locomotive Works any day of the week !
I agree Celtic FC are all in with EUFA and how it’s functioning for now. Maybe the description of EUFA as a meritocracy is a stretch too far though given it already leans, bends and rewards the richer clubs, some owned by dubious Middle East owners and that did to those previously owned by corrupt Russian Oligards, and those clubs are increasingly richer from their involvement as member clubs of EUFA.
What happened to a certain club across the city with regards to EUFA rule breaking and entry into their European tournaments in spite of undisclosed debts that were clearly evidenced yet remain unsanctioned or countries associations that don’t apply such sanctions either and thus speak, well, with forked tongues? SFA?
Sadly power corrupts and some of the EUFA sanctioned referee’s allegiances and decision making to certain bigger clubs also seem to border on ‘dodgy’ and is thus also questionable or allowed.
If the ESL can somehow align fixtures within an already congested EUFA and national fixture list then it is likely that day will come. It will take some big clubs to align to this again as of course did happen with the EPL clubs, subsequently defeated by fan power, and of course the top Spanish clubs still remain very interested to this day.
Celtic may not be interested at his time, we don’t sit in that big team category of course even by EUFA standards but if they are forced to accept it one day then we will but within the category of 2nd or lower league status.
A threat of court action with all its associated and massive cost implications with expectations of being allowed to enter EUFA tournaments at a future date perhaps with even greater ESL funding power may take our game down that road just like LIV golf couldn’t be fended off. Never say never but aye not yet. HH
Can’t say the CL is a meritocracy to be fair and all when so many actual champions of their countries have to go through so many qualifiers outside the big leagues just to get in to be fair as we ourselves know all too well after all these years and all?
The only reason Celtic have had automatic entry there now is thanks to Sevco’s phenomenal runs in Europe to be fair and what kind of Champions League is it there when it’s possible that the last 8 can consist of no champions at all for that year there still?
The old European Cup now there was a meritocracy but this thing UEFA’s running now is largely a closed shop in favour of England, Spain, Italy and Germany to be fair there now and there’s no merit attached if say the Hun scum won the league on goal difference over ourselves thanks to one too many dodgy penalties now, is it, to be fair there now?
Fkn hilarious ?