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Barnes: Scrapping of Super League not a victory for the fans but for whoever can exploit football fans the most.


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John Barnes has given a sobering view on the proceedings that have dominated the airwaves and column inches for the last three days.

 

After the proposed European Super League was stopped in its tracks, the prevailing thought was that it was a true victory for fans across the footballing landscape.

 

But according to Barnes who is regarded as one of the most eloquent speakers in the game, fans never came into the thoughts of the power brokers and instead it was to do with a high stakes game and who would blink first.

 

The Echo (via Talkradio) reported the Reds legend as saying:

 

“Well first of all there’s been a lot of noise in the last two days in the revolution to change the face of football.

 

“Let’s make no mistake what this was about. This was about two elite groups that wanted to have the power to exploit football.

 

“It was never about the fans. It was about UEFA trying to hold on to power, the Premier League trying to hold on to their power and another group, this new ESL (European Super League) trying to come into power.

 

“This is being framed as a victory for the fans, it’s not a victory for the fans, it’s a victory for whoever wins can exploit football fans.”

 

Barnes cited the start of the Premier League when Football became much more than just a sport.

 

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“In 1992 when the Premier League started, football became a business.

 

“What football wanted was the biggest businessmen involved in football, what fans wanted was the people with the deepest pockets to come and take their clubs.

 

“We were then told that anyone coming into football needs to understand the nature of football – it’s the other way around.

 

“Once you have these big multi-billionaire businessmen coming into football then football fans have to understand the nature of business and of course we haven’t had the balance right.”

 

With the deep involvement of FSG in this sorry saga, the logical thought from Liverpool fans has been to think, 'where do we go from here?'

 

The video apology by John Henry has received a largely mixed reaction, with some in the camp of wanting to move on, while others are firmly in the view that it is one mistake too many with this one striking at the very fabric of the club.

 

When things like this happen, there is a yearning for a return to the old days, when people who truly loved and cared for the club were the ones who made the key decisions.

 

However Barnes said there will not be a return to that era.

 

“For 60 or 70 years, many fans had shares in their clubs and still owned them but if fans want rights in their clubs they have to buy shares and how much are the shares worth now?

 

“Can an average fan afford to own a football club or have shares? No they can’t, so therefore those days are over.

 

“So I would say to the fans, as much as we’re talking even from Liverpool’s perspective: ‘Is it over for the owners, Do they have to sell the club?’ – who are they going to sell the club to?

 

“If they sell the club to someone with more money than them, do you think the people who come in whose business is run autocracy are going to listen to fans when they say: ‘This is what we want you to do.

 

“It’s not going to happen, you can’t have it both ways.”

 

 

 

 

 


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“We were then told that anyone coming into football needs to understand the nature of football – it’s the other way around.

 

“Once you have these big multi-billionaire businessmen coming into football then football fans have to understand the nature of business and of course we haven’t had the balance right.”

 

 

In a nutshell, that's the real problem. Making hard-headed business decisions with something to which people have an emotional attachment, with a large part of that attachment stemming from wanting to be better, is very hard to align.

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32 minutes ago, Trumo said:

 

In a nutshell, that's the real problem. Making hard-headed business decisions with something to which people have an emotional attachment, with a large part of that attachment stemming from wanting to be better, is very hard to align.

Yep. The real problem is that its only being in the PL where you can be in with a chance of actually competing,theoretically. Outside of the PL its becoming almost impossible to survive,ask Bury about that. While the ESL was a horrible idea,yet it's going to be played out on a world scale with FIFA's world club championship expansion soon to start,it has highlighted the ridiculous injustices in the game. I'd like it to gather pace but when you find yourself on the same side of the argument as Boris Johnson and the owners of City and Chelsea you realise how fundamentally fucked the whole sport has become.

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Some rando on Twitter called this a victory for the common man and I just could not stop laughing reading that BS.

 

As a "common man" I don't feel like this was a victory for me and people like me at all. In fact, I am horrified by what FIFA, UEFA and the league organizations are going to do with the power they were handed here.

 

I've been disillusioned with football this entire season and this just confirmed to me no changes will be coming so what even is the point in watching?

 

 

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From what I’ve heard I thought it was a victory for High Horse FC?
 

Moshiri calling for all 6 to be docked points, so if you take, say, 9 points off them, that’ll leave the Moral Guardians of the game in a straight fight with West Ham (who will likely fuck up more than the Bloos before the end of the season) for a place in the CL behind City, United & Leicester.

 

How convenient.

 

As I’ve been saying for days now, hypocrisy rules everything.

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And just to prove Digger’s point, Sky shunt the Southampton game to 8.15 on a Saturday night, which is family time for many people. No doubt they would still have done it even if there had been a couple thousand Southampton fans travelling. And they have the gall to pretend they’re sticking up for the fans. Well, they can shove their 8.15 kick off up their arse, I’ll be spending that time with the (long suffering) wife.

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