SENTINELCELTS

Only the future will tell how much impact this weeks revelations will have in the world of football but  we have just seen a battle begin for control of the game , and by extension the moolah. Our club of choice has also been implicated somewhat , which makes this even more juicier !

But first it seems what happened roughly is

Financial fair play rules begin,,,

Big boys get unhappy at this rule ,,,

Big boys hold meeting in London ,,,

Uefa catches 2 big boys breaching regulations,,,

Uefa goes and negotiates with them instead of issuing set punishment ,,,so Brian Quinn resigns

Big boys meet Uefa and tell them they want a closed league, Uefa say never,,,

Fifa and Uefa split over plans to upgrade ICC and WCC that would clash with season,,,

Documents leaked show big boys going to start their own super league

Some of this was public knowledge of course but these new revelations are very interesting and throw up some mega questions . The clubs themselves own the new league ,, they dont just play there , with Real holding the most ( 17 % ) , and Barca along with Man Utd holding the second and third biggest chunks after that at 15 % and 12 % respectively .

A big one though is the relegation system ,,, out of the 16 teams in the league 11 are considered founding members and CANNOT be subject to relegation for a period of 20  years ?

How to f#@k is that fair at all ?  And how can the other 5 initial guests agree to that ,, yeah right money talks .

However another big assumption here is that those relegated can waltz straight back into their domestic top flight ,, after leaving them and that is quite an assumption to make , but they seem confident . Perhaps they do have the associations over a barrel on this one and are thinking when asked do you want a mega club back for your now diminished set up those running the show will jump at the chance . They might well you know and the clubs look to have outplayed the blazers  on that one .

The other option create 2 divisions and have a 3 up 3 down system , but finishing bottom of div2 wouldnt see you thrown out . Should a war with the associations occur , sealing off the option of returning to your ex league if relegated for instance , I will look for this to be initiated and an invite to wing its way to east Glasgow . More on that later.

A 16 team league would give us 30 regular games a season , and then there will be knock out rounds . Would players see less games as a carrot of this new set up ? Would less games raise the quality of the football ?

Initial Guests,,,hmmm. I wouldnt be too happy myself if all the others had set themselves up and you were just a number filler but then again this new league will , initially at least , be the latest bling and the place to be , so its hard to imagine anyone turning down an invite to a lavish party .  

The names mentioned of these guests are Marseilles , Roma , Athletico , Inter , Dortmund .

All big clubs in their own right .

Should the desire or need arise for a second league or division it could get very interesting indeed and many may well see themselves in with a good shout of a “ golden ticket “.

The Time Scale ,,, to start in 2021 is very ambitious indeed . Thats not to say its not possible. I guess individual clubs arent concerned about the Tv contracts the league has signed . From the leagues standpoints they may sell the rights to their competition , but I doubt they can order anyone to stay in their competition . They might ban a return but that could be considered cutting your nose off in spite of your face . Cannae see it.

What happens to the Champions League ? Well Uefa will need some type of cup competition , but the name will change . I dont see how they avoid sticking the champions of the domestic leagues in there , and if they still were to have 2 comps then it would be nice to go back to a cup winners cup . I dont see much other choice . Either that or top 2 one cup next 2 the other cup .

I liked the old Cup Winners Cup myself and it throws up some great draws. That would be welcome to me at least .

How are Glasgow Celtic involved ? It has been reported ( the Times ) Brian Quinn resigned at the decision not to punish Manchesscity and Psg with the set punishments . They were both given a 20 million Euro slap on the wrist which was negotiated with and agreed to by both clubs . Infantino , whose job it was to make sure they didnt transgress Ffp rules , caved under pressure and  now sits in the big chair , surprise surprise . His department at the time , the Club Financial Control Body, was written to about Rangers transgressions and he responded with the new club so couldnt play in Europe letter .

One of the big questions we fans have been asking is why not ask that body to investigate the issuing of the Uefa license in 2011 – 2012 for Rangers. We have always been asked to believe it was kosher despite evidence to the opposite .

Is this why they werent asked ? Because they have skeletons in the closet and dont want the boat rocked , thus the stock response is “ we leave it up to the national associations to determine if all is good with the application “.   

Having known that the system was compromised ( they would have known the day Brian resigned ) is this why the club are silent ? Because the whole effing thing is bent , so theres no point in shouting about one aspect of that crookedness ?  Because a wee invite might be on the cards ? Because its all about to go belly up ?

Why start our own wee war when theres a huge battle about to happen within the entire game .

Did they tell the Res12’ers theres no point in asking them ( CFCB ) as they are bent ? If not why not ?

Then onto Brian Quinn. After resigning in protest why did the world not hear that the system is bent ?    He walked quietly into the night ? Hes involved with the Qatar world cup now . You couldnt make it up .

The Denials,,, some of the clubs have denied being involved . Arsenal claim they are going nowhere . Fair play to them and this will split a lot of people tbh . Whether to follow the money to the new promised land or whether stand loyally beside your association . Most will follow the money of course . Arsenal could well be replaced by Spurs, or even Ajax , who both could easily have been one of the big guns to break away .

The side effects,,,so I may be wrong here but should a club wish to leave its league it must give notice and our club of choice has such a clause . Thats all above board just like handing in your notice in work , everyones fine and you get a new employer .

But if a club breaks that deal and just walks out or even walks earlier than the agreed frame then players that play for that club may not play for their national team as they are in breach of Fifa protocol . Howeva,,, what if that suited everyone ? All the clubs would be happy as they are not losing their stars to potential injury and all the players are happy because they wont be forced to play in over a hundred degrees in empty stadiums ( that cost a lot of cheap labor lives ) in a country that might well see some of their antics as illegal . And with actual real world consequences accompanying that illegality .

No, ol Mahe here thinks this one could be timed very well indeed ,,as a big eff you to Fifa and their bent World Cup . Go ahead and ban everyone involved and lets see exactly how the summer goes down eh ?

To summarise,,, Ffp has been proven a joke and whether you need to adhere to it depends on how big your club is and how much clout you have .  The biggest clubs have decided to cut out the middleman and will now form their own superleague and share in the spoils . We should have seen it coming actually . They watched as Uefa and Fifa totally split over the World Club Cup and International Champions Cup which Fifa wanted to expand and make high profile , giving something to the rest of the world .

They watched as Fifa was proven corrupt and fought against righting itself . And they watched as that bunch of crooks decided to put the well being of their players ( through the heat ) and interrupt their seasons , not to mention years of protocol , by awarding Qatar a summer world cup . I expect many players to say Im not going , and fans to stay away .

Can you blame them , the clubs that is ,  for taking matters into their own hands ? I certainly dont .

So what do we do ? Well what can we do but react to the changing landscape , and boy is she changing . That super league division two is a real goer here , and although there might be a bigger name or two out there that could get the nod it would make a lot of sense to bring another country into the fold thus more exposure . I like to think if a 2nd league is set up we would be invited .

The rub though , it would probably be a duel invite with you know who . On the positive side the refs might not be the usual suspects and the upturn in scrutiny may actually help bring about a better cleaner game . The increase in tv revenue that would come with the move would hopefully bring an increase in player quality so maybe we could actually move away from blood and snotters football. Songbook wise the new head honchos might not like what they hear and demand a clamp down for their new shiny object , but equally could hype and revel in the historic derby and its traditional chants and songs.

Overall though , lets just see who and what emerges from this scrap .

It should be a goodun !