Football

https://twitter.com/AFCAjax/status/1384608703211524097?s=19

The ESL is clearly a honking joke of a concept, but I’m still surprised by just how up in arms everyone is over this. The game is still massively skewed in favour of a few big teams, the fact that this proposal was so brazen doesn’t change that. Imagine if folks put this much energy into tackling racism or getting Matt Hancock and David Cameron jailed...

Chelsea have pulled out

Being as they can't even beat Brighton it's probs for the best

All pulling out now. Fuck em.

One season European ban seems about right.

Perfect excuse for Liverpool/Arsenal/Spurs this season then.

Can’t wait for the Amazon documentary to release.

American club owners are not looking great at the moment. Carra telling FSG to go and do one 😂

Who’s left in it right now? Juve, Atletico, Real and Barça?

Why are Barca involved? I thought they were owned by their fans, I know they are in financial trouble but seems odd..

Look forward to this level of outrage the next time a player is subject to racist abuse.

The fans vote for the president, who offers lots of bullshit to win votes destabilising players across the continent. But after that it's a normal chain of command..?

That's a very fair comment...

Anything from the Glazers yet? No - thought not.

Hmm ok, I just assumed fanbase were more involved in decision making at Barca like in Germany which was why no German clubs involved.

I’m loving all the posts on LinkedIn related to this. Why is anyone remotely interested in what an account manager at Gartner thinks about it? Twats.

Yeah a lot of those protesting would be as likely to march on a mosque so not much chance of that!

Hopefully this will be an end to Buck and possibly Guy Lawrence. Apparently Abramovich is incandescent with rage at Buck for allowing him to persuade him to agree to go into this shit show. Buck is meant to be the conduit between Abramovich and the supporters. He has failed in the past and he has failed massively now.

Woodward would be the perfect replacement.

I thought it was a good idea?

Abramovich and all the other owners & clubs involved are getting exactly what they deserve.

It was all so knuckle-headed; if they had said something like "we have been invited to take part in this thing, so we are going to investigate the pros and cons and consult with interested groups before we decide" they could have got to this same point with everybody still in their job.

People will be writing their theses on the ESL debacle in not too long. It's super interesting to management/business consultant types. It's a perfect case study for sociological influences on business models.

Not saying that you should care about what a Gartner account manager has to say on the matter but people are chiming in because it's an incredibly high profile example of a failed business strategy that on paper looked like a money printing machine. People will be picking this apart for years.

They needed a solid HM Treasury "5 Case Model" Project Business Case.

It’ll be interesting to hear the chain of events behind this turning up in (I think) The Times.

It obviously caught the clubs by surprise because they appear to have had no head start on PR etc. They’ve been let off the hook a bit by the fact there’s no fans in grounds at the moment.

Simon Kuper’s twitter feed is worth checking out
https://mobile.twitter.com/kupersimon

I think the best way to describe my feelings about it is flabbergasted.

I am genuinely at a loss that these big companies who are also football teams got this so wrong. I felt sure that they'd go through with it come hell or high water because I just can not fathom how they did not predict the anger their plans provoked.

As somebody in this thread said yesterday (I paraphrase), just how tall are their ivory towers? It beggars belief that they bungled this so badly. It failed as a bargaining chip with UEFA, they bottled going through with it and now almost everybody hates them for what they tried to pull off.

I spoke to some friends who are staff at Arsenal yesterday and some of them didn't feel like turning up to work today. I had a quick chat with somebody I know at Dortmund too, and even though their club is not involved the level of fury was palpable.

Just wtaf? I've found myself questioning my willingness to spend money at Arsenal over the last few years and this is the final straw. Fuck those guys.

Imagine how the players must feel?!