There’s nothing really new to say about the ESL just now as it’s been covered to death, but it does look like the status of some of the founding clubs instantly goes against what it’s trying to achieve.
For years we’ve had to deal with bitter Presidents and Chairmen who can’t deal with the fact that smaller clubs are better-run and can regularly beat them, so the sense of entitlement and delusion has led us to this point.
If the league was marketed as an amazing new competition that pitted the best teams in the world against each other every week then you could start to understand, but the reality is we have a few teams like Arsenal and Spurs who have achieved nothing noteworthy for years so there’s minimal appeal.
A report from Tribal Football has looked at some comments from Norway manager Stale Solbakken, and he almost appears to ridicule the idea of the ESL because of the teams who are involved:
“Andrea Agnelli (Juventus president) has been one of the driving forces in recent years. In recent years, they have been knocked out by Lyon, Porto and Ajax in the Champions League. Why the hell should they be in such a tournament then? Tottenham and Arsenal are currently probably not among the 20-30 best teams in Europe.”
It’s going to be tough to promote the league in a few months when the poorer sides are out of contention, while they’ve also alienated their fanbase in a bid to line the owner’s pockets as they travel across Europe to play glorified friendlies every week, and Solbakken’s point proves this isn’t even remotely close to being the best of the best who are involved.