Atlantic League back on the cards?

[Briton 394]

 

3 hours ago, OlegKuznetsov said:

Surely an Atlantic League proper would require the participation of North and South American teams. Otherwise it's more a North Sea and possibly English Channel league, which doesn't sound quite so good.

It just wouldn't be practical. 

Fuck it! Let's just have the Universal Championship, where Rangers play Linfield every year to be the very, very bestest team in the whole wide universe.

Yes it's always been a daft name.

[Inigo 32,534]

59 minutes ago, kris1984 said:

 

It’s a pipe dream.

Really don't agree. I think most of the issues you mention are surmountable. 

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

5 hours ago, Cobham said:

It's basically going from playing all the shite clubs in Scotland to playing all the shite teams in europe.

Aye we saw how shite MOlde were against the elite from scotland.  Unless you are the guy from Martian, Scottish football has been khrap for decades and is only getting worse.

[siddiqi_drinker 14,635]

2 hours ago, harlands plater said:

Really this "big five" is a big three, England, Germany and Spain. France is only PSG, a sugar-daddy club along the same lines as Chelsea and Man City. And apart from Juve, Italian clubs have had little recent impact in Europe. 

In fact it should only be a three team league with Real, Barca and Bayern, they're the only clubs who will ever win it.

How many of these clubs in the wealthy countries actually adhere to UEFA financial regulations?  Top two in Spain, top five in England all have massive amounts of conveniently overlooked debt.  UEFA is corrupt to the core and getting worse while the SFA IS merely incompetent.

[ZZed 4,510]

Money talks; who is going to watch a football league where it involves about 60% of the population of Europe against a Champions League that only includes the richest clubs. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and then make weights to pad out a league that has no relegation. The thing is a closed shop will soon be boring. If another league that was competitive was up against it, it would be shown up as a financially rich but competitively poor league.

Lets call the league we would be involved in The Continental League, 2 top leagues of  say 18 with 4 relegation places. the winners of the national league go in to a play off's against all the other winners of their national league for those 4 places. the Individual FA's agree the TV deals in their own countries with the task to invigorate their home leagues. A theoretical ladder from the bottom of the national league to the top of the Continental League via promotion and play off would be in place. 

Lets say in 2020 the top 2 from 10 European national leagues were going to form the new Continental League; this would give plenty of time to work out TV deals, relegation and promotion. the first season is to work out who will be in league A or league B and this would be easy to do and have a play off for the a champion to be decided.

[Briton 394]

3 hours ago, eejay the dj said:

Also looks like they have lost their major inside influence in Platini .Maybe they won't be automatically seeded next season after all 

Who?

 

[Ross-Gazza genius 1,907]

I doubt this will ever happen, it would open a whole can of worms and teams would be jumping leagues all over the place. 

We are doomed in this league unfortunately as the standard of clubs we come up against are gash, playing wise, fanbase wise and stadium wise! 

It's only a matter of time until the uefa champions league get their wish and eventually push the poorer clubs away and get their 20 team fantasy league that they've been dying for!!!!

[DrLaudrup 4,672]

1 hour ago, Inigo said:

I've always thought the Atlantic League was a great idea. Rangers, sellic, Feyenoord, Ajax and so forth are sleeping giants that are held back only because of their TV based revenue, due to being in wee countries.  The Atlantic League was always an exctiting idea that would have taken a massive step to addressing that. It'd become a powerful league. Can you imagine it, just involving the countries mentioned above? I think given this kind of platform alot of the teams could grow and the league would become hugely exciting...

PREMIER                                           CHAMPIONSHIP

Rangers                                              Standard Liege

Porto                                                   AZ Alkmaar

Feyenoord                                          AEK Athens     

Ajax                                                    PAOK 

Celtic                                                  SC Braga

Anderlecht                                          KRC Genk

FC Copenhagen                                Aberdeen

Basel                                                 Standard Liege

Panathinaikos                                    FC Twente Enschede

Benfica                                              BSC Young Boys

IFK Gothenburg                                 KAA Gent

Rosenborg                                         Malmo

Sporting Lisbon                                 Molde

Olympiakos                                        Heart of Midlothian

Brondby                                             FC Zurich

Club Brugge                                      AIK Stockholm

 

Maybe the bottom two of the PL get relegated to the Championship , and the bottom two of the Championship get relegated and replaced from their national league. To ensure access at all times, if they're not in the bottom two, each lowest ranked team from the respective countries would playoff against the winner of the national league to see if they remain or are relegated. So above it'd be Zurich and Stockholm gone and playoffs of...

Hearts v Hibs

Molde v Viking

Malmo v Odense

Gent v Antwerp

Twente v Utrecht

Braga v Maritimo

AEK v Aris Salonika

If two Swedish teams (for example) are in the relegation spots, both are relegated and replaced from their national league.

Sounds great to me. You'd need an open mind, cause it could potentially mean being relegated to your National league from the PL in some unlikely circumstances. Pros outway the cons, though.

But yeah, not as an competitor to the kind of superleague that it's being suggested Rummenigge is putting forward. It has to be just another strong league below the Champions League, and having access to it.

 

I agree those would be great games to watch but this exemplifies problems with the Atlantic League, in terms of who are big clubs, who makes those decisions and who deserves to be there on merit. 

Hard as it is to say, it makes sense for example for us and Septic to be in the top league in terms of fanbase/stadium/history etc but Malmo beat Septic competitively over two legs recently, so could have a reasonable complaint at being considered a worse team than them and being stuck in the Championship. Who makes these decisions? Someone is always going to be screwed over...hence it is always better to do it based on fair competition from National Leagues. 

Instead of taking teams out of National leagues, it is better to deal with the root problem...poor structure of the Champion's League and knock-on unfair distribution of TV money. 

[Briton 394]

1 minute ago, Ross-Gazza genius said:

I doubt this will ever happen, it would open a whole can of worms and teams would be jumping leagues all over the place. 

We are doomed in this league unfortunately as the standard of clubs we come up against are gash, playing wise, fanbase wise and stadium wise! 

It's only a matter of time until the uefa champions league get their wish and eventually push the poorer clubs away and get their 20 team fantasy league that they've been dying for!!!!

It's the big clubs who have influenced the way things have gone.  

[Inigo 32,534]

1 minute ago, DrLaudrup said:

I agree those would be great games to watch but this exemplifies problems with the Atlantic League, in terms of who are big clubs, who makes those decisions and who deserves to be there on merit. 

Hard as it is to say, it makes sense for example for us and Septic to be in the top league in terms of fanbase/stadium/history etc but Malmo beat Septic competitively over two legs recently, so could have a reasonable complaint at being considered a worse team than them and being stuck in the Championship. Who makes these decisions? Someone is always going to be screwed over...hence it is always better to do it based on fair competition from National Leagues. 

Instead of taking teams out of National leagues, it is better to deal with the root problem...poor structure of the Champion's League and knock-on unfair distribution of TV money. 

Make the decision based on league position at the time. With relegation andd promotion it'll all work itself out in a few years.

If it's going the way we think it is, independent national leagues are fucked anyway.

If we could find a way of retaining the national leagues in a more equatable and competitive fashion, the way things used to be, when Steuea or Red Star could win the EC, I'd be all for that, but that looks more like a pipe dream now to me than anything.

[Corky True Legend 2,682]

A breakaway league would not necessarily be a bad thing if appropriate sponsorship is in place. it has worked in other sports and has led to an overall improvement benefitting all. Kerry Packer's cricket revolution and the old National League in speedway being examples. In both cases, the breakaways were merged with the "official" bodies.

As for a closed competition, just wait until a franchise owner does an Oakland and watch the fallout. Man U's owners deciding to relocate to Liverpool.

Quote

 

 

[ZZed 4,510]

9 minutes ago, ZZed said:

Money talks; who is going to watch a football league where it involves about 60% of the population of Europe against a Champions League that only includes the richest clubs. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and then make weights to pad out a league that has no relegation. The thing is a closed shop will soon be boring. If another league that was competitive was up against it, it would be shown up as a financially rich but competitively poor league.

Lets call the league we would be involved in The Continental League, 2 top leagues of  say 18 with 4 relegation places. the winners of the national league go in to a play off's against all the other winners of their national league for those 4 places. the Individual FA's agree the TV deals in their own countries with the task to invigorate their home leagues. A theoretical ladder from the bottom of the national league to the top of the Continental League via promotion and play off would be in place. 

Lets say in 2020 the top 2 from 10 European national leagues were going to form the new Continental League; this would give plenty of time to work out TV deals, relegation and promotion. the first season is to work out who will be in league A or league B and this would be easy to do and have a play off for the a champion to be decided.

 

4 minutes ago, Inigo said:

Make the decision based on league position at the time. With relegation andd promotion it'll all work itself out in a few years.

If it's going the way we think it is, independent national leagues are fucked anyway.

If we could find a way of retaining the national leagues in a more equatable and competitive fashion, the way things used to be, when Steuea or Red Star could win the EC, I'd be all for that, but that looks more like a pipe dream now to me than anything.

 

[cascadeshrimp 1,459]

1 hour ago, Inigo said:

I've always thought the Atlantic League was a great idea. Rangers, sellic, Feyenoord, Ajax and so forth are sleeping giants that are held back only because of their TV based revenue, due to being in wee countries.  The Atlantic League was always an exctiting idea that would have taken a massive step to addressing that. It'd become a powerful league. Can you imagine it, just involving the countries mentioned above? I think given this kind of platform alot of the teams could grow and the league would become hugely exciting...

PREMIER                                           CHAMPIONSHIP

Rangers                                              Standard Liege

Porto                                                   AZ Alkmaar

Feyenoord                                          AEK Athens     

Ajax                                                    PAOK 

Celtic                                                  SC Braga

Anderlecht                                          KRC Genk

FC Copenhagen                                Aberdeen

Basel                                                 Standard Liege

Panathinaikos                                    FC Twente Enschede

Benfica                                              BSC Young Boys

IFK Gothenburg                                 KAA Gent

Rosenborg                                         Malmo

Sporting Lisbon                                 Molde

Olympiakos                                        Heart of Midlothian

Brondby                                             FC Zurich

Club Brugge                                      AIK Stockholm

 

Maybe the bottom two of the PL get relegated to the Championship , and the bottom two of the Championship get relegated and replaced from their national league. To ensure access at all times, if they're not in the bottom two, each lowest ranked team from the respective countries would playoff against the winner of the national league to see if they remain or are relegated. So above it'd be Zurich and Stockholm gone and playoffs of...

Hearts v Hibs

Molde v Viking

Malmo v Odense

Gent v Antwerp

Twente v Utrecht

Braga v Maritimo

AEK v Aris Salonika

If two Swedish teams (for example) are in the relegation spots, both are relegated and replaced from their national league.

Sounds great to me. You'd need an open mind, cause it could potentially mean being relegated to your National league from the PL in some unlikely circumstances. Pros outway the cons, though.

But yeah, not as an competitor to the kind of superleague that it's being suggested Rummenigge is putting forward. It has to be just another strong league below the Champions League, and having access to it.

 

WHAT NO HIBS.

According to the BBC they are supposed to be pure brilliant 

[DrLaudrup 4,672]

1 minute ago, Inigo said:

Make the decision based on league position at the time. With relegation andd promotion it'll all work itself out in a few years.

If it's going the way we think it is, independent national leagues are fucked anyway.

If we could find a way of retaining the national leagues in a more equatable and competitive fashion, the way things used to be, when Steuea or Red Star could win the EC, I'd be all for that, but that looks more like a pipe dream now to me than anything.

The way to allow Steaua etc to compete is to prevent Germany, Spain, England etc having multiple qualification slots. This loads this dice before it is thrown. If teams like Steau qualified automatically as Champions and got >10 million they would soon improve. In stead they get beaten in qualification by a team that finished 4th in their league and has spent >50 million on players.

National leagues would be much more competitive if there was a real fight for Champions League. Imagine the fight between us and Septic, Real and Barcelona, Man Utd and Arsenal etc if only one team went to the top table. Would be amazing.  

[Inigo 32,534]

Just now, DrLaudrup said:

The way to allow Steaua etc to compete is to prevent Germany, Spain, England etc having multiple qualification slots. This loads this dice before it is thrown. If teams like Steau qualified automatically as Champions and got >10 million they would soon improve. In stead they get beaten in qualification by a team that finished 4th in their league and has spent >50 million on players.

National leagues would be much more competitive if there was a real fight for Champions League. Imagine the fight between us and Septic, Real and Barcelona, Man Utd and Arsenal etc if only one team went to the top table. Would be amazing.  

I know there are ways. There are lots of ways, but I don't see any of them happening now.

But anyway, it doesn't solve the even bigger problem... the power of the EPL and the Bundesliga and the likes. The CL is less of a problem now than the dominance of the big league TV market. That's where the REAL inequity is brewing.

The Atlantic League idea is to compete with them, not the CL. The CL format can still be changed to make it fairer as well.

[SwallowsHisOwnSpunk 7,805]

Anyone who doesn't want us to go for this idea (or any similar idea) is a thick small minded cunt! Scottish football is dying and it's only going to continue to get worse.

The only people who are against it are the fans who love to go upto Dundee, Brechin or some other teuchter shitehole to get pissed but the fact is the fans will need to sacrifice away days and maybe go and watch us away once every other month or so! I know I would rather watch us in Brussells or Amsterdam than I would every other week in Dunfermline!

[GersInCanada 7,775]

Financial Fair Play turned out to be a joke. Didn't work. The rich continue to get more powerful and if they want a closed shop competition for the 'super clubs' then they will get one.

I very much think this is a great opportunity for the rest to revitalise European football.

[Inigo 32,534]

Just now, GersInCanada said:

Financial Fair Play turned out to be a joke. Didn't work. The rich continue to get more powerful and if they want a closed shop competition for the 'super clubs' then they will get one.

I very much think this is a great opportunity for the rest to revitalise European football.

Totally. Waste of time.

[SwallowsHisOwnSpunk 7,805]

21 minutes ago, Ross-Gazza genius said:

I doubt this will ever happen, it would open a whole can of worms and teams would be jumping leagues all over the place. 

We are doomed in this league unfortunately as the standard of clubs we come up against are gash, playing wise, fanbase wise and stadium wise! 

It's only a matter of time until the uefa champions league get their wish and eventually push the poorer clubs away and get their 20 team fantasy league that they've been dying for!!!!

So your idea is to do nothing and just let Scottish Football and including us die? Because that's what will happen its passive lazy attitudes like yours which have gotten us to the stage we are at now.

[ZZed 4,510]

6 minutes ago, SwallowsHisOwnSpunk said:

Anyone who doesn't want us to go for this idea (or any similar idea) is a thick small minded cunt! Scottish football is dying and it's only going to continue to get worse.

The only people who are against it are the fans who love to go upto Dundee, Brechin or some other teuchter shitehole to get pissed but the fact is the fans will need to sacrifice away days and maybe go and watch us away once every other month or so! I know I would rather watch us in Brussells or Amsterdam than I would every other week in Dunfermline!

Easy jet is the answer mate. We just plan away days better.

[Essandoh 21,215]

Everybody accepts that ticket prices are too high in British football then put ahead this nonsense. 

Aye, I'm sure the local boys will be able to afford these trips.

[Inigo 32,534]

2 minutes ago, Essandoh said:

Everybody accepts that ticket prices are too high in British football then put ahead this nonsense. 

Aye, I'm sure the local boys will be able to afford these trips.

I'd prefer one trip to Amsterdam over three or four to Dundee, Motherwell, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, personally. Which is effectively what the choice would be.

Making the decision based on that would be insane anyway. The decision an what we do going forward should be what's best overall for the fans and the club. Which would be something that avoids us being left in a backwater.

[left winger 14,269]

5 minutes ago, Inigo said:

I'd prefer one trip to Amsterdam over three or four to Dundee, Motherwell, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, personally. Which is effectively what the choice would be.

I think you might spend a wee bit more going to Amsterdam, with it's accompanying delights, compared to going to that foursome. 

But, obviously, your point is extremely valid.

[Inigo 32,534]

Just now, left winger said:

I think you might spend a wee bit more going to Amsterdam, with it's accompanying delights, compared to going to that foursome. 

But, obviously, your point is extremely valid.

Duly added to the list of pros. 

[cushynumber 25,178]

I think the other leagues and clubs have to do something and do it quickly, and this seems as good as any suggestion.