Competitive parity is healthy

I know fan bases of Real Madrid, Barca, Juve, Bayern, etc. are not used to having to struggle with getting to the CL quarters and/or facing true competition from more than 1-2 teams in their domestic leagues.  But before the 00s, that's how football was.  Making the CL quarters was an achievement for anyone, including the elite teams...  because there were rarely any superteams.  The trend had started a bit earlier towards a move to super teams with Milan with the crook Berlusconi, Marseille with the other crook Bernard Tapie, Juve with its crooked ways, Real Madrid with the aid of the country of Spain crookedly, Bayern with its anti-competitive practices, etc. But it took until the 00s for the transition to really take over.

Football became a sport of the haves and have-nots to the extreme...  with UEFA's crooked blessing.

In order to feed the spending and the brand these super elite teams have created, they cannot afford competition.  But the issue is that people with great monetary means outside of Europe are getting involved AND one league (EPL) decided to pool its resources and attack the status quo as a group.  The result is that the environment that allowed the dominance of 5-6 teams over the past 15 years is challenged financially... and frankly, they don't stand a chance.  Real Madrid may be worth a couple of billion euros...  but that's literally chump change to the money groups coming in.

To me, this is great.  UEFA is fighting it with their crooked "historical coefficient" nonsense... but that won't change things in the medium to long term.  Once Messi declines, Barca won't be dominant.  Real Madrid cannot outspend people anymore and they've relied on a core purchased 3+ years ago for their recent success...  they're getting old.  Bayern hasn't been able to replace Schweini, Ribery, Robben, Lahm, etc.  Juve's core is ancient and they cannot replace them with other WC players easily.  Etc.

The model that the EPL uses of pooled resources is dominant.  The other leagues are going to be forced to adopt a similar model or get crushed.  It happened in the US and the glamour teams of the past had to bow down in the 90s and early 00s.  

EPL is going to have a marked competitive advantage because nothing gets done in Europe very fast.  The impact of buying the best manager and best players over the past 3 years is bearing fruits now against Europe as you see with their CL performance.   Pep, Mourinho, Klopp... to go along with young WC players coming from all over the world into the league is lifting them above the rest.  This isn't a fluke.  It will go on and on and force the rest of the continent to adapt or go away as elite competitors.

My point?  We're seeing a power shift of enormous magnitude with EPL leading it in terms of a sustainable model.  You're also seeing massive money groups buying clubs and investing resources to make specific teams competitive at the elite level.  European football is no longer just for Europe...  it's truly being globalized.

As fans, we should rejoice.  The crooked mafia that has controlled football for a long time in Europe is going to be pushed aside.

This would be the 2nd time this EPL domination has been scheduled to take place (1st being after the all English final). I'm sure it would happen but for whatever reason, it never lasts any longer than a few years (compared to the Italians and even the Spanish). In any case, the usual suspects would still make quarter finals. Just how it is...

Nonsense. Competitive parity would be nice but simply not feasible. As long as there are only a few rich teams and well managed, they will continue to dominate.

Sports has been predicting EPL dominance for 3 years now, and we are still waiting. And have you taken a look at EPL table lately? That collective dominance is a single team running away from league in same fashion as Bayern or PSG.

And lol at all previously rich teams being Mafia or corrupt owners. Where do you think the money for City, Chelsea and PSG comes from?

You are missing one important variable with these predictions. It not only takes money, it takes good management. Look at all the various EPL problems despite money being available. By management, I’m talking about good corporate management as well as astute selection and recruitment of players and coaches.

In north american sports the "competitive parity" ONLY exist because of the salary cap.

Wonder how they can implement this in european football

Warrior wrote:In north american sports the "competitive parity" ONLY exist because of the salary cap.

Wonder how they can implement this in european football

Glamour franchises were thriving... but leagues themselves were having problems in the smaller markets.  The owners got together and realized that, if the glamour franchises gave up their local media revenue and really pooled in order to prop up the smaller teams, then there would be more competitive games and, since their would be more interesting and marketable content, they would get more money.

Turned out to be very true.  They made less money for 3-4 years for the additional revenue to kick in and for the competitiveness of the leagues to increase.

EPL is doing this.  Like the NFL and NBA, it's taken 3-4 years for the impact to reach the pitch. 4 years ago, it was PREDICTED that EPL would dominate in the future. It obviously didn't mean it was going to happen immediately.

The NBA isn't competitive, it's anti-competitive.

EPL is doing this. Like the NFL and NBA, it's taken 3-4 years for the impact to reach the pitch. 4 years ago, it was PREDICTED that EPL would dominate in the future. It obviously didn't mean it was going to happen immediately.

I particularly hate arguments framed like this. It reminds me of Philadelphia 76ers "the Process" argument, where we present a conclusion and then backdate it with the argument. Who would have though the richest league would ultimately come through? Unreal how that works

The only thing that has changed is the buying power of clubs once on the outside like Man City and PSG, pole-vaulting them into a group they didn't once belong

Sportsczy, in 1st paragraph, your description of what happened is true, i agree with it. What you describe is about saving a small market from losing its team... more teams in the league + shared profits = more $$$ for everyone.

However i don't share your point of view about the "competitive parity". It's not up to the money each team makes (because only league revenues isn't sufficient for healthy finances), it's up to the salary cap and draft.

Proof is you still have franchises with poor finances but they are able to compete... Carolina Hurricanes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Tampa Rays, Detroit Tigers, KC Royals... all teams who at some point were losing money by dozens of millions. I don't follow NBA but there must be some examples too.

They were able to still compete (and win championships) because of the salary cap and draft, since it prevents a franchise to build a Galacticos team. And therefore the best players are separated into 30 teams instead of just 5.

And frankly, i don't see how this can be implemented in Europe football.

Yes i forgot about the drafts while writing the post #4 of this thread, my bad

Draft + salary cap makes competitive parity.
2 things that don't exist in football, in Europe's domestic leagues, and is even less likely to happen on a continental/international setup.

Sports has been taking LSD again

He did compare the Euros with the Olympics Mens Football. Probably should have known he is back on the good stuff.

I was trolling the trolls with the olympics lol.  They deserved it for saying Ronaldo was on par with Messi...

I really believe this though.  It'll never be a complete parity situation as there will never be a draft or salary cap.  However, revenue sharing and more mega investors in lesser known clubs is creating a larger playing field for the top players.  You'll have more clubs competing for the best players.  Players care about money...
and that's pretty much it. That's my point.

"The crooked mafia" is going to be pushed aside and then goes on to rep mega investors from Qatar and Abu Dhabi that drop 200m on teenagers. Seems legit.

Liverpool is owned by an American billionaire.  Marseille is owned by an American millionaire.  Man U is owned by Americans.  Roma as well.  Arsenal's majority owner is American.  Inter and Milan are now owned by foreign wealth.  Chelsea and Monaco are Russian owned. Etc.

Money is pouring in.  The big advantage the EPL has is that the clubs are guaranteed a big chunk of money just to play in the EPL.  So there is a ton of incentive to get there/stay there.

American billionaires are usually much more reluctant to go into spending sprees than their equivalent from the ME, Russia and China... look at Roma and Liverpool, they're run responsibly rather than chasing trophies playing football manager. They expect to make a profit out of this.