At 9 pm last night Tottenham published a ‘club announcement’ advising that Spurs had joined Europe’s leading football clubs.
By 1055 pm Tottenham’s ‘club statement’ was a short recording of a monotone voice saying vehicle reversing with intermittent beeps. The dream was over.
What transpired behind the scenes? What caused the clubs to lose their nerve in such a short space of time? I am confident that The Athletic will provide a 6,000-word explanation in due course. The reality is, it was nothing to do with fans hurling rattles, dummies, and full nappies from their prams.
There’s a good summary of who said what in this Press Association piece which gives us a good indication of who will be wandering around like Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in the forthcoming weeks.
We’ve heard much talk of pressure – but unless I missed something – all we got was a lot of wailing and presumably a lot of irate emails. Is that all it took to stop a commercial revolution? A bunch of stiffly worded letters from outraged consumers?
The climb-downs have been essentially unapologetic, with Spurs apologizing for the anxiety and upset caused.
The Arsenal apology was exceptionally devoid of warmth. The sort of thing a stroppy teen would proffer.
As a result of listening to you and the wider football community over recent days we are withdrawing from the proposed Super League.
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 20, 2021
We made a mistake, and we apologise for it.
I take a view that this is a massive opportunity missed for Tottenham, but what I really want to know is what was it that caused the plug to be pulled, because as things sit right now, none of this stacks up at all.
The whole thing was far too cut and dry. Boris being involved talking about “community” after what that @$#@ has done this last 14 months stank. Something’s behind this, I’ve a couple of ideas.
The patronizing of the fans is a joke, they wouldn’t stop for ANYONE if they really were going for it. When you show a bully psychopath weakness the abuse will never stop, they’ve taken everything this last year and perhaps they thought it was ripe to take more? Maybe, but it’s too orchestrated.
We may be of a similar generation!
Unfortunately that genie escaped many years ago
You can see from all these grovelling apologies that they are all crafted by the same PR people hellbent on damage limitation.It’s all corporate speak and amounts to nothing.It’s totally lacking in sincerity.It’s no better than a computer generated email or letter,it’s meaningless.
[…] MORE: We’ve had the corporate apologies, now tell us the truth […]
“none of this stacks up at all”
The men in charge may be greedy but they are no fools and would have realised a big reaction was on the cards.
The letter of intent/threat was meant for a for a Fools Mate but instead they will have to initially put up with pawn to King 4.
This is all a ploy to extract more money from their domestic federations, PL in our case, and more so, the Champions League.
I have long believed that the minnows of the football pyramid will be the survivors of the sport as clubs have continued to sell their souls to the powerful business men who seek profit first and last.
I suspect behind closed doors the champions league reforms will bear an uncanny resemblance to this project. This is being heralded as a victory for fans, but the reality is likely very different… fans are a fickle bunch & by the start of next season this ESL episode will be largely forgotten. It does leave Daniel Levy with egg on his face though…😏
[…] MORE: We’ve had the corporate apologies, now tell us the truth […]
I only wish we had a billionaire owner come supporter of the club , oh wait ……….
Although I don’t do social media, Levy should resign is trending very heavily on Twitter this morning. I am sure he won’t as he has the hide of a rhino but I feel he is holed below the waterline. It has been another mistake in a long list of Levy blunders. As one contributor mentioned below, the new stadium and training ground were financed to get us a seat at the top table without investing in the team. Now unless Enic are prepared to invest heavily in the team, they are between a rock and a hard place which I hope results in them selling up. What slightly surprised me was the inertia of most Spurs fans to the ESL compared to the disgust demonstrated by Liverpool, Utd and even Chelsea fans.
What happens to the rest of the European clubs left in this abortion? I see Agnelli has resigned as chairman of Juventus. Will that toad Perez resign from Real Madrid? Is there a God out there so that we can witness Levy’s resignation?
It’s only a matter of time before it happens for real (pun not intended). Take this as a warning shot for the fans that it is coming, They will get a period to reflect and get over their angst, and then they will try again, likely with a customised SL that is more palatable to the sensitive souls amongst us.
I find it astonishing that no-one seems to be questioning the staggering power and financial stranglehold of UEFA / FIFA / EPL & Sky!! Wake up. Your clubs have been long lost to them by now. The statements from those associations in the wake of this ‘scandal’ exude an unbelievable arrogance and belittling attitude towards the notion that football clubs could present something better than their current offering! The ease with which their threats quashed it in under 24 hours is not only telling, it’s utterly damning!!
What I don’t understand is the anger at it being a closed shop…. against the law! They all say…. errrr…. rugby league is a closed shop, county cricket has always been a closed shop, I don’t hear sky moaning about premier league darts being invite only….
City and Chelsea will be seen as the rats in the big 6 for bottling it as they had the least to gain. They will look at FFP changes so they can spend what they want but be able to keep it looking like it’s still FFP. Then spending freely they can dominate regardless as vanity projects
Just a holding position to negotiate what the champions league should like for the ‘big 12’ ?
The moment Chris Sutton spoke out the ESL was doomed.
Super league to European conference (if we’re lucky) in a heartbeat.
Football is all about money has been since the inception of the premier league and Sky’s involvement. The clubs will find a way , I just hope we’re still at the table.
owners aren’t custodians they are owners who need to return a profit unless it’s a tax loss scheme.
With a heavy heart – Fans are customers .If you piss of your customer , go find more customers across the world.
Ahh it’s sorry not sorry
Maybe. To be fair he is pretty shrewd. Its a mess now but I also see it that if it was going to happen we needed to be part of it in some ways. To be honest, I think the format sounds boring I used to love watching all football but only really watch Spurs now and a few big games when I get the chance. I’m pretty old school and prefer the old format of the Champions in the European Cup and next best in the UEFA cup. Both being two legged knockout from the beginning. That’s never going to happen though.
I’m not disagreeing, but I do wonder if you’re giving levy too much machiavellian credit!
Yes, but I’m sure ours jumped at the chance and needed to get the stadium up to scratch which is possibly the the motivation for that.
Interesting to see that a lot are calling for harsh punishments. If that happens then it will push the clubs back together again.
Ultimately though, as it stands its hard to see where Lewis and Levy go without the ESL as the only way they are going to make the Champions league in years to come is by investing in a team that can actually make it.
The shortsightedness is unbelievable though as a few years ago when we when we were finishing in the top 4 and challenging it wouldn’t have taken much to invest (relatively) to keep us there. Now we need to invest much more as our team have aged and regressed.
Levy couldn’t even get the club statement right. Stating the club felt better FFP…. Yeah in a league with City, Utd Real & Barca. We don’t compete with them now and certainly wouldn’t have in any ESL.
The mans a cretin and the sooner he resigns over this debacle the better for all concerned.
I imagine the voices from the FA and Uefa were very sore that their piece of the pie was disappearing from under their noses
Chelsea fans singing “we want our Chelsea back”. C@nts, you need to go back 18 years for that. Pep Guardiola “ sport isn’t sport if you’re guaranteed success. Spending £1.5 billion on players in 10 years pretty much guarantees it. The hypocrisy beggars belief. Money been ruining football for years, it’s not just happening now.
Same as with Chelsea and that other lot I’d anticipate.
City don’t and didn’t need the money. This will have been driven by Liverpool and Utd; will be interesting to see how long their fans hope that against them. At least Woodward has had the grace to fall / be pushed onto his sword. I doubt you’ll see others doing so as they’ll argue they went along reluctantly to protect their club.
The plan is clear to see. Lewis and Levy have tried to squeeze in with the elite clubs without having to invest in a team worthy of doing so. We have spent money but its always as a necessity and on the cheap and always a little late.
Its clear to see that all the money spent on the ground and the training facilities were basically to qualify us for this ESL. Now that we have had to pull out this has made a massive dent in their ambitions. It looks like they had most of their eggs in this basket and they may well sell.
In some respects I see the dilemma, for us it was always tricky as the ESL didn’t need us but with the chance to join then we probably had to or risk being left behind.
At least levy and that lot across the way actually apologised.
The other four didn’t manage to even offer a token effort
My hunch, and its only a hunch is I think player power had an influence in this reversal by the gang of six.
“I think the threat of being dumped from all comps ” is realistic…
Chelsea and City withdrew because they belatedly realised it was a ploy designed to benefit the likes of Utd and Liverpool over the oil clubs. But we are now being told to believe pep and Chelsea fans are keeping the flame of fair competition alight in football and that Murdoch pundit Sky’s Gary Neville is protecting the soul of the game. Now we can get back to the good old days of Arab and Russian oil hoovering up all the trophies in English football and a decrepit old Australian billionaire charging “the ordinary fans, ” the working man” through the nose for the privilige of watching it.
I firmly believe the fans outrage did make a major contribution to these cash whores pulling out. That along with practically universal outrage from former pros, pundits, royals and politicians.. You name it.
I think the threat of being dumped from all comps and serious sentiment from fans that they would dump their clubs in disgust made this lot lose their bottle.