20 Oct 2020 15:04:51
A question for any of the eds, especially ed002 if he has the time to answer. I've just been on sky sports website and there is an article about a FIFA organised european league, with 5 English clubs said to be invited to join. The two that instigated 'Project Big Picture' are named along with City, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea but one of those clubs looks likely to miss out. Neither UEFA nor FIFA have commented so far and it seems that there are many hurdles to overcome to get it off the ground. The question I wanted to ask is this, is this just a bit of propaganda to scare the rest of the league after the original plan for the premier league was knocked back or is it really that close to happening? Thanks in advance.

{Ed002's Note - The proposal is not for a FIFA organised event but for a FIFA endorsed event. This relates to one of the ideas floated as an alternative to try and stop the "elite" European sides breaking away to form a pan-European league. I have explained the proposal before but it surrounds expanding the pre-season International Champions Cup to a much larger event where clubs would be members of the tournament through a debenture type system but need to commit to playing their first team in all games. Those behind it want UEFA (or even FIFA) to formally recognise the tournament (there has been a discussion already) which would be a money spinner but will add many more first team games to the annual schedule. This was one of the major drivers behind the Liverpool owners proposing Project Big Foot - which was obviously nothing to do with helping out the football pyramid but simply a way for FSG to extract more money from the game. I have explained in more detail previously.}


1.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 15:44:06
Thanks for the reply ed and I'm sorry to get you repeating yourself, I thought this was a new (ish) proposal coming on the back of whta happened last week. It's certainly the first time I've seen sky sports cover it in any detail. Cheers for the info.

{Ed002's Note - It has been around for at least a year and there was a meeting in Paris between some of the clubs in January.}


2.) 20 Oct 2020
20 Oct 2020 21:46:09
You mention a money spinner Ed, would this impact ffp and should it go ahead, will it give those in it an advantage in regards to ffp, or will this not be the case.

{Ed002's Note - It would give significant additional money to the clubs involved and take away a lot of the television money from other leagues, like the Premier League.}