TBH I’m not too sure about what the rules are over in Europe in regards to FIFA players and if they have a union with collective bargaining agreements or not. However in the NFL and NBA they players and teams are bound by that. There are a lot of rules. For example something like the Neymar situation could never happen because players under contract are strictly forbidden to communicate with any other team representative, it’s considered tampering. Magic Johnson just got fined $500,000 for making a joke about a player under contract with the Indiana Pacers on a night time talk show ffs.
Funnelling wages through an outside company is also difficult to do, just because if it were found out, a team would be massively disciplined. In theory it could definitely happen, however the NBA or the NFL would find out eventually, most likely through the media who are trying to break a major major story, and the equivelant of the death penalty would be given to that franchise. Loss of draft picks, management of the club being forced to resign, fines, and the player’s contract being voided. SOmething similar to this actually happened to the Minnesota timberwolves in the early 2000’s.
It’s either US style caps or do nothing and the gap widens further to the point where even playing football gets redundant and you might as well give Real Madrid or whichever country has decided to take them on that particular year the CL,.
Well there is the last option, but that involves convincing TV companies to pay £billions for the SPL, Eredvisie, Polish, Russian, Danish, Belgian leagues.
TV has killed any kind of even football for now and it continues to do so.
Should always be three European competitions. The Champions League - for champions. The UEFA Cup - places 2-4 in the top leagues and then filled with other teams from other European leagues. Then a third tier competition that basically is for the teams that finish 5-6 in the PL and stuff like that.
CL is perfect as it is right now. I really enjoy it.
Unless for some amazing luck like Chelsea’s, The system consistently churns a winner suitable to hold the title.
Football needs better regulation to manage better distribution of talents. That is the only thing that is holding Tier2 or Tier 3 clubs from bridging the gap.
I think three competitions might be too much and will dilute the viewership, especially the neutrals. The current format is perfect, but I would restrict the Champions League to the top 2 clubs in each league, and not just the champions. So instead of the often meaningless group stages, we can go straight to the more serious part of the league, or perhaps have the same format but with fewer groups, so that each match would be of reasonably high quality.
The Europa League can be for the 3rd and 4th place teams, with the same format as the CL. Anyone not finishing in the top 4 frankly doesn’t deserve to play in Europe.
Once Lallana is back he’s even further from the first XI. Luckily for him they don’t have much depth further forward so he’ll probably get minutes covering both Salah & Mane but he’s not really improved his situation. Could have signed for more money here and a similar role.