Lets be honest it's pretty fvcked already anyway, if it wasn't for PALACE I would not follow football.

The so called 'Big fives' chiefs were spotted coming out of a hotel from a meeting- they came out with some bs about talks about a pre season tourney when challenged- but that bluster has holes in itur as Spurs are involved in this tourney and they were not represented at this meeting.

The real agenda was keeping their clubs snouts in the trough at the top of the European tree- Ie a breakaway euro super league, where entry is not about hardwork and merit but by virtue of a clubs 'status' and how much more money they can wring out of plastics and tv supporters.

Imagine being a Leicester fan- winning the league or at least qualifying for champs league, only to be told that the champs league is being dissolved and they do not qualify because they are not UTD,CITY,ARSE,CHELS,SCOUSEPOOL,MUNICH,BARCA,MADRID ect- Ie not sexy enough.

You would be fvcking fuming right!?

It's seems that Leicester (and to a lesser extent, Spurs) have put the big boys noses out of joint and they don't like it and are doing their best to protect their gravy train and to hell with the rest.

BOLLOX.

I fvcking hate football- like I said if it weren't for palace.
What's the point of Palace,leicester,stoke, everton ect daring to dream if theres nothing to a aspire to?

Arsenal denied it.
[Link]

Optimistic as ever

the purpose of the meeting was the international champions cup, headed by charlie stillitano. charlie is a frequent host on a football radio station over here but he also runs the ICC.

they interviewed him this morning. he's a pretty open guy about deals, etc. so the meeting did go over ICC. but he distanced himself saying that he has nothing to do with any super league. however, he admitted that th big clubs are talking about changes, and if nothing else champions league changes.

he said they are arguing that who has done more to grow the "brand" of football: united or leicester? the big clubs feel they have more at stake and should see more of the money. charlie's example was that everyone was aware that no one watched ghent play a champions league game last week. no one cares about ghent.

they've been debating it on the radio all morning. lots of conflicting interests: international contracts (NBC). what about the guy who just bought everton? etc etc.

only thing that matters is # of eyeballs on the tv. they want chinese eyeballs, american, etc. nobody in those places cares about ghent.

i don't know if you heard it - if you have sirius they've replayed it on the follow on show if you want to hear it.

i'm just the messenger here, fella. they think they can get more money in europe and abroad with the "name" clubs.

Well they can't, firstly as they can't sell their rights. UEFA sell them and they pass on those funds to the clubs. The more money paid by the domestic market equals a bigger prize for a team from that country.

The USA only averages about 2-3m viewers for the Champions League final, which almost always has two big name clubs.

Optimistic as ever