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Football Needs A ‘European League’ To Move Forward

Watching the World Club Championship where Barcelona beat Santos with such verve and skill, followed by a replay on TV the next day of Barca vs Arsenal all just a week after El Clasico, all made me wonder why we continue to believe the Premier League contains the best football you can see.

I watched Manchester United play Fulham and frankly the Cottagers were very poor, and they are a top 10 team in England.

Then there is Europe where the top 2 EPL teams fell at the first hurdle.

As Spurs are out too, and Chelsea scraped through, isn’t that proof that things are bad in our league?

It’s true that players run around trying to fly into tackles and play frantic football but when you see the real skill of the Barca variety then the game pales.

What went wrong, and do we really have world class players on offer?

I don’t think that outside Manchester City’s squad we really do.

Our club has Rooney and Nani as our best players, Spurs have Modric and Bale, Chelsea have got nobody, and Arsenal have only Van Persie.

It’s really not enough.

With Clubs in debt, the standards falling and economics of fans through TV and tickets looking poor for the foreseeable then it will get worse.

My view is that a European League is essential for global TV to support the best players like we see in the NFL, it’s vital for the future of classic football.

Frankly Stoke have shown how bad the league has become, and if that’s what’s on offer then people will only watch the big games and so things will worsen.

Happy New Year…

By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve

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