Turmoil at LFC as Big ESL meeting cancelled by Billy Hogan amid backlash

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There was meant to be a big internal staff meeting today about Liverpool’s plans for the European Super League, but they were shelved by CEO Billy Hogan due to the backlash the proposals have received.

David Lynch writes exclusively in This is Anfield that the meeting was cancelled after full-time last night, with staff angry at the plans.

Amazingly, Jurgen Klopp and his players hadn’t heard about the ESL before Sunday, when the story emerged – but it was still the manager who had to field questions on it last night.

Klopp largely played a straight bat, but it was obvious what he really felt, with James Milner the only Red so far to come out and flatly disapprove.

Fan groups have told the club they’ll be taking down banners and flags from the Kop ahead of our next home game – and protests are now likely.

Leeds used the game last night as an opportunity to mock Liverpool, referring to us as ‘Merseyside Reds’ on Twitter – and we can expect a non-stop barrage of this until further notice.

What really baffles us is this: what did the owners over in America really think was going to happen?

Why are they so bad at reading the room?

We suppose they’ve shown time and time again, with ticketing scandals, the trademarking of the city name and the furloughing of staff, that they’re simply not connected to us in any way at all.

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2 Comments

  1. RIP liverpool the club my family has supported since 1930’s.. shame on the americans for their greed, where and when will they stop!

  2. The clubs don’t care about the fans, other than as cash cows. They flirt with fan groups, and claim to be able to read the history and ethos of the club but ultimately, money is the driving force in the game now, and has been since the inception of the Premier League and the Champions League. And that’s the capitalist world we live in.
    The Champions league was introduced to make sure the European elite got to play each other more often, and has worked well in that regard, but it has also increasingly led to more and more money going to the bigger clubs through TV rights. The Premier League is the same, with the last TV deal ensuring that the big 6 get more games on live TV around the world and get a bigger share of the revenue from it. It’s been weighted in their favour for a while and the ESL is just the next evolution of that. It was almost inevitable and the lack of relegation for those “founding fathers” was to further ensure their grip on controlling footballs finances was maintained. Bear in mind too, it’s mostly being driven by yanks, who genuinely don’t get the concept of promotion and relegation (it doesn’t happen in any of their sports – NBA, NFL, NHL) so they don’t see that an issue, and by other billionaires who just see the sports as a way to increase their brand visibility and the actual sport itself as a secondary issue.
    Also a small part is the big clubs being scared of the nouvea riche, another Abramovich or Sheik Monsour, lifting a smaller club out of relative obscurity and through their new spending power, inflating prices and ergo, affecting their profit margins. That’s why those clubs wanted FFP to work, not because they want fair play for everyone, but because they wanted to be the ones with the advantage and don’t want a new kid like PSG upsetting the world order. Its all about money, and has been for a long time now, and the fans are secondary to that.
    But maybe, just maybe, this might turn the tide a bit. Fans are aware you can do things differently, like the German ownership model where fans have to have control of clubs and investors can’t own more than 49% of a club and yet it’s still competitive and successful. Who knows, maybe this can be driving force to change for the better?

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