£20 million fine for ESL rebels

[ClaretTony]

The six English clubs who joined the ESL before withdrawing have been given a £20m penalty by the Premier League. That’s in total, not each.

Also been warned that they will face a 30 point penalty if they try anything like that again.

[joey13]

Should have been a 30pts penalty minimum

[jedi_master]

That'll teach them.

I think not.

[Colburn_Claret]

Pittance, but I can understand why they want to draw the line.

I just hope the proposed points penalty will be enough to dissuade them from trying it again, because the money means nothing.

[rob63]

Should have been their TV income for the season....... are UEFA still going to do anything too? Has anyone heard? They seem to be still threatening the ones who haven't withdrawn.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

A fine and competition ban would be the expected minimum, but of course that was never gonna happen.

[SalisburyClaret]

Not even a rap over the knuckles - more of a gentle caress

[NewClaret]

Pittance. And a 30 point deduction is meaningless when they all regularly score >30 points over the relegation places. I would have gone with a 60 point deduction or, better yet, automatic relegation.

Hopefully the public sentiment is enough to deter them forever though.

[beddie]

The amount of the fine is irrelevant, they’ve simply let them know not to try it again. The one disappointment is mention of a 30 point deduction, they should have said you’ll be disqualified and kicked out.

[TheFamilyCat]

The Sheikh is just rummaging down the back of the sofa for a bit of loose change to pay with.

[martin_p]

A 30 point deduction would have only made a difference to Man City this season as it would have denied them their league title. It wasn’t a big enough deduction to relegate any of them so would have made little difference to the other five given that in the event of a super league they wouldn’t need to qualify for Europe. Essentially the threatened punishment is ‘one of you wouldn’t win the league for a season’ and let’s face it, despite the ‘big six’ tag there’s only two or three of them that would worry.

[giveusaB]

So if they do try it again they will get a 30 point deduction from a league they won’t be in.

[Dougall]

Huh!!
A golf super league - cutting the legs out from under the PGA, European and Asian tours -was proposed (backed by money from the middle east) a few weeks ago and pretty roundly condemned.
An alternative super league proposal has now emerged in its wake!
When people without any sense of community think there's millions (or billions) to be made, they don't accept defeat.
I'd say there's NO chance that this idea won't raise its head again soon.

[Bordeauxclaret]

Where is the money going?

[duncandisorderly]

• leicester 66
  west ham 65
  leeds 59
  everton 59
  city 56
  villa 55
  newcastle 45
  wolves 45
  man utd 44
  palace 44
  southampton 43
  brighton 41
  liverpool 39
  burnley 39
  chelsea 37
  spurs 32
  arsenal 31
  fulham 28
  wba 26
  sheff utd 23

Final league table minus 30 points.
Whilst the punishment to the big six isn't that severe, the benefit to Leicester, West Ham, Leeds and Everton in particular is huge.
Those teams with a season of champions league revenue could effectively create a medium 6 along with Wolves and Villa in virtually ensuring that relegation is fought between the remaining 5+3.

[Zlatan]

That’ll show’em

[jdrobbo]

All hot air; all fart and no poo…even if they tried to reform the ESL tomorrow, I highly doubt that they’d get a 30 point deduction. We’re led by big-time bottle-jobs.

[Rileybobs]

Is the £20m being shared around the other clubs?

[RingoMcCartney]

Down't back o't settee.

[Andingle]

I'd like to see the money going into Grassroots Football

[Whitgord]

I’d like to see the clubs dropped into grassroots football.

[giveusaB]

It is understood the fines will help fund grassroots and community projects.

[Silkyskills1]

So the bullies win again. They'll be laughing at this outcome, that is if they ever realise at any time they are around £3 million down. It really is a sick, grubby business.

[Chester Perry]

I am more interested as to where the money from the fines will end up - I had hoped they would have been told to pay the £100m over 4 years to the football family that was agreed to facilitated the domestic tv deal roll over, but alas that is not to be

[Zlatan]

They all probably spent more than £3M preparing for the ESL. This is a disgusting fine, no where near enough of a deterrent

[DCWat]

What a crock of shite.

I hope that fans of all other clubs remember this for many, many years to come.

[Vegas Claret]

makes the PL look weak as ****

[Cirrus_Minor]

A bit pathetic when you consider the enormity of what they tried to do and how it would have affected the Premier League. A penalty to match the seriousness of the attempted breakaway for me would be at least points deductions for next season.

[Chester Perry]

From the Guardian, it is all a bit meh!

Six English ESL breakaway clubs agree to pay £22m to grassroots causes
Clubs and Premier League settle on punishment payment
Sum is less per club than average squad member’s yearly salary

Paul MacInnes

Wed 9 Jun 2021 14.27 BST

The six English clubs who attempted to join the European Super League have agreed a settlement with the Premier League in which they will pay £22m between them to causes that support “the good of the game”. The sum is more than was agreed with Uefa in a similar act of contrition but still amounts to less per club than they would pay an average squad member in a year.

A further agreement was struck on new rules to prevent such a breakaway from happening again. In future each club agreeing to enter a competition without the consent of the league would pay a fine of £25m and receive a 30-point deduction. Under the terms of the ESL, the six – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – had planned to continue playing in their domestic leagues as well as in the invitation-only competition.

The Premier League confirmed the news in a joint statement with the Football Association. “The six clubs involved in proposals to form a European Super League have today acknowledged once again that their actions were a mistake, and have reconfirmed their commitment to the Premier League and the future of the English game,” the statement read. “They have wholeheartedly apologised to their fans, fellow clubs, the Premier League and the FA.

“As a gesture of goodwill, the clubs have collectively agreed to make a contribution of £22m which will go towards the good of the game, including new investment in support for fans, grassroots football and community programmes.”

The league had previously announced it would attempt to close off the possibility of future breakaways by changing the competition’s rules. The size of the punishment doled out to the clubs, however, will be seen as evidence of how dependent the league is on its biggest names for its global success.

Under the terms of the ESL deal, individual “founder” clubs were in line to earn £250m simply for signing up to the project. That money would have been in effect loaned by the bank JP Morgan, however, and offset against future TV revenues.

The government’s review of football in England, led by the former sports minister Tracey Crouch MP, is also likely to look at the possibility of stopping future threats to the English football pyramid. The review is expected to come to preliminary conclusions before parliament goes into summer recess.

[tiger76]

This is a total copout by the PL. if they really wanted to send a message to these clubs then points deductions is the only way to hurt them.

Hopefully UEFA will take a more hard line view and impose a European ban on them at least for a season, not that that would affect Arsenal next season, but sadly just like the PL UEFA will probably bottle out of any meaningful punishment.

It's not even a slap on the wrist, and will hardly act as a deterrent should the dirty dozen try any funny business again in the future.

[ClaretTony]

To put the £22m fine into perspective, those six clubs spent virtually £150m in agents fees in the year last recorded ending in Feb.

[Claret_tinted]

Not even a rap over the knuckles - more of a gentle caress

Anything more and your pushing them into a corner that can only end in the courts.

[Chester Perry]

Anything more and your pushing them into a corner that can only end in the courts.

indeed, they were never intending to leave the premier league and both European competition law and legal precedent was on their side in regards to ESL