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Comment by IG_Semmelweiss | Hacker News Reader

The NFL cartel is dead serious about breaking up the UEFA (and its federations) local monopolies.

I think it is brilliant to introduce more competition into the mix, but i also fear this will have the outcome to create 2 parallel tournaments and thus, take money out of the merit based system... into the franchise system.

I fear the goal of this initiative is to derisk sport ownership by private funds. This is a serious play at business oriented takeover of sports

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The franchise system is horrible for sports. There is no benefit and punishment for teams, other than winning. This might work in small competitions like NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. In European football it will only create parallel tournaments with teams participating without merit (Arsenal, for ex, hasn't qualified for the last 4 Champion Leagues if I recall correctly). It makes no sense other than making more money. It will destroy smaller teams that already receive almost nothing in most leagues (Spain, for ex). If they do it I will stop watching altogether, and I beet I'm not alone.

It also doesn’t strike me as a sustainable model. Part of what makes European football so special is the rarity of the fixtures.

While I don’t have hope that UEFA or FIFA will successfully kill off the Super League, I have optimism that the players will. By the looks of it, it’s going to be up to them to unionize and prevent this from happening.

NFL cartel? What's that? NFL as in American football (not soccer)?

Yes.

The NFL is only 1 example. The MLS, and MLB operate on a cartel basis.

In baseball, american football, soccer, basketball, one can never start a neighborhood team and make it to the pros, no matter how good the team it s.

Only the franchises are allowed in, and once in , you are in as long as you pay your dues.

In the rest of the world, soccer is strictly merit based. You only stay pro as long as you can cut it.

Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding but isn't this the exact situation that the clubs are proposing?

correct.

Its a weird situation.

People want the UEFA / FIFA monopoly broken... but competition coming from....USA cartel holders?

This is what makes it so interesting, too

NOTE: its important to note that the "proposal" is led by clubs that are directly held by american sports ownership. ManU is owned by Glazer, who also owns an NFL franchise.

That's why there is a reference to the NFL.

Glazer & co are effectively trying to de-risk the business by proposing a league where results don't impact the bottom line

I suspect most football fans are indifferent to the concept of Uefa/Fifa - they just want them to be less corrupt.

What really piqued my interest was your phrase "I think it is brilliant to introduce more competition into the mix" and I wondered if you could expand on that.

FIFA / UEFA has a monopoly on international soccer. They sustain the monopoly leveraging micronations that effectively gives them a majority in all of the monopoly's decisions. When Germany has the same amount of voting power as Andorra, you have a problem.

Of course, this majority is not secured by good policy, instead it is secured by corruption, payouts to micronations.

I think another league -with different ownership and stakeholders- could make things quite interesting because it would take money out of the system.

However, i'd like for fans or players to own the alternative system, not clubs owned by PE firms and their buddies.

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