Sir, – A group of multinational sports industry businesses bows to pressure from customers and abandons plans to form a procurement group aimed at increasing collective purchasing power and maximising shareholder returns.
Given that it’s some time since European football was about its grassroots, surely this must be business news rather than sports news? – Yours, etc,
CONOR MOONEY,
Paris.
Sir, – Six high-profile English soccer clubs scoring an own-goal on the one day. Is this a record? –Yours, etc,
MICHELE SAVAGE,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if all that societal anger directed against a super soccer league was now redirected at eliminating real injustices in our societies.
“Bread and circuses” have always been useful for diverting public attention away from underlying unjust structures. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
Malahide,
Co Dublin,
Sir, – Imagine the outrage at an elite professional sporting competition with the same teams playing every year, with no chance of demotion or of promotion of others from a lower competition, partially owned by a private equity company.
It’s called the Six Nations. – Yours, etc,
PETER
FELLOWS-McCULLY,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – The Super League proposed lacks an entertainment edge befitting the zeitgeist.
The players should all be made to live on a continuously televised island and perform dangerous competitive pseudo-primitive challenges in order to be selected for the matches.
After each game a minority of players should then be voted off the island after a talent show involving song, ballroom dance, cooking and colourful verbal abuse from a rotating panel of celebrity managers.
This is the logical extension of what we have now.
Money and television conquered the beautiful game 20 years ago. So I’d give anything to see Francis Brennan, Gordon Ramsay and Bono managing Real Madrid, Juventus and Liverpool for a week.
The shirts would be spotless, the shouting stentorian, the talent show awesome and the tax could be paid in the Netherlands.
It’s enough to give the GAA ideas. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DEASY,
Carrigart,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – The consternation arising from the mooted European Super League calls into question the nature of the affiliation of fans with clubs with billionaire owners whose overriding concern is balance sheet vindication.
How can a supporter develop a sense of loyalty and passion (and make considerable financial outlays!) for teams owned, managed and populated by strangers?
The community, parish, county structures of our national games create legitimate and emotionally charged entities with team members drawn from defined locations and therefore much more entitled to attract meaningful fan support. – Yours, etc,
DES O’HALLORAN,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Michael Gannon (Letters, April 21st) derives pleasure from the draw for the GAA championships as an antidote to the soccer Super League debacle.
I am not sure of the contrast since both GAA championships are dominated year in, year out, by the same few teams, and to ensure the super-teams feature in the final stages every year the back-door system was introduced, in case one of them had the misfortune to be knocked out early. I think the soccer super-leaguers should have come to the GAA to show them how it’s done. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN LEAKE,
Terenure,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – It may be setting a world record for the shortest-lived league, but we should credit the top German teams for ignoring its financial temptations. Credit where credit is due! – Yours, etc,
TADHG McCARTHY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Pundits and players versus the European Super League. A case of millionaires calling foul on the billionaires.
Spare me the hypocrisy. – Yours, etc,
DAN MURPHY,
Cork.