Dream Football League? Bi Annual Middle East Football League - Man U Chelski etc

[dubai_phil]

Yeah we know it's been tried before, but

1) A UEFA Champions League why not have a World Champions League

2) 175million per team vs the 48mil Chelsea won from CL last year gonna make FIFA's knees tremble

3) Oh yeah it's Qatar, let's not mention that FIFA enquiry into 2022 then

4) As far as @dubaisaints are concerned build that damned Stadium Expansion and get into the top four FFS so we can see more than a couple of cold wet games a year!

 

Thoughts?

 

The world's biggest clubs could soon become a permanent fixture in the Middle East with the advent of a summer 'Dream Football League' (DFL).

A report in The Times today claims that plans are afoot for the lucrative 24-team DFL which would be held in six cities in the Gulf region every other year, starting in 2015.

Bankrolled by the Qatari royal family, the tournament would look to entice 16 permanent members with eight other teams invited to take part in each tournament.

It has also been claimed that organisers are willing to pay as much as £175million per TEAM to convince them to take part - dwarfing the near £48m Chelsea received for winning last season's Champions League.

Aside from the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan, it is claimed that up to four English teams would also be invited to take part in the ambitious project.

The DFL would be scheduled to take place every other year to avoid clashing with international tournaments, with matches taking place in the searing 40-degree heat of summer.

However, organisers have faith in the stadium climate-control technology which will also be used at the 2022 World Cup with Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, recently stating his belief that the technology is "robust and functional".

Pointing to Doha’s Al-Sadd Stadium as the blueprint for such endeavours, he said in December: “When you go to Al-Sadd Stadium, and you experience it, it’s an open-air stadium, not covered in any way. If they crank up the cooling system, it can get very cold, no matter how hot it is."

Qatar's close ties with Paris-Saint Germain, Malaga and Barcelona could help facilitate the ambitous plans, although it still remains to be seen what UEFA and FIFA make of the project.

 

 

http://www.sport360.com/football/gulf-riches-offer-man-utd-co-dream-football-league

[JackanorySFC]

Full story from The Times below:

 

Personally I think it stinks, you can't buy class/ history and it will only take one or 2 of the big sides to say no and it loses it's gravitas. It seems the Emirates want "old money" clubs ala Real, Barca, Man U, Liverpool, AC Milan, Juve, Bayern etc rather than the obvious, already bought Man City and PSG. Huge sums of cash though an FFP will make it tempting, Platini will go mental at the thought of this (or will he, if the reports that Sarcosi got him to broker the PSG deal are true?)!

 

The world’s leading football clubs are to be offered enormous financial inducements to participate in a 24-team tournament every two years in Qatar and neighbouring Gulf states, The Times has learnt.

Backed by the Qatari royal family, the self-styled “Dream Football League” (DFL) will release plans next month for a new club tournament that it hopes to establish as a rival to the Champions League and the Club World Cup.

The move, the latest stage of Qatar’s bid to establish itself as a dominant player in world football, represents a clear threat to the existing powerbases of Fifa, football’s world governing body, and Uefa, its European counterpart.

It remains to be seen which, if any, Barclays Premier League clubs will sign up for the project, but DFL is prepared to offer elite clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United an astonishing €200 million (about £175 million) per two-year cycle in an attempt to gain support.

Its plan is to have four of England’s most prestigious clubs among 16 “permanent” DFL members, with a further eight global clubs competing on an invitational basis.

The project is being driven from Doha and Paris after the recent takeover of Paris Saint-Germain by Qatar Sports Investment (QSI).

Qatar is eager to win the full support of the increasingly influential European Club Association (ECA), which is involved in a continuing power struggle with Uefa and Fifa, but the recent ECA general assembly, held in Doha, featured a stern warning from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the chairman, to PSG about the French club’s aggressive attempts to win power and influence among the game’s elite.

If successful, the idea — which would feature the first tournament held across the region in the summer of 2015 — would change the face of world football, not least in widening the gap between the richest clubs and the rest.

The sums under discussion would dwarf those in the Champions League, which has an annual prize fund of £595 million. Chelsea won £47.3 million as European champions last season.

DFL’s idea is that the sums involved would lead clubs to make the tournament their top priority, even ahead of the Champions League and their domestic leagues, particularly in an era in which additional revenue will help clubs such as PSG and Manchester City, respectively owned by sovereign wealth funds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, to overcome Uefa’s new “financial fair play” regulations.

The idea of holding the tournament in the summer is a key part of Qatar’s strategy. Having encountered widespread objections to its controversial plans to host the 2022 World Cup finals in summer, when temperatures soar beyond 40C (104F), Qatar aims to demonstrate that it can, with the backing of the most powerful clubs, overcome concerns about player and spectator safety with the use of air conditioning not just in the stadiums but throughout all host cities.

DFL plans to hold the tournament not only in Qatar but in six cities across the Gulf, with venues in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and possibly Saudi Arabia.

Officials from Uefa and the Premier League declined to comment on the DFL proposals last night. The ECA did not respond to inquiries.

Leading figures from Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United also declined to respond, although some privately expressed full support for the existing competition in club football while saying that they had not heard of the DFL proposals.

The existing European club competition structure has been far more stable since Uefa reacted to the “Media Partners” breakaway league threat of the 1990s by expanding the Champions League, but there have been renewed discussions in recent years about the idea of creating a competition whereby the elite clubs play each other more often than the present arrangements allow.

Florentino Pérez, the Real Madrid president, said in 2009 that it was time to push for “a new European super league, which guarantees that the best always play the best, which does not happen in the Champions League”.

At very least, it is possible that there will be a desire among the clubs to use the interest from Qatar to push for changes to the existing Champions League and Europa League structure and to the financial rewards that are involved.

But in Qatar they are serious about the DFL proposal.

As one source close to the project said: “These people have already shown that, if they want something to happen, they will throw enough money at it to make it happen. And the football industry has shown that everything can be bought for the right price.”

[Colinjb]

Well, they will have to fill those white elephant stadia out there somehow.

[Pamplemousse]

It's a hoax, the story was invented by a French football magazine 'Cahiers du football'

[Lazlo78]

It's a hoax, the story was invented by a French football magazine 'Cahiers du football'