Desert Storm

[the count]

Desert storm: World's top football teams to be offered huge sums to play in Middle East summer league

13 Mar 2013 01:31
The tournament - to be held in the Gulf every other year - would involve 24 of the world's top clubs, potentially including four from England


Football Sheikh-up: Potential venue The Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar
Oil-rich billionaires could offer up to £175m to the world's biggest clubs just to take part in a summer 'Dream Football League'.

The tournament - to be held in six cities in the Gulf region every other year, starting in 2015 - would involve 24 elite clubs.

Organisers would hope to attract four English clubs from Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur to take part, a report in The Times today claims.

The DFL would be bankrolled by the Qatari royal family in the hope it would rival or even overtake the Champions League and Club World Cup due to the eye-wateringly high sums involved.

The DFL would involve 16 permanent members with eight other teams invited to take part in each tournament.

The report says top clubs like Barcelona and Manchester United would be offered £175m to turn up - massively dwarfing the £47.3m Chelsea banked for actually winning the Champions League last season.

Matches would take place in the 40-degree heat of the Middle Eastern summer but officials have confidence in stadium climate-control technology which will also be used for the 2022 World Cup.

The project is apparently being driven from both Qatar and Paris after the recent takeover of Paris Saint-Germain by Qatari Sports Investment.

They would hope to entice Barcelona, given they are sponsored by the Qatar Foundation, shortly to be replaced by Qatar Airways.

Any participation by English clubs would further open up the huge financial chasm between the Premier League's big guns and the rest.

It is not known if Scottish rivals Celtic and Rangers would be invited to join the DFL, which would take place in odd-numbered years to avoid clashing with World Cups and European Championships.

It remains to be seen how the sport's governing bodies, national leagues and potential participants will react to the blueprints.

UEFA and the Premier League did not comment when approached by the newspaper yesterday.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/dream-football-league-qatar-worlds-1759814

 

[Judge Jules]

Gonna be interesting to see if we *are* invited....

 

[Brizzle]

If this happens, even as a one off and we aren't included it is pretty much game over.

 

[Athens]

Where's my comment?

Anyway, if anyone's interested I reckon it will turn football into formula 1.

 

[the count]

We seem to be slowly inexorably moving towards some sort of a European Super League.
I hope this doesn't happen but it would be hard for any club to turn down the type of money being touted

 

[StevieM]

This wont happen unless FIFA & UEFA get their cut.

 

[the count]

Where's my comment?

Anyway, if anyone's interested I reckon it will turn football into formula 1.

I originally made the post in the GC forum by mistake.
Having deleted that I guess your post got deleted as well

 

[Modo]

We have world stars like Suarez and Gerrard, of course we'll be invited.

 

[Athens]

I originally made the post in the GC forum by mistake.
Having deleted that I guess your post got deleted as well

Ah right.

If this went ahead I might give up on football.

 

[Woland]

Where's my comment?

Anyway, if anyone's interested I reckon it will turn football into formula 1.

Mine was balleeted too.

I said that FIFA haven't commented in their normal 'play for them and you'll never play for us again' way because they'll be waiting for a nice bag full of dosh.

 

[Athens]

Mine was balleeted too.

I said that FIFA haven't commented in their normal 'play for them and you'll never play for us again' way because they'll be waiting for a nice bag full of dosh.

FIFA will love it as it means they won't have to try and push ahead with the world cup every two years as they'll have this instead leaving them look squeaky clean.

In a few years I can imagine teams playing single matches in a different city every other weekend. You will have 18 teams with 9 matches over the course of the weekend starting on friday and ending on sunday.

 

[the count]

FIFA will love it as it means they won't have to try and push ahead with the world cup every two years as they'll have this instead leaving them look squeaky clean.

In a few years I can imagine teams playing single matches in a different city every other weekend. You will have 18 teams with 9 matches over the course of the weekend starting on friday and ending on sunday.

All televised exclusively live on Sky Sports

 

[Woland]

al-Jazeera.

 

[Athens]

This corner kick was brought to you by Gillette.

 

[Glen C]

If this happens the champions league will become like our carling cup. Clubs would be more focused on the Quatar tournament than champions league thats for sure.

 

[Athens]

If this happens the champions league will become like our carling cup. Clubs would be more focused on the Quatar tournament than champions league thats for sure.

Then Utd will win it once and their fans will convince themselves that Liverpool's 5 titles don't count as it's a 'mickey mouse' cup.

 

[Woland]

Doubt it.

No one will want to be playing over there. The players won't be arsed with the heat and the lifeless stadia and it won't be a big TV spectacle. It will just generate shitloads of cash for the clubs.

 

[Brizzle]

We have world stars like Suarez and Gerrard, of course we'll be invited.

Gerrard will be retired by the time this goes ahead, if it does.

 

[Jack D Rips]

Top players will never get a break if this were to happen. It wont!

 

[Hansern]

Doubt this will happen. Every two years there are major international tournaments. For this to happen it would be every two year, 2015 and then 2017 etc.
When will they arrange it? The European leagues end in May/June and then start in Aug/Sept. For footballers to get any sort of break it would have to be just 1 week in early August or something. Then you have European qualification and Supercups, Community shield etc.

 

[Molbystwin]

We have world stars like Suarez and Gerrard, of course we'll be invited.

Just seems a bit dim to say that modo to be fair, it says 4 clubs and then lists 6, Man U are a certainty as are Arsenal and Man city for there middle east ties, Chelsea have been more prominent than us and with more money for a decade now and Spurs are going to finish in the champs league again.

I'm not aware of how popular LFC are in qatar but i'd hate to gamble 175M if we are wrong. It would fuck us totally. The article in the guardian talks of Man U , Arsenal , Chelsea and Man City alone being permanent members with invites available. IF it gets off the ground we better be in it.... either way it is worrying.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Talk sport have just said (well, Richard keys) that it's almost certainly a hoax & they're just trying to get confirmation on that.

 

[Athens]

Talk sport have just said (well, Richard keys) that it's almost certainly a hoax & they're just trying to get confirmation on that.

If they say it's a hoax then it must be true!

Hang on...

 

[737Max]

It's got Stanford Series written all over it. Just wait till the top Sheikh involved is seen surrounded by Wags at the opening game and then months later gets caught up in some kind of ponzi scheme bringing an end to this shite tournament

 

[Tal]

Man Utd
Liverpool
Man City (only because of their Arab connection)

One of the Cockney upstart clubs, though I doubt it'll be Tottenham for reasons other than football.

 

[Leo]

Players who won't be happy.

 

[Athens]

Players who won't be happy.

Think of the sponsorship money from sun block manufacturers.

 

[Leo]

Think of the sponsorship money from sun block manufacturers.

Scientists would never even attempt to come up with a factor number for those lads.

 

[Athens]

Scientists would never even attempt to come up with a factor number for those lads.

You would be amazed what they can do these days. I manage to survive in Greece with my pasty pale blue skin.

 

[gkmacca]

Tony Evans in daring 'dog ate my homework, sir' bid for exculpation:

When we are wrong, we will hold our hands up. It’s the right thing to do

Oliver Kay was misled by a contact who appeared to be connected with the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain​

• 
  
  Oliver Kay was misled by a contact who appeared to be connected with the Qatari owners of Paris Saint-Germain KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images

Tony Evans Football Editor​

Last updated at 12:01AM, March 18 2013​

​

There are times when all you can do is admit you were wrong. Last week, Times football ran a story that we thought was a blockbuster. The state of Qatar was proposing a new summer tournament that would offer stunning financial rewards to the teams who participated.​

It was a horrible prospect that threatened to transform the sport but appeared to be a brilliant story. The Dream Football League (DFL) would turn into a journalistic nightmare.​

​

How it came about tells you something about the state of the game and the difficulties of football journalism. Oliver Kay developed a relationship with a contact who appeared to be connected with the Qatari ownership at Paris Saint-Germain.​

​

Over the months, this contact provided information that subsequently turned out to be right. Kay did not use any of this knowledge because he could not back it up with secondary sources. However, each time a tip-off turned into a fact, an element of trust grew.​

​

After the event, it is easy to look into the background of an individual and proclaim that minimal research would have unmasked an unreliable source. This is to misunderstand the world of football. All kinds of chancers attach themselves to the game. As the sport becomes ever more bloated by money, these dubious characters are drawn to the periphery of the game, attracted by the opportunity of a share of the cash.​

​

It is not unusual for football journalists to have a contact whose past looks murky under close scrutiny. Some turn out to be useful sources of information, some to be not quite what they seem. Even then, it does not always mean that they are wrong. This means that every story needs checking. Much was plausible about the suggestions that Qatar was planning a new tournament. The Gulf state has become a serious player on the world scene over the past decade and is keen to continue developing its role in football. Plans to gather the game’s top teams in the Middle East have been mooted before. If any nation has the resources to pull off this sort of competition, it is Qatar.​

​

Kay began to call some of Europe’s biggest clubs. The answers were off the record and fell into two categories. Some made it clear that they had no knowledge of the concept. The others said, yes, they had heard talk about such an idea, yes, £175 million was about the figure mentioned but, no, they did not think it was going to happen and could not see themselves being involved.​

These secondary sources treated the questions seriously. And here is where The Times made a massive mistake. Because so many significant people in football did not laugh off the idea, it seemed that the story could be genuine.​

​

The warning signs — that no one had heard specific details of the DFL or seen its plans — were missed. In principle, the idea was possible. There were plenty to attest to that.​

​

In reality, the story appears to have been invented and had just enough plausibility to be seductive.​

​

Initially, The Times launched a strong defence of the story and the reporter. However, the paper also launched an investigation by its internal ombudsman.​

​

Over the three days that followed the publication of the story, it appeared increasingly clear that Kay and the paper had been duped. And that the checks from the office in London had not been stringent enough in the rush to publication.​

​

This is an unusual situation. Normally, when a story is disputed, lawyers become involved. Individuals and organisations demand retractions and writs are issued. Here, it did not happen. It would have been possible to ride out the storm, tell the world that time would vindicate the newspaper and allow memories of the furore to fade away.​

​

But that is not how The Times does things. We value our reputation. There will be changes now to the way we operate, and an extra level of scepticism will be incorporated into our working practices.​

​

But one thing will not change. If we get it wrong, we will hold our hands up and admit it.​

​

​