tv Inside Story Al Jazeera April 20, 2021 8:30pm-9:00pm +03
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he's been holding talks with representatives from the football association and the premier league we don't know what's in the government's arsenal to be able to fight this attempt to create this league there is some suggestion that they may well look to competition laws to stave off any kind of perceived football monopoly i'm further afield as well we've heard from the french president in mind chronic he has said that he would do everything possible to defend existing competitions so far no french teams have signed up to the proposal e. 0 with me so romney reminder of our top stories the army in chad has announced president idriss deby has been killed while leading soldiers on the front lines to be had just won reelection and was one of africa's longest serving leaders a state funeral will be held on friday his son general mahama will take on the role
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of interim head of state hiper morgan has more from the capital and to media. president adly himself went to the frontlines along with top army officials to lead the battle against the group and announced later that at least $300.00 were killed and more than $140.00 were captured while the rest fled and were being pursued by the government military now we hadn't heard from debbie over the weekend we didn't hear from him yesterday as well on the day that the national electoral commission announced that he had won the election by nearly 80 percent we were expecting to hear a statement from him. to assure his supporters and to basically welcome the results of the national electoral commission that's now will not be happening we know that we just learned from the army that he had sustained injuries during the battles over the weekend and those were the reasons and the bat that the injuries were the reasons like he passed away the u.s. has described russia's plans to block parts of the black sea to foreign ships for 6
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months unprovoked escalation washington says it would be another attempt by moscow to destabilize ukraine the jury in the murder trial of former minneapolis police officer durtro vernon solving its 1st full day of deliberations the 12 jurors are considering 3 weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses showgrounds accused of killing george floyd after needling on his neck for more than 9 minutes europe's drug regulator has found possible links between johnson and johnson's covert 900 vaccine and rare blood clots but the european medicines agency says the benefits of the vaccine still outweigh any potential risks 8 causes of unusual blood clots were identified amongst people who had the job bus and train stations in new delhi have been overwhelmed by thousands of workers leaving the city after a week long lockdown went into effect india's reporting more than 200000 cases a day those were the headlines and back with more news in half an hour next it's inside story with mohammed judge judy do stay with us.
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european football in crisis some of its biggest clubs have announced a league of their own fans and governing bodies say they've betrayed the sport but what's really behind this move this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. they're some of the biggest names in sport european football clubs like manchester united and rail madrid have become
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a global phenomenon drawing big name stars and millions of followers they're now among 12 elite teams who have announced a breakaway competition of their own called the european super league many fans reacted in anger while some voiced their support but the sport's governing bodies say they'll do everything in their power to stop the project while those behind the new super league insist the change is necessary we'll bring in our guests in a moment 1st this report from the park. hours after some of the continent's richest clubs threaten to split european football into the sport's governing body in europe you wafer hit back hard saying you were expelled the clubs players from future european championships and world cups i can't stress more strongly at this moment. in the footballing world stand united against these graceful self-serving proposals we have seen in the last 24 hours from a select few clubs in europe that are fuelled purely by greed above all else on
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sunday night 12 of the continent's richest clubs revealed plans to form a european super league rivaling you a 1st prestigious champions league barcelona madrid and that let it go have agreed to join in spain in italy both ac and into milan have signed up alongside eventis and 6 clubs from england's premier league also want to join manchester united city liverpool chelsea arsenal and tottenham the managers of the teams have been dodging quick questions let's be honest i'm employee of this club and i trust this club and my chop is very clear so i'm maybe not the right person to ask. i'm just a manager and i'm prepared to coach my players under any circumstances the plans even prompted this intervention from the british prime minister we're going to look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure that this
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doesn't go ahead of the way that it's currently being proposed so far no teams from france or germany including the current european champions by munich plan to join the new league but 3 more clubs are expected to sign up all set to pocket more than $400000000.00 when they do in a project funded by u.s. banking giant j.p. morgan seriously the midst of a pandemic an economic crisis football clubs at national league level going bust nearly furloughing players clubs on the edge in league one and 2 and these lobbying assume calls about breaking away and basically create more great. joke the super league clubs want to start as soon as possible but the premier league league and syria all joined in condemning the move so too have many fans competing clubs face being booted out of their domestic leeks several television broadcasters rules are refusing to abandon you a for
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a national league to join the new project but if it does go ahead football's single sporting pyramid from the lowest grassroots teams all the way to the top may never be the same again leave barca al-jazeera those behind the super league say they want to kick off as soon as practicable the competition will have 20 teams the 15 founding members are guaranteed a place every year other clubs will compete for the remaining 5 spots as we've mentioned each team will earn $400000000.00 just for joining the league that's nearly 3 times more than what the champions league winner gets every year organizers say the format guarantees regular matches between the top teams this potentially means more fans in the stadiums more television viewers and more money for the clubs revenues have taken a hit during the pandemic it's predicted that the world's top 20 football clubs lost more than a $1000000000.00 from broadcasting and ticket sales. all
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right let's bring in our guests in london aqil vs an arsenal fan and board member of the arsenal supporters trust. in law for a u.k. garcia senior lecturer in sports management and policy at law for university and in beirut tran of each strategic adviser adel e sports focusing on sports signal a-g. a warm welcome to you all for let me start with you today is this idea of a super league well maybe not the exact same thing but the idea has been discussed for years was it the pandemic that pushed it across the line and why why now yeah i think thanks for having me indeed this has been around progress is the ninety's in this person of the late ninety's around the time of the griffin of the champions league and has told of our korea for quite some time why now i think all the one hand i think it depend they're making a case that low lot back in the major laps half accumulate in there in the last year on the all of the other recent i think that which is very important is
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probably far less this cast is their ability of capitally sponsor bent your head most of them coming from the united states who have decided to invest heavily in the sport not only in football not only but what about the course. in iraq the other sports and now they want to finance the super late and i think that probably that is what has over the line if you if as president described the super league plan as a spit in the face of football lovers and said that the clubs and players should be banned from all you wait for competitions as soon as possible what happens next what kind of impact is going to have on the rest of the season i mean if this becomes a protracted affair then you could be thinking ok this is actually a reality but there's going to be some you know legal rumblings around whether or not they can play in these tournaments but as long as this is kind of nipped in the but you know we have torn in this road you know on our doorstep we have you which
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as we all know or we're just on time last year cut to 2022 where we're at around the corner as well. so i think timing is key if we let this drag on and it just gets more serious. as you said they want to start a sop i think that's another important factor but speaking of timing as well you know they said this just as you have for us and it's under chattering you have as president was unfeeling the new champions league format was to expand to the i mean expand the tournament and also kind of give in to this idea of a super elite because as we see in basketball and the euro league. it's it's a different form it's not a group stages so the champions league will change football is changing we all agree with this but i feel like there was a great miscalculation and the public mood when this was revealed because i would add to what books are so i don't agree with everything he said but football these days with a lot of fans who could force their discontent was there not because usually but i
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mean with the far and with you know the pandemic stopping us from going to games i feel like that this was the you know the right time to go ahead and it's backfiring i mean there's developments every minute but it looks like it's about 5 calea was just talking there about this announcement really back flying as far as the timing i was looking at your twitter feed in particular before the show and i saw many posts about how as a fan you were so disappointed in this announcement and the possible formation of a super league let me ask you why has this triggered such a strong response among fans. it is it really takes away the sporting merit you know nobody wants a closed shop and that's essentially what this is going to do it's going to mean the saints child that every single year that's the war for fun who wants a full from what's variety of fun want promotion relegation the excitement you know
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by having the european superleague domestic leagues are going to be we can all look at the premier league alicia going to win it finishing 2nd to finish and 15 means nothing because if your last though when you finish 15th you're going to be in the euro in the european simply to finish 2nd was still a b. so what's insensitive about cheap playing you know and you know if you're a leicester city or west family vibrates sheer and then you're told even though you finished 4th you're now you're not going to be news top level european football what's the point so that it's going to be is for that result in a lot of the mistakes in the from elite. ultimately it is the little football says absolutely runs an absolute disgrace but how britain has said that they are going to do everything within their power to stop this super league from happening they said that all options are on the table on the 3 even going to discuss ways of potentially penalizing the 6 english clubs that have signed up to the super league
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can the government of britain actually accomplish this can they actually prevent the super league from happening well it is so it is they pick orcas of course difficult because remember that we are in britain which is a country which established an early very liberal very business oriented i guess on how ironic it is really a really ironic that somehow that you can 2nd so much if governmental worst of paperbacks your nest national to go against the development of business especially in a probably not be our british base and that's all there on by other countries when they want to make the paper money away are the brackets are there something they're usually ironic about these intentional. the conservative government of boris johnson now the question comes they do it well i think that because of the government of course they can always regulate it it's within their powers then of course it has to be done through that'll govern through the parliament and then of course the class will always have recourse to the courts to the different
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authorities there is perhaps one aspect that miss to be looked at which is that we should not forget that especially the international olympic committee and the 5th up if i specially begged the life governments intervening into a sport they really really don't like it on the other hand of course was 35 really that's a lie if governments intervening in football or farce when they go against the stuff if a government is going to decide to intervene in for civil affairs in favor to face up i think the fight is going to be far less worried about it it will take a major intervention it will take an intervention that i don't think we probably have seen in the united kingdom i don't think we'll take an intervention that will contradict a couple of the gates of the united states in the commercial business and even sport policy but they can do it in the fever had worn in january that any breakaway league would not be recognised by them and the players taking part could be banned potentially from playing in the world cup do you think that's going to happen and
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how might this impact the world cup going forward just today i was waiting for the players to speak. to you what they were going to spare i feel really bad from there in a position where they can't really count. predict their future as i said those tournaments around the corner it's going to take a lot of. you know legal ramifications to see if you if if if if i can actually enforce this and also where because in sports you know usually goes the court of arbitration for sport and it could take even longer over there so as porter said it's something where where anything can happen the british government said yesterday or that they before but even if the f.a.a. and people can't do anything about it that they will stop and we've heard from royalty we've heard from from footballers they're coming out today. and last night so it'll be interesting to see how things develop but in the end. as as as
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barker said if if he perceives that the government are getting too in the weight of their decision making and prop aqil going forward do you think that we could see some kind of compromise struck that would be in the interests of both fans and clubs and if so what do you think that compromise might look like i don't know i mean that's what people are saying or is this a must of negotiation sort of tactic is this kind of clubs really taking it that far as a big threat so then you wait for the do compromise or we don't know you know we don't know there's so much going on you talked about government we've jasa supports truslow in a meeting with the premier league football association of folks who support those agents morning with boris johnson i don't really know the opposition has done so for things that happening is not going on is there a compromise maybe and that's for you know i think that's what fans would want
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because the euro the euro is super league is taking full too far one way and you know you a certain fee for not squeaky clean and then you know by no means are fans suddenly thinking they are. clearly i have it's all in been governed by its founders the clubs doesn't quite sound right so the clubs definitely more influence when it's us from situations so we'll look to see what will happen there i hope something will be it will be resolved but how from your perspective how much does all of this have to do with essentially making more drama for television i mean you tell you matt big clubs here with big stars playing each other more often leading to a bigger audience potential bigger revenue stream from broadcasting rights right guests from broadcasting or let's just call it perhaps a little bit more a wider commercial rights you know it can be if you're right it can be over the internet or t t operate or if i think it's about making more money out of the professional
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football i let the poor to the chairman of the spanish league i have your ask why once hair send in a conference our rivals of the lollipop are not the primarily are not the been this league are were rivals nowadays are netflix and amazon prime professional football sees itself being us part of the entertainment industry for right or for wrong i'm not going to say this is where they should be but if this this is where they look at the south this is they want to fight for to pension up the people rather than what you can game of thrones the once the champions league rather than them watching any any of that t.v. news to watch the champions league so if indeed it is indeed about increasing revenue from data from that commercial operation if this increase and are reaching new audiences beyond europe and in a global market i'm not so sure if this is a smart ass remark or a star i'm a parent you know parents said last night in this i'm still a vision i'm not so sure he said are recollecting with
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a year of football it may well be that they are they think they are losing the younger generation and spending their money in football that's what they may want to do but certainly yeah i would agree this. only about trying to increase the revenues and then also increase their share of those revenues for each specific as they call their ilia so many people have expressed anger at the announcement of the super league have said in one way or another that this is essentially a case of big business ruining football now do you see that as happening and is this essentially a case of rich clubs getting to stay financially viable sized i think i think gary nabel you know with with passion and poignancy saw it last night that is pure greed and you know someone like me i grew up watching arsenal ording arsenal but only because i couldn't watch red star belgrade and then over the years and i was due to be doing more connect that i could watch them and then 5 years ago you know low and
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behold rockstar was playing arsenal in the europa league i to make a choice and and i started my 1st club started and you. know the past 5 years we've been playing in and the europa league and champions league so you know to watch this i i know that we're probably going to win it we did win the european cup in 1901 unlike the time i did it talking to a man city and arsenal who are who are the core founders or are founding members of super the but i do feel that many dreams will be dumped because many many football and 2 sisters around the world i'm speaking as a fan now we support a hometown club and maybe one of the international votes so what this will do it little bit will create such a distance between these top clubs like real madrid barcelona man city united and the smaller clubs i mean west and leicester sure they're going to be left in the dark what about all the other books in europe i think you have for. you
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know there are no angels but they're expanding the tournament they're even creating another tournament 4 for 4 teams that finish 4th or 5th or 6th in their respective leagues so the product that we have the champions league is revered father people love that message also said kids they dream of playing the champions league or the world cup not and you're in super league so despite you know the look i think it's warranted football is really a global language i worked for the world cup committee and cut that and. you know you should read the big stories off the pitch how to do with cutter. the world cup taking place in november for example under more scrutiny but at the end of the day this sturgeon in conflict largely see players playing tip top condition and pretty standard i suppose playing at the end of the season so there's a silver lining here to simply don't find any silver lining if you're for. a kill
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as a football fan when you boil all this down does it essentially come down to the question of who owns football i mean doesn't all of this and the discussion around it really highlight a growing disconnect between the big business of sport the community of sports fans especially when you're talking about just you know kids kicking around a ball and aspiring to be like their football heroes absolutely i mean i think i think we've seen in the last few days who does really own folklore and research you know our stone house you know we don't call them owners they're our investors they're investing in asshole senshi made money you know we've we've we've met them a few once or twice in 10 years we don't hear from there this week all of the owners have got into hiding after announcing their deal you know it's because they're ashamed you know that so defamed or if they want to shake their will be out there at spain's or smites the day they're not. so who is full of you know it's sad but i mean what we've seen in the last year with
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a pandemic is you know football grounds the soulless without fans you know it seems the companies have been trying to pump him fake noise which is also ridiculous to replace us is a more the noise to replace those the replace our so i think you know essentially the biggest state poll 'd in 4 was found so i think the product is far weaker but we've seen that these owners you know that though they'll make decisions they'll be in other countries though hard. and you know that trying to get away with it and hopefully we're not going to let them sort of what are some of the other challenges that's going to be that the super league would face and also could all this basically just fall apart and if so is there a way back from it. well i think there are a number of challenges i could say that if one of the probably the most pressing at the moment is the social political challenge i don't think the organizers of the of the superleague and dissipated the backlash i can think would know when the people
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knowing florentino perez know when the owners of the city grew they were ready to fight they were ready to fight back lash they already bully for example us i'm the court of arbitration for sport but perhaps they miscalculated a little bit so the social political challenge is one the other actually i think it is going to be economically because one thing i missed starting to detect is that the 12 founders for the moment for the moment of course we have to wait they are actually having problems inviting all their plots to their competition they wanted to have 3 more members and then they wanted to buy 5 more in order to make 20 and it seems for the moment they are going to. be there to invite plus they didn't want to invite or actually to try and do something different so that is going to be another another challenge and finally of course i think it is important to talk to them that's rather technical but we need to mention their legal challenge and their european law there is a possibility that someone goes to the european court and announced that was found
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in glasgow because they are basically behaving like a cartel they are a sickly close and that was the professional football market there are arguments in favor of that there are arguments also against that but i think that the 2nd is that can be made and then there will be a need for a judgment and actually the links to the body beginning of the program when we were talking about timing of course if it goes to dock it will drag for years and years and then perhaps the situation will change so certainly we have the social the social political challenge we have the economic we have the legal challenge i'm actually especially in that me that one failed to convince clubs i was thinking that actually this morning seems to me at least the biggest challenge. and then one back may actually. get things again back in the bottom. if this actually comes to fruition if the super league actually is accomplished do you expect that fans will ultimately follow i mean will it eventually get support from fans.
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personally i don't know we were talking earlier about you know the younger generation i've worked very closely with 43 they're the biggest. social media page have over 50000000 or 60000000 for all their platforms and great engagement. and their audience demographic is quite young. and most of the comments i've been reading 24 hours i've indicated that most people are against. of course in a football is the opium of the masses. it would be difficult to say what could happen down the line if it does exist but i feel that it will be met with some with some scrutiny but in the end i just don't think you know the model can succeed because. it's of it's very americanized you know you have the same teams playing against each other well majority of the teams will play against each other every season and as you're going club side and the other side who wants to see for
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example and every year takes away from reading there's also a great great a lot of competition. which could could really you know hurt football. or not part of the joy of watching football is you know having minnows up so. no big club. you know like a relegation battle well in the n.b.a. or american leagues where the draft system seems going to tank you know they can say we're going to rebuild for the next 3 years and the just don't work out and you know there's like this lot of competition can either the game and of the game to start and i feel the audience will last. all right we have run out of time so we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all of our guests aqil vs garcia and ilya trey and of it and thank you too for watching you can see this and all of our previous programs again any time by visiting our
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website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me my mage i'm going the whole team here bye for now. in the 3rd thailand's of mesopotamia with the 1st settlements formed the cradle of civilization iraqi people who've depended on the tigris and euphrates for centuries can no longer make
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a living on rivers blighted by and pollution al-jazeera world reveals how the manmade decline of one of history's most famed ancient environments is leaving its people struggling to survive iraq's dying rivers. from the al-jazeera london broadcast center to people in thoughtful conversation i can be in my culture i can still raise my voice against bigotry aki with no host and no limitations the pandemic actually exposed the injustice in our society to as my can and has had in hospitality we have protected these men who are violent and bully studio to be unscripted on algis their. planet is a wondrous diverse ecosystem but human activity is the escalating climate change and posing an extra stench of threat in the lead up to us to al-jazeera run special coverage documentaries discussions and report exploring the consequences of all
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actions and inactions and showcasing ways in which some are seeking to turn the tide a season of programming exploring the climate crisis heading down on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. the whole robin you're watching the al-jazeera news our headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 60 minutes trads military says president idriss deby has died of injuries suffered while leading soldiers on the front line his son is to become interim leader rusher accuses the u.s. and nato of provocative activities in the black sea as a bills a troop.
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