Swift Hesperange v UEFA - LoI implications?

[EalingGreen]

It's hard to see many cross-border leagues really working though.

Though I agree with all the general tenor of your post, I'm not so sure about one or two aspects (below):

Ireland is a very obvious one

"Obvious" to some people, but not so much to some others. I mean, there have been various all-Ireland cup competitions tried out for over half a century now and those have never caught on, with a league surely even harder to implement. While Kieran Lucid's proposal from 2 or 3 years ago died on its arse.
[The above is decidedly not a "Political-with-a-large-P" observation, btw]

BeNeLux is another

Is it? (Genuine question)

Is there any history eg of cross-border cup competitions?

I always think that for a suggestion like this to have a chance, you need a positive rationale i.e. "Here's why the new league will be good", rather than a negative one i.e. "The present arrangement isn't working".

A British league combining England, Scotland & Wales too.

Unless something VERY drastic happens, then not a hope (imo).

Think about it. The EPL is by some way the most successful league in Europe (the world, actually). It is owned/controlled by its 20 Owner/Members. To date it has had 48 different participants from England, plus two historic members from Wales.

Why on earth would any combination of 20 suddenly cede even a couple of places to Scottish clubs, plus guarantee membership to another couple of Welsh clubs? This would just be denying the Golden Ticket to four or more of the 48.

Even the "Big Six" would be opposed to the possibility of Celtic & Rangers muscling in on their present domoination, never mind the likes of Bournemouth or Brentford, who would risk being muscled out entirely.

Beyond those examples, however, as I say, I think you have it spot on about the rest (esp Scandi/Nordic/Celtic etc).

If nothing else, barring a couple of exceptions, NI and ROI clubs simply do not possess the stadia, facilities and infrastructure to even hope to participate in a transnational league alongside other European members.

[EalingGreen]

But ultimately a Superleague is going to keep cropping up until it happens I guess

Possibly, unless UEFA manages to "head it off at the pass" with its revamped Champions League (plus EL and ECL).

Think back to the formation of the English Premier League. The then "Big Five" - Man U, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool and Everton(!) - were seriously hacked off with the way League football in England was being run generally, and how the finances were being distributed specifically.

And in order to push through some, though not all, of the reforms they wanted, they threatened to breakaway entirely from the rest of the English game, taking a hand-picked selection of other clubs with them, thereby seizing complete autonomy over the running of their own affairs.

But in the end, rather than a revolution to overturn the existing system, we instead only saw a reform of it.

That is, there is still promotion and relegation to and from a pyramid consisting of 8 or 9 levels; the FA and EFL Cups still operate; European entries were basically unaffected; and the FA is still (nominally at least), the overall governing body, which inter alia preserved the availability of PL players to represent England and other NT's.

And taking that on a wider scale to an ESL, certainly RM, Barca and Juve are so desperate that they aren't going to give up easily. But as I said previously, just because their present set-up may not be working well for them (negative motivation), it doesn't mean that a brand new set-up must automatically succeed in its place.

For that it needs a positive rationale, and far too few other possible participants, esp in France, Germany and England, have been persuaded that it would even be better than they already have, never mind an all-round good thing generally.