The European Super League: a damning weekend from football|The European Super League: a damning week for football

The European Super League: A damning weekend for football

An FA Cup semi final, A KNVB Cup final and several league games dotted around a Sunday should have been a usual day of ups and downs, games and fun… but what we got instead is a gripping fear for the future of our game. A wave of rage and a strangling sensation of death to the current format of our beautiful game (which let’s face it, has already undergone too much change recently, right VAR?)

Waking up on Monday, football fans are all hungover. Yes, the pubs in the UK  have opened their doors again, but no one is hungover after a party. The dense headache stems from clubs, who fancy themselves as European’s biggest teams, announced news that they will create a European Super League. 

The 12 founding members are:

 

  • Manchester United
  • Arsenal
  • Tottenham
  • Liverpool
  • Manchester City
  • Chelsea
  • Barcelona
  • Real Madrid
  • Juventus
  • Inter Milan
  • Atletico Madrid
  • AC Milan

 

Three more founding members are needed, with an extra five more needed to set up the 20-team platform. The first season would be in 2023/24.

Their idea

Wrapping your head around this will be fun. The idea, on paper, sounds simple: create a tournament to rival the beloved UEFA Champions League. 

The 12 clubs listed would be the governors of the new tournament, which will have its own qualification scheme in place for others to join. 

The cash flow for members

The breakaway league is basically a deep pool of money and the founding members would get a staggering amount of cash, some £100 – £250 million for taking part. Compare this to the £50-80 million they get from the Champions League and you quickly get the allure. 

The financial temptation for clubs in debt, like Barcelona who are reportedly £1 billion in the red, is massive, but why do super-clubs like Manchester City need to join? One word: greed.

The format

This will more or less look like an American-style league with no relegation. We’re promised midweek football, with no impact on the domestic league. 

Start: August

Teams: 20 teams in total, two groups of 10 

Set up: Home and away matches

Mechanics: The top three teams qualify for the quarter finals (which are like playoffs) 

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was drafted as the first chairman of the European Super League who stated  “Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”

Juventus chairman Agnelli added “Our 12 Founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies. We have come together at this critical moment, enabling European competition to be transformed, putting the game we love on a sustainable footing for the long-term future, substantially increasing solidarity, giving fans and amateur players a regular flow of headline fixtures that will feed their passion for the game while providing them with engaging role models.” Agnelli has since resigned as chairman of the ECA. 

Strong and promising words from both, but they ring little hollow in the circumstances.

Leaving the ECA – the breakaway begins

Manchester United, Juventus and AC Milan and Inter have now left the ECA – the European Clubs Association (200 of European leading clubs) as they look to breakaway from the traditional formats and bodies. Ed Woodward has also resigned from his role in the UEFA Professional Football Strategy Council.

The funding for the Super League

The investment bank JP Morgan is the main financier behind the new European Super League – and here’s where it gets interesting. Ed Woodward, the Manchester United chairman, used to work with the investment banking company and the same firm was used when the Glazers took over the world’s biggest club. The plot is simple: when you have bankers running football clubs, football becomes a business and pockets are lined – and that becomes the main priority. 

The initial critics and punishments – a civil war

Critics had a field day on Sunday, lining up to voice their concerns. These ranged from the British Prime Minister, FIFA, UEFA, the Premier League, club legends like Sir Alex Ferguson. 

 

  • Players taking part can’t represent their country
  • Teams taking part can’t play in their domestic leagues
  • Champions League/ Europa League suspensions

 

Fans are of course livid. Confusion mounts as we now need to imagine our clubs not taking part in the Champions League or domestic leagues. You have to put things into perspective. Spurs, Man City, Arsenal have never even won the Champions League. Clubs like Benfica, Aston Villa, four time UCL winners Ajax, are not even considered and that’s where you can get a view of the source of the idea: MONEY.

Yes, Ajax have a rich history, but do they have the same financial muscle as the likes of Real Madrid? No, however they were big enough to knock them out in the Quarter Finals in 2019.

Yes, Villa did famously win the Champions League, but are they as rich and stable as Manchester City? No.

The beauty of the Champions League is that in its current set up, anyone can win it. Ajax reached the semi finals two seasons ago, Porto won it in 2004 which was a total shock and surprise. But now we’re robbed of such fairy tale stories, and if you ask Leicester City fans what fairy tales are like… well it’s heaven. 

As Monday panned out, some clubs already decided they won’t be joining a Super League. Borussia Dortmund have already released a statement with CEO Watzke saying “The clubs want to implement the planned reform of the UEFA Champions League. The plans to found a Super League have been rejected.”

The civil war in our game begins, and this won’t end well. 

A Champions League reform comes too late

One of the main concerns is that an innocent by standing victim becomes the Champions League. UEFA on Monday have agreed to a reform. A reform in this tournament would be key to perhaps swaying these breakaway teams from such drastic action however with the resignations and breakaways from the ECA, it would seem the European Super League is not a negotiating tool, it is on the cards regardless of any reforms.

As this is a breaking news story, reactions are still pouring in from across the shocked world of football. As the world awakes to a new reality, we want to know: what do you think of the European Super League? Leave a comment here or get in touch on twitter: @CasumoSports.

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