The Super League may have changed football forever

The Super League may have changed football forever

A whirlwind 48 hours in the world of football might have been the catalyst for change the beautiful game has needed for a while. 

Sunday night saw the birth of the European Super League, where 12 founding members opted to create a mini league, that was to run alongside the domestic leagues but critically abandon the Champions League.

The main drivers: business and money. 12 super rich clubs, breaking away as an elite to create an American style format of a league without relegation. Investment bankers JP Morgan were the main funders of the league, committing up to £350 million per club.

One blocker: the fans. Twitter was awash with protests over the last couple of days and they came from all walks of life. Influential players like Patrick Bamford and James Milner spoke out, pundits Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville spoke passionately against it, Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola united to go against their own club owners, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson lashed out, all Liverpool FC players protested. Many people connected to the game were totally against the idea but most importantly perhaps, fans took to the stadiums to protest. Banners were stung outside the stadiums, Chelsea fans marched outside Stamford Bridge and a genuine movement was born.

Unfair closed-circuit competition

The idea of an unfair elite takes away everything we believe sport should be about. Fair competition and even playing surface are two vital elements and this paves way for an important mentality: that every single athlete or team can make it to the top. The whole point of football is that yes, Porto can win the Champions League, knocking out Manchester United en route. Leicester can beat the odds to win the Premier League. West Ham United can qualify for the Champions League. That is sport. That is football.

Florentino Perez, president of the European Super League, spoke about engaging the younger audiences and that his new system would solve the problem of reducing attention spans, save football from itself and help the football pyramid. Football only needs saving from filthy-rich owners who don’t have the club’s interest at heart.

Gary Neville spoke about the fact that rich owners are the problem. They come into a league, purchase a club and use that as a mule to generate huge amounts of cash which is not re-invested into the fans and the club. You only need to walk around Old Trafford, the self-titled Theatre of Dreams to realise that’s not true. That particular stadium is literally rotting. The steel bars are rusting, paint is flaking off and it’s a dead-zone. Yet many owners continue to, hike up ticket and merchandise prices and ignore the main part of a football club: the fans.

Germany’s fan-led approach

We probably won’t ever eradicate the current ownership models but we can take inspiration from the Bundesliga. Firstly, super club Bayern Munich bravely refused to be a part of the Super League, which in itself is a huge statement, particularly as they are the current holders of the Champions League. 

The German system has been in place since 1998. It is called the 50+1 rule. Here, the fans are the main stakeholders.This prevents private commercial interest from gaining complete control as what has happened with some Premier League clubs. The fans also elect the club presidents and they therefore make the key decisions that concern the thing they love the most: their football club. 

This system works and the German fans have long been the envy of most football clubs. Their passion literally drives their club, both on the pitch and in the board rooms. That’s what football is: a sport for the fans. You literally become the 12th man and not just in the way of simply being a voice on the terrace. 

Champions League reform

So, the European Super League collapses after the six Premier League teams all pulled out, but what’s next? Well, over to you UEFA. We know there are cracks, we know that a total reform is needed by FIFA and UEFA and this can be the watershed moment football itself needs. Yes, it was a mad 48 hours but can this be just the medicine the game needed? 

FIFA and UEFA have not covered themselves in glory over the last decade, especially with off-field issues, so change is needed. Change is not about breaking away from the best club competition there is, the Champions League, but about making football fun and accessible to all. Players play too many matches, tickets are extremely expensive and TV rights are too high.

Give football back to the fans

Give football back to the people who created it: not the bankers, not the elite, not the rich. The average person on the street who dreams of a last minute winner in front of the home stand. Football clubs do need to engage with their audiences more, but most feel they have been priced out. When you need to invest over £100 to see your team play, the problem becomes visible immediately.

Football has spiralled out of control financially. Player wages are massive especially when placed into the context of normal society. This puts a huge strain on the club’s finances, and ultimately it is the fan that has to suffer for this by having to pay thousands per year to see his/her team play live. A salary cap can solve this problem, and therefore ticket prices can then also be reduced. 

There was a time this season when Sky Sports were charging £15 to watch a football match. £15 to watch Burnley 0-0 West Brom. It seems steep and that’s why balancing out TV rights is important. Your average 14 year old Burnley fan might not want to invest that much money to watch his team play on a Wednesday night and therein lies the problem: that fan is now disconnected, not able to watch his team play live on TV. If Perez wanted to target the 14-24 year olds, perhaps start with the more fundamental issues. Whether Real Madrid play Alaves or Barcelona, all a fan wants to do is watch his/her team play… and not have to fork out huge sums of money for it too. 

To the football fans who voiced their concerns: well done. It’s time to take some of the power back, it’s time to be the centre point of the game and it’s time to have your voices heard. Afterall, football is nothing without the fans. 

 

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