I already knew that the big clubs were greedy, but even so; holy hell the big clubs are amazingly greedy.
Today, on the eve of UEFA announcing the expanded future format of the Champions League, twelve of Europe’s biggest clubs (the ones who, by the way, were fighting for said changes to the Champions League) have come out together and announced their plans to form a new European Super League.
The twelve are Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.
Their plan is as follows: they will create a closed competition just for themselves and a selected couple of others each year. The founders (above) can never be relegated and will make all decisions regarding their league, including which teams can join in each year. All earnings will be controlled by them, and them alone.
Why are they doing this, you ask? The answer is simple. Greed. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. They’ve been at it for years, demanding larger and larger chunks of the revenue from, and more and more power over, the Champions League. And they’ve been getting it bit by bit. Piece by piece. This day of reckoning has been coming for years.
But to come out with these Super League plans now is a disgrace. An absolute disgrace. I’ve never quoted him before and likely never will again, but former Manchester United defender Gary Neville hit the nail on the damned head with what he said about it: "We're in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis. Football clubs in the National League are going bust, furloughing players and these lot are having Zoom calls about breaking away.”
He went on to say: "Honestly, we have to wrestle back the power in this country from the clubs at the top of this league and that includes my club… dock them all points tomorrow. Put them at the bottom of the league and take the money off them. Seriously, you have to stamp on this."
Gary, you are ONE HUNDRED PERCENT correct.
So, how can this be done? Well, first are the official channels. I highly doubt there will be any points deductions (if for no other reason than the legal mess that it would create), but there are plenty of other options open to the game’s governing bodies.
UEFA, along with the football associations of England, Spain and Italy, have already pledged to ban from all other European competitions any players that take part in the Super League. FIFA have said they will do the same for the World Cup.
I am unsure, though, as to whether the authorities will stick to their guns. They have spent years and years bowing to these clubs and will likely do so again if the right palms are greased.
So no, they cannot be relied upon to sort this nonsense out. Brute force won’t put an end to the Super League so long as there is money to be had in one.
But there is another way: people must vote with their feet.
You see, nobody (and I mean NOBODY) apart from the owners of these twelve clubs actually wants this. We haven’t been asked about it, and we certainly didn’t suggest it. Football’s problems are with the downwards redistribution of money, not the upwards.
COVID-19 has caused games to be played in empty stadiums, and millions in matchday revenue to be lost with every game. That must continue. Sponsorship and broadcast money for the Super League, too, will evaporate is it does. No company will buy the rights to a competition that they cannot sell, nor will they advertise in a place that nobody sees. In short, people voting with their feet will send a message in the only language these clubs seem to understand; money. Shun the European Super League, and the clubs involved will come crawling back within a year.
They say that football is nothing without fans. It’s time that Europe’s big clubs learnt that.
