European Super League – For The Love Of Football or Money?

Rumors are surfacing once again around a new proposed European competition, only this time it’s more serious than ever. UEFA were informed about the current plans, while the clubs involved all issued a joint statement formally announcing the creation of the new format late on Sunday night. This idea could reshape the football world as we know it. Will it be a good one or bad though? Let’s dive in the details together and find out. This is the European Super League – For The Love Of Football or Money?

New Format – What To Know

This revolutionary idea will see Europe’s biggest earners enlist in a breakaway league, which will not fly under the UEFA or FIFA flag, but will be of its own. The founder members would like their competition to begin as early as August, with games taking midweek. However, for clarity, these clubs would leave the Champions League, but they still wish to compete in their national leagues, a situation which is now likely to lead to legal action. It is not yet clear what will happen in this situation. If these clubs do get banned, we will most probably see Leicester winning the Premier League and PSG winning the Champions League. There’s nothing stated, official or confirmed yet about next Champions League and Europa League matches “temporarily suspended”. No press release, nothing decided yet. UEFA meeting in the next hours will clarify this point though.

Super League Board

  • Chairman: Florentino Perez (Real Madrid)
  • Vice-chairman: Andrea Agnelli (Juventus)
  • Vice-chairman: Joel Glazer (Man United)

Also, Andrea Agnelli is set to resign as president of ECA.

Stages Of The Competition

  • 20 participating clubs with 15 Founding Clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further 5 teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.
  • Midweek fixtures with all participating clubs continuing to compete in their respective national leagues, preserving the traditional domestic match calendar which remains at the heart of the club game.
  • An August start with clubs participating in two groups of ten, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals.
  • Teams finishing fourth and fifth will then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions. A two-leg knockout format will be used to reach the final at the end of May, which will be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.

Participating Teams So Far

As it stands, the teams that have reportedly signed up are Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool FC.

In addition, the European Super League statement reads: “In exchange for their commitment, Founding Clubs will receive an amount of €3.5 billion solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic.”

Florentino Perez, President of Real Madrid and the first Chairman of the Super League said: “We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. 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.”

As a football fan myself, I have read the press releases of those football clubs involved and could not be more disappointed honestly. All they talk about is money, economic value, economic performance and growth. Not a word about football. This sport should be all about passion and pride, this is the beauty of it. Unfortunately, for years now, it has been hostage for greed and politics. This is a sad day for football fans all over the world!

Is It Really A ‘Super’ League?

European Super League – For The Love Of Football or Money? If you think about it, and take a look at some of the ‘founders’ teams taking part in this, it’s worth asking is it really that super? With all due respect, but football is also about history and heritage not only about money and star players.

For example, Benfica, Celtic, Feyenoord, Ajax, Forest, Villa, Hamburg, Steaua Bucharest, Porto, PSV, Red Star Belgrade, Marseille & Dortmund have won 19 European Cups. Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Man City and Spurs have won 0. Why are they not allowed to take part? Just because their ‘names’ and ‘brands’ are too small? Is it really fair? It’s a shame that for now, players have not a say in this. It would be interesting to see who will back the idea and who will oppose it.

Opposing Teams

For now, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and PSG are the top teams that opposed the Super League and will stick with the current Champions League. Rumors had it that Dortmund and Bayern will take part of the Super League eventually. However, BVB CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke denied it.

UEFA’s Reaction

“UEFA’s statement reads: “UEFA, the English Football Association and the Premier League, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and La Liga, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and Lega Serie A have learned that a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce their creation of a closed, so-called Super League.

Here is the full statement:

The Premier League Reaction

The Premier League, and the organisation’s CEO Richard Masters, have condemned the concept. Under Premier League rules, which all clubs sign up to, a club needs “prior written approval” from the Premier League Board to enter another competition not including the Champions League, Europa League, EFL Cup, FA Cup, Community Shield, or competitions sanctioned by the county association of which it is a member.

Worldwide Reaction

Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister himself tweeted that the breakaway League would be “very damaging for football”.

The EU Parliament Sports Group has also criticised the proposed League, saying that the proposals have “no other purpose than making profit”.

In addition, Jamie Carragher and Garry Neville had their say while blasting their former clubs for taking part of the Super League:

UEFA Champions League New Format

The new proposal would see 36-teams from 2024, meaning that it will go from 125 to 225 matches. Every club will be guaranteed 10 matches, which means more income. How will that hold up with the new proposed Super League?

The Other Side Of The Fence

With all the reactions happening around the idea, some might wonder, wasn’t it always about money? Did we not blame the UEFA for planning and fixing matches? Even FIFA, with the scandal around Qatar World Cup. This is why UEFA changed the UCL format so many times, and even did so again today.

Now we can oppose and rant about this as much as we want, but truth is it’s always been about money and control. If the Super League becomes a reality, then UEFA will have no control over the clubs. That’s why they are opposing it.

The Good Side Of The Super League

European Super League – For The Love Of Football or Money? What if this Super League idea was not so bad? I mean think about it. The richest football clubs in the world are getting richer by the day. In addition, the gap between small and big clubs has never been as extreme as it is now.

The Super League enables a breakaway where most of the money in football becomes more concentrated than it is now. Will this be an opportunity for the “smaller” clubs to become bigger? Take for example the Champions League, teams that never dreamt of winning it will now have a chance. Will that be an opportunity for them to get more exposure and money? Hence, probably enhancing their own league competitions?

The truth is, if you think about it, the Super League was always inevitable. Its always been about money and control. Why would FIFA oppose the idea to an extent where they are threatening players that take part in the Super League from playing in the World Cup. Imagine a WC without most of the star players, would you watch it?

Final Say

European Super League – For The Love Of Football or Money? Only time will tell, as we will see how this will develop further. However, for now, it is not yet ‘clear’ whether this will be for the good of the game or not. So many people are opposing the idea, saying that football is dead. Isn’t that the case for a while now? It’s not like UEFA or FIFA have always been the ‘Saints’ that are protecting the beautiful game of football.

The way I see it, this is a two-edged sword. The idea was eventually going to happen, so why not now? Big clubs are the ones generating the huge income for UEFA, that’s a fact. why wouldn’t they be allowed to benefit more? It might be greed sure, but isn’t it their right also?

On the other hand, if this went wrong it could definitely kill the beautiful game forever. It was clear that ever since the game was created, greedy billionaires are trying to turn it into franchises and business investments to fill their pockets with more money. Could this be the final stop for now?

Finally, we, as fans, have to ask ourselves, do we want this Super League to happen or will it ruin football even more? Could UEFA or FIFA really ban players for participating? Is it worth watching the domestic leagues without our favorite teams or national competitions without all the world class stars? Is it worth for things to change? You decide!

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