Football is Our Game, Not Yours
The Super League is dead (for now). That doesn’t mean we return to everyday life in the world of football.
In a rollercoaster week for the beautiful game, 12 of it’s biggest clubs (including Tottenham) banded together to form a closed league, intent on manufacturing profit under the guise of “essential financial planning for the future of the game.”
Real Madrid and Super League President Florentino Perez - Credit: Getty
The league, underwritten by JP Morgan, would have seen its founding member clubs share a huge pot of several billion pounds. Funds, it was explained, that were vital to ensure the survival and continued success of some of the game’s most storied brands.
Brands.
That is what these proud crests have been turned into by cash-mongering owners. Foreign oligarchs, offshore consortiums and local tyrants alike, all joined at the hip by the soft clinking of gold and the cold tiles of banks and balance sheets.
Over the last week, 12 of Europe’s biggest, proudest, most far-reaching clubs peeled back the curtain on the magic of football. They played the slot machines. They lost. And now they’ve come home like nothing happened. That can’t be allowed.
Chelsea and City were allegedly “scared of being left behind” - Credit: Getty
First, lets start with two of England’s finest, Chelsea and Manchester City. By all reports, the two least willing of England’s “big six” to get involved. The two most reticent of the founders. Two of the more financially stable of Europe’s elite, funded by Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour respectively.
Given their status, and their safe coffers, what benefit did they see in joining?
Inside sources will feed the angle that the clubs were “scared of being left behind” and this was purely a protective measure. That should not change how those clubs are analysed. They joined. They signed off on the greed.
The Super League was a power play from Europe’s elite to strongarm UEFA into altering the Champions League format for their own gain. A format that has already been altered starting in 2024-25.
The UCL will be expanded under a new format from 2024-25 - Credit: Getty
From 2024-25, there will be 36 teams in the Champions League, up from the current 32. However, the group stage is gone, replaced with a league table, with each team playing 10 opponents (5 home and 5 away). The top 8 teams automatically advance to the round of 16, while teams 9-24 enter a playoff scheme resulting in a two-legged cup tie.
The winner of the playoff tie will enter the Round of 16, the loser goes through to the Europa League. Teams 25-36 are booted from European competition for the season entirely.
The changes, according to UEFA, are designed to increase importance in every game and eliminate dead rubbers. It will also increase the chance for Europe’s elite to compete more regularly, as well as opening extra avenues for qualification to the Champions League early round.
The Super League would have seen the founding clubs locked into this closed competition year on year. No threat of non-qualification. Endless marquee matchups, devaluing the level of the games. El Clasico doesn’t mean anything if it’s on 3 times a month.
El Clasico is one of the biggest fixtures in world football - Credit: Getty
More importantly, though, is the impact of the rest of European (and world) football. As previously mentioned, JP Morgan guaranteed 4 billion pounds to the venture (they have since apologised for backing it). Can you imagine the salaries Super League clubs would be able to offer? I’ll give you a hint; astronomical.
FIFA threatened players at Super League clubs with bans from international competition. What was essentially created was a situation where you were asking players whether they valued life-changing money, or the chance to play at a World Cup.
Look at the Jack Grealishes of the world, the James Maddisons, the Dominic Calvert-Lewins. Sure, they might value playing for England at a World Cup over exorbitant wages and financial security, but that isn’t a question I would be willing to ask many players.
International bans for Super League players? - Credit: Getty
I realise I have taken a roundabout route to get to my original point but I promise it needed the setup.
The Super League would’ve torn the fabric of football to shreds. 12 greedy clubs with falsified ideas of deserved grandeur and inherited luxury.
12 clubs who took it upon themselves to determine that “football needed saving.”
12 clubs who decided to gatekeep football and turn it from the working class game to the rich man’s dalliance.
12 clubs who can be forgiven, eventually, but cannot be forgotten.
12 clubs who need to be reminded about their place in the hierarchy of football.
Football does not belong to the 1%. It does not belong to private jets, tax havens or royal families. It belongs to the people who work their lives to pay for their obsession.
The local factory worker dropping his last paycheck into a season ticket to his local side.
The partisan loudmouth bellowing in Row Z while scoffing an overpriced pie.
The tired teacher 10 timezones away waking up at 4am religiously to watch her team.
Football is for the fans - Credit: Getty
The people at the top have forgotten that. Now it’s up to those in charge to show some backbone (for once).
UEFA and FIFA aren’t exactly known for their exemplary handling of controversial or difficult situations. Corruption is a borderline management plan, and we won’t even touch their dealing with racism, discrimination and abuse. It says a lot that these clubs saw these organisations as their obstacles in their plan, and didn’t blink once before pulling the trigger.
Haughty threats and chest beating will only go so far. The threats of league expulsion and international bans were enough to get most clubs to come crawling back, but those are now unrealistic punishments. But something has to be done.
Juventus are one of several Super League clubs in large debt - Credit: Getty
The timing of the Super League announcement wasn’t accidental. Several founding clubs are in historic debts, including Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus. And while the talks for the breakaway league may have been percolating for years, a global pandemic was the exact catalyst the gamblers needed to roll their dice.
Now, they must be hit where it will hurt the most.
It’s no secret that these clubs control a lot of the money in world football. But simple monetary fines won’t do anything. Tangible action needs to be taken. Action that affects the product they can offer.
If Financial Fair Play wasn’t such a joke anyway, I’d suggest some form of tightening of that purse string even further to the 12 founder clubs. Maybe in the form of a restricted wage bill that might force them to offload some talent to fit under the umbrella.
Chelsea copped a transfer ban over the signing of Bertrand Traore - Credit: Getty
I think the biggest hit would be a transfer ban. Chelsea and Barcelona have both been slapped with bans in the past for infractions surrounding the signing of underage youth products. Those bans were for several transfer windows. How does threatening the governing body of European football with secession compare to the dodgy signing of a teenager from Burkina Faso? (Read how Chelsea signed Bertrand Traore for that context)
How will the domestic leagues punish the clubs?
Expecting disciplinary action from the Italian and Spanish leagues, two of the more top heavy leagues in the world, is unlikely, but the Premier League could take a serious stand here.
The easiest play would be a points deduction for next season. I don’t know if the PL has the stomach to try it but that’s one major deterrent. The threat of a closed stadium isn’t really there in a pandemic environment, and I don’t know if they can enforce cup bans, although the FA (another spineless organisation) may step in.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin had strong comments throughout the week - Credit: Getty
Unfortunately, the most likely course of action is none at all. Not only are UEFA and FIFA generally inept, but the sad truth is they won’t want to put any of the big clubs offside, despite the strong statements of UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin throughout the week.
When money runs the game, those at the top dictate the movements. The Super League was an ambitious power trip that ultimately got stymied, but don’t be surprised if it does manifest some actual change, change that further imbalances the football world, such is reality.
In the end, the rich always win.
