Hostile Takeover; The European Super League
Football is dead and greed has killed it.
Yesterday, late at night so as to avoid as much immediate fallout in the media as possible, 12 European football clubs declared they would be forming a breakaway European Super League.
The proposals say that the league would play midweek as an alternative to the Champions League, with the teams still competing in their domestic leagues.
The league would have no relegation or promotion and would instead be an MLS style closed shop.
FIFA, UEFA and the FA, along with every other national federation, has made it extremely clear that clubs involved in a breakaway league would be banned from participating in their national leagues and in the traditional European competitions.
In short, this is therefore an attempt to form a breakaway European Super League rather than a new Champions League or additional competition. It has been rumoured for years, and no doubt shady conversations have been conducted all throughout lockdown, but now it seems a reality.
Fundamental to Football is the idea of equal competition. Theoretically, a club can start at the very bottom and climb their way to the very top. The current domestic and European systems means there is a direct path from the very depths of European league football to the Champions League final and the biggest prize in club football.
The European Super League eradicates that.
Throughout history, teams have had their shining moment. Historical clubs have been dominant, and then disappeared. Once Nottingham Forrest and Aston Villa were European Champions, once Preston were the best football team in England and once Burnley won the English first division.
The European Super League eradicates that.
Celtic once won the European cup with a team of players born almost entirely within 10 miles from Celtic Park. Alex Ferguson re-stablished Manchester United as a footballing force in England after years in the wilderness, which included relegation just 6 years after the club won the European Cup. Arsenal, who are considered one of the 12 biggest teams in Europe deserving of a spot in this elite club, have suffered continual losses in recent history at the hands of teams deemed not fit for them to play against.
The European Super League eradicates that.
This is a hostile takeover financed by an American bank. It is a cloak-and-dagger attempt by rich (often American) owners to hoodwink fans and steal football away. It is an effort to turn European football, which they see no more than a financial opportunity, into a US-sport style, money making franchise system.
And all during the pandemic, when fans can’t go to the stadiums and can’t visibly dissent at games.
It is dystopian, soulless, and damning.
Eventually, a team will no doubt be artificially moved to Dublin to become the Dublin team in the Super League because it will be a huge financial opportunity. Perhaps a billionaire will buy Shamrock Rovers and be given a license to join the Super League.
Perhaps the European Super League will become the World League, and LA Galaxy can join or Manchester United can relocate to Beijing.
Left in the aftermath, amongst the scolding ashes of European football created by the ‘Great Destroyer’ that the European Super League is, will be people: actual people.
The fans and communities that have supported and created these Football clubs will be left behind, tossed aside for the sake of increasing an arbitrary international viewership number on Amazon (other greedy streaming platforms will no doubt be available).
The people behind the super league fail to understand that the best part of football is what they think is the worst: the risk.
At the start of every season there’s a chance Manchester United won’t qualify for the Champions League, but that means when if they get it it’s a tangible achievement of some kind and fans can celebrate it.
…but there’s also a chance they’ll win the whole thing.
… and there’s also a chance they’ll be relegated.
That hope and fear is what makes football exciting and which makes every game mean something. But football-as-business does not care for risk. It cares for stability, for a steady income of money.
It would much prefer United and Liverpool, and whoever else, to be mid-table in this Super League, drawing 0–0 every week but making more money, having more viewers in different parts of the world and selling more shirts made by Children in sweat shops.
Every hope and dream I’ve ever had about football, every tear I’ve cried for my club and every time I’ve shouted in pure adoration of the beautiful game…
The European Super League eradicates that.
