The Short Life and Death of European Soccer's Super League

April 20, 2021

On Sunday, April 18th, the soccer world was shocked, then angered that twelve of European soccer's biggest brands, which include the Premier League's "Big Six," (Manchester United and Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham) along with teams from Spain (Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Athletic Madrid) and Italy (AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Juventus), signed an initial agreement to join a Super League in Europe.  This would have been a mid-week competition solely for those teams, plus an additional 'lucky' five teams that would round out the 20-team competition. 

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The richest and most popular clubs in Europe got together and recently publicly released what was being discussed in soccer circles around the world, the creation of an exclusive, closed league for these specific clubs. It would allow them to be the prime beneficiaries of billions in new revenue, from corporate sponsorship and media rights.  One of the rumored sponsors was JP Morgan, while the media rights company was not known as of this blog post. When the soccer world heard of this, it was a profoundly surprising move by some of the richest soccer clubs in Europe.  The new, proposed tournament would be played outside of the current most popular club tournament in the world, the UEFA Champions League, and the powerful clubs would not be in danger of being demoted from the proposed league, which protects their financial interests.  

The fans of the top leagues, many of whom are supporters of the aforementioned clubs in Europe, were not happy with this proposal.  The blowback was so intense that many of the clubs that signed onto the agreement have now dropped out.  Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, and Tottenham have stunningly told their fans and the wider sports world that they have withdrawn from the Super League in the last two days, some of whom withdrew after several hours after the announcement.  If six teams from the richest soccer league in the world decide to bow out, it doesn't matter what the other mega-clubs such as Real Madrid and FC Barcelona want to do.  The English league teams were key since they have the most money (as a group) and have more leverage than individual club powers from Spain and Italy.   

What is surprising is that global brands like Bayern Munich, Paris St. Germain (France), and Ajax (Netherlands) wanted no part of this Super League at all. Now, that could change in the future, but there must have been intense trepidation from those teams' upper management that they chose not to add their clubs to the public proclamation of the league.  In the Bundesliga, which is the German league, most of their teams have a 50+1 rule, in that no commercial or wealthy individual can own no more than 49% stake in any team, ensuring that club supporters control 51% of the voting rights stake.  That might be the primary reason no German team officially signed on to the Super League as a charter member. Those supporters had influence and were able to do what English soccer fans were not able to do, put pressure on their clubs before the proposed league announcement.

The goal of the Super League is similar to how the current top-flight league in English football, the widely popular Premier League, was formed in 1992. Which is, how to protect the large revenue stream for a small, select group of clubs instead of sharing it with all professional clubs including the lower levels of competition in the country. However, promotion and relegation were protected so that clubs in lower divisions had a chance to make it to the top flight and earn their share of the mammoth media rights revenue streams. The process got started when Greg Dyke, an influential media executive within British television, met with the largest clubs at the time (Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Everton) in the old English Football League and suggested that their sport would be more lucrative if the bigger clubs were featured more regularly on television.  The Premier League played their first games in August of 1992 and were televised on Britain's ITV network.  The rest is history.  The Premier League today now draws enormous interest globally, and the result is that its revenue for media rights, licensing, and merchandise far outpaces other soccer leagues around the world.

I think that was the same goal for the Super League, but with a caveat.  Most of the name-brand soccer clubs would never be sent down to a lower league, and so they would be guaranteed to receive a share of revenue regardless of how they performed on the field.  Any of the big clubs can technically be demoted from their respective leagues, but most do not because they make so much money through aggregate revenue streams that they rarely fall below 14th in the league standings.  I think that is what angered fans the most, in that these clubs were simply chasing large amounts of money without being in danger of losing it to poor performance.  The smaller clubs in Europe's top leagues already lag behind clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool and to see these popular clubs promised even more money is too much to bear.  It will make those teams even more irrelevant. 

I think it is good that FIFA, the Football Associations (FA) where those teams play, and governing bodies of those top leagues are discussing punitive actions for those clubs for trying this.  FIFA and UEFA threatened players of those teams that they would be barred from playing in the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Champions League if their teams broke away from those leagues.  It was a powerful threat that sent its intended message. Additionally, the leagues themselves should exclude representatives from the former Super League membership on influential committees.  Had the clubs actually broken away, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester City would have been banished from the Semi-Finals of this year's Champions League tournament.

While those actions are a good first step, ultimately, they are reactionary.  If the owners of those respective clubs made an attempt at a shameless money grab once before, they will try again.   No one walks away from that much money.  Those who want to protect soccer/football must ensure that these rich clubs do not harm the game in order to enrich themselves.  FIFA and UEFA should make it a permanent rule that any player who signs with clubs who once again try to form a Super League will be banned from international competitions with their respective countries.  The soccer leagues must also remove those clubs from any type of competition within and with those leagues.  In essence, you must starve them of competition outside of themselves.  After a while, fans and players will get bored of playing the same people over and over again.  Football can still be saved, and money can be made.  However, these breakaways for cash must be put down for good, and if done properly, can ultimately protect the "beautiful game."

 

U.S. Soccer Failure: Under-23 men's team fails to qualify for Olympics...Again.

 

April 6, 2021

After a defeat to Honduras (2-1) in Mexico for 2020 Olympic qualifying this past March, the Under-23 U.S.  men's soccer team failed for the third time in as many attempts over 12 years to gain qualification for the games.  Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on U.S. Soccer.  The problem may not be the players anymore.  Failure rests at the feet of how the U.S. Soccer runs its men's program.  To do nothing now is to ignore the rot at the top of American soccer's hierarchy, beginning and ending at the door of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF).

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For the last three Olympic qualifying campaigns, the United States Under-23 team failed to qualify for the  Olympic Games, including the upcoming games in Japan this year.  It is the same old story.  The primary problem, in my opinion, is that the USSF does not have any idea how to seek out talent and maximize their skills to win international tournaments, on any level, for that matter (youth teams or the senior men's team). 

The federation is essentially a non-profit that is designed to promote the sport of soccer through its national teams, specifically the men's and women's senior teams. The women's national team is the best in the world and consistently wins against overmatched and underfunded opponents. This is due to the fact that U.S. women have more rights and resources than women in other countries, so they are able to pursue their dreams.  

The soccer federation's imprint on the men's program, on the other hand, lags behind Mexico, Latin America, and Europe in terms of developing talent and utilizing them for the senior national team.  The Under-23 teams are part of this evolution. That process is damaged and stunted when the men's Under-23 teams are not able to test themselves against their peers from around the world on a regular basis in international tournaments.   

If the U.S Under-23s cannot win decisively against teams in their regions with smaller budgets and fewer resources (for example, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic), how can one expect them to beat exceptional teams from Mexico, Italy, Germany, Holland, and Brazil at the World Cup? The program for that age group seems to be regressing, rather than progressing.

How does this failed method change?  The problem lies with the federation.  In other organizations, if there is failure to achieve stated goals or generate profit, the chief executive is held to account, and reform happens within the department itself, including how they operate and termination may ensue.  However, the USSF has not made any effort to alter the way it functions. It answers to no outside organization, but simply reports its expenditures to its own Board, most of whom have no soccer experience. The organization functions similarly to the Vatican, in that critics and reformers are powerless to make the change they want to see from the outside.  This explains the frustration of men's soccer fans who desperately want visionary leaders who can help the men's program improve its history and find success in the future.  

Drastic measures or necessary reforms are extremely hard for an organization that is under no pressure to change by sponsors to do so, and also doesn't fear any repercussions for its on-field failures. I believe these steps can bring about more accountability and better results:

• If a coach has been chosen to whatever men's best team (First Team, Under 23s), his or her sole job should be to qualify for a specific tournament (World Cup, Olympics, Junior World Cups), and if the team does not qualify, then the day after, the coach must resign; no point in keeping an unsuccessful coach around if he or she didn't do what they were hired to do. If they qualify, they should get a bonus (if they don't already stipulate in their contracts) and must leave their position before qualification for another international tournament begins.  This will allow for new coaches to get a head start in selecting talent, and forming their teams, and playing cohesively together ahead of important competitions.  Exceptions with their contracts can be made when they are successful, as in the example of Joachim Low of Germany, who has coached the senior team for 15 years and has World Cup and European titles to his tenure.
• Hire people who have a track record of winning and building talent in the soccer world, even if those people come from outside the American soccer community. The sport in the United States is run like a provincial village in Europe, in that everyone knows each other, and having the right connections gives you jobs over better-qualified outsiders. Merit must count. This is paramount in how the USSF should function for better competitiveness.
• The influence of MLS (Major League Soccer) over coach and player selection for the national teams needs to be reduced.  The reason for this is that the league is motivated to have a large number of their league's academy players and stars playing on the national teams and if successful, infer that is due to the MLS talent pool  While I can understand the league's motivations, it supersedes picking players who are the best at their positions, regardless of where they play, especially if they are in the best leagues in Europe. The national team players don't necessarily need to come from MLS, and the league's influence on this process must be removed.
• Outside of the Board, there needs to be a group of people that can provide their own assessments of the men's teams within the USSF and determine what steps must be needed to reform the organization's methods to choosing coaches and how they in turn select players.  This should include fans of the national teams and of MLS.  They can meet with the Board and the USSF's leadership on a quarterly basis to provide an outside opinion and inform the organization of how its decisions affect the soccer community as a whole (which can provide insights into interest for tickets, merchandise, and sponsorships).

These ideas may not be the best, but it starts a needed conversation. Someone has to start presenting suggestions to improve the performance of the Mens' teams with the USSF.  If the U.S. men do not qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2022 in Qatar, then the federation's operations will have to be exposed.  Change ideally must come from those who work inside, and I believe the newly elected officers and the staff they hire must provide a better blueprint to create a new, proactive, and most importantly, a successful culture within the USSF. Otherwise, not making drastic choices in how it achieves operational goals, but expecting better results on the field in the future is madness.