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Chelsea, Manchester United, and Tottenham have stunningly told their fans and the wider sports world that they have withdrawn from the Super League in the last two days, some of whom withdrew after several hours after the announcement.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."
I hope this will send a message to those contemplating similar moves in sports and other fields that this approach is short sighted and self destructive.
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