*WRITTEN IN APRIL 2021
In the early hours of the 21st of April, the newly proposed European Super League was suspended following the withdrawal of all 6 English clubs involved in the project. It had been a hectic couple of days in the football world as fans from clubs all around the globe negatively and angrily responded to the news that broke on the 18th of April that an agreement had been reached to form a European Super League. This included public protests outside stadiums of the clubs involved, and opinions of anger and disappointment from fans towards the Super League circulating online. The Arsenal Supporters’ trust released a statement saying, “This represents the death of everything that football should be about.” Many other supporter groups also made their voices heard in a similar tone. The men at the forefront of this proposal felt the wrath of this, leading to the eventual suspension of the project. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, Manchester United owner Joel Glazer and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, the leaders of this proposal, along with all the club’s owners and chairmen were on the receiving end.
But why was the backlash from fans so severe? Why was the idea of having a league of exclusively ‘elite’ teams so unappealing to fans? This may be hard for people outside the football world to understand so let us break it down.
The Super League was suggested by the top clubs in Europe as a replacement for the long-standing UEFA Champions League, with games playing mid-week while the teams would still participate in their respective domestic leagues on the weekend. It would have 15 founding clubs that would qualify for the competition every season regardless of league position, as well as 5 other positions that would be given to teams based on merit (league position), though only 12 had originally agreed. It would eliminate the need for teams to qualify for Europe’s elite competition every year, negating the need for teams to do well in the league for if they do not challenge for the title. The main selling point of this to the clubs was the extortionate amount of money offered to each club. 3.5 billion euros was to go to each of the teams participating, supplied by American bank JP Morgan. The winner of the Super League was also rumoured to win 400 million euros, more than triple the current Champions League’s prize money, 120 million euros.
The 12 clubs that initially agreed to be founding members of this new league were Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. According to Deloitte’s 2021 Football Money League rankings (which is measured by revenue), all these clubs are in the top 15 richest clubs in Europe, except for AC Milan who make the top 30. The message is clear: The rich want to get richer, regardless of the consequences for all the other clubs in Europe.
In protest, supporters’ groups of the Premier League ‘Big Six’ (The six English clubs that agreed to the Super League) released statements that condemned the proposal, accusing them of greed and going against long-standing values of their clubs just to earn a larger pay cheque. Several other football clubs such as Bayern Munich, Porto and Borussia Dortmund also released statements that denounced the Super League as something that would ruin football, following invitations for them to participate. FIFA, UEFA and the Premier League also threatened to sanction the clubs involved, imposing- fines, bans on players from their national teams and even removal from their domestic leagues.
To many other football fans that saw this unfold, it was a blatant and selfish money grab that further widened the gap between these teams and the weaker, less wealthy teams below them in the domestic leagues.
Football was founded as a working man’s sport in the 19th century, with clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool being formed by individuals from working class backgrounds. Specifically, United were formed by workers from Lancashire and Yorkshire railway depot, and many of Liverpool’s founding players were port workers. These are the 2 most successful football clubs in England, with 66 and 65 honours respectively. Both clubs built up to where they are today by earning their places at the top of English football, which included coming back after relegation to the second division in the mid-20th century. They were also the first two English teams to win the European Cup.
The rich histories of these clubs are just the tip of the iceberg, as the other 10 supposed ‘founding’ Super League clubs also have similar histories of hardship which have earned them their status as Europe’s elite. But this in no way should hold them unaccountable for failures to finish in the qualification places for the Champions league in their domestic leagues. This new structure would stop the potential growth of any up-and-coming teams, if this structure existed in the late 20th century, clubs such as Chelsea or Manchester City would not have had the opportunity to grow and become some of the main forces of European football. Chelsea and City won 3 league titles between them in the 20th century but have won 9 between them since 2000. Although this is mostly due to significant ownership changes, both teams worked their way up from being sub-par to football giants in the last couple of decades. Premier League teams Leicester and West Ham are challenging for Champions League places this season as 2 non-traditional big clubs, and the current structure would reward them if they finished in the top 4 with a place among Europe’s elite, as they would have earned it. It would not be closed off and given to clubs who have performed worse but have a richer history.
The thought of an underdog winning the Champions League as Porto did in 2004 would no longer be possible under the Super League’s structure. Porto made history that year and it launched their manager, Jose Mourinho, into stardom. It made his career, as he is now one of the most decorated managers of all time. Every team should be allowed the chance to make this climb and make their own history, as should the players and managers. This is something that makes football beautiful and unique to its fans. Trying to Americanise the game by introducing a no-consequences approach in the Super League would effectively ruin the football pyramid and principles of a game that has been loved for generations.
Elite teams would forever be elite teams, but even that notion was questioned as Tottenham were included, even though they have not won their domestic league since 1961. Arsenal have also been included despite being set to finish mid-table in back-to-back domestic seasons. Neither have won a European trophy. This fuels the idea that the league had been created purely to make these popular clubs wealthier. It emphasises the growing problem of the owners of these clubs getting too greedy for their own good, forgetting the values and foundations which these clubs were built on, all for the sake of money. It is corporate capitalism at its worst, failing to consider the hundreds of other clubs in Europe who could suffer because of this, not only in a football sense but in a financial sense as well.
The Super League would no doubt attract the majority of football fans, as the elite teams have the largest followings in the sport. Rumoured TV deals were touted at 2-3 billion GBP for the first few seasons. The Champions League currently has a deal with BT sport worth 1.2 billion GBP over 3 years as a comparison.[13] The Super League would have been a financial revelation for the 20 clubs involved, especially after the financial hit caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it would only benefit these clubs solely.
Fans make football what it is: The most popular sport in the world. They, along with the players at these clubs, were kept in the dark about these developments until its official announcement, a huge disrespect and disregard of the clubs by the owners. This growing issue with owners in football has not been as magnified as this before. It brings attention to the true interest of the owners at these football superpowers. The fans are aware that their main goal seems to be to earn as much money as possible before or else. Yes, most of the Super League clubs have pulled out of the project, but the fact that this league was organised and built up for months, or even years prior to this, shows where the real interests of the big men in charge of these football clubs lie.
Being untouchable and unpunished if you have a bad domestic season is not how football works. The unpredictability of the game and the possibility for anyone or any team to achieve anything is what makes this sport the beautiful game. Something like this happening again has the potential to kill the sport of football. It is up to the fans to ensure that their voices are heard and to make sure that no similar projects ever go through.
After all, it only took 3 days of protesting before matches and intense criticism on social media to force the hands of club owners to ultimately pull the plug on the multi-billion-euro Super League project. Liverpool owner John W. Henry even came out following the hectic events in the week to apologise for “the disruption” he caused to the disgruntled Liverpool fans, players, and staff in a desperate attempt to win them back following the failure of the Super League. The proposal was ultimately a disaster and the big men in football now know more than ever, that without fans, football is nothing.
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