Not-so-Super League
Our writers react to football’s contentious breakaway competition
What were your first impressions of plans for the Super League? Michael Burgess: Ridiculous, greedy, predictable and unnecessary. The Champions League is already more or less a closed shop and Uefa was going to expand it. But these types of owners always want more, especially Americans used to closed leagues.
Dylan Cleaver: It’s certainly a more bold and innovative revenue strategy than creating seven playing strips each season and gouging fans that way. Aside from that, just horrific.
Steven Holloway: The first thing I saw was Gary Neville’s viral video on Twitter. He was absolutely seething. The more I read, the more shocked I was about the implications for world football, and was stunned all the top English clubs were on board.
Matt Brown: Absolutely gutted. Thoughts that my club Liverpool will not chase more European Cup or Champions League glory — Fenway Sports Group can [expletive] off.
Liam Napier: Nothing more than an elitist money grab. The fact 15 ringfenced teams will be involved every year, with five others qualifying, tells you everything about who will benefit and who will be left behind.
What are your predictions for how things play out?
Burgess: A compromise will be worked out allowing more money to flow to the big clubs, a revised Champions League and the status quo to continue . . . for a while.
Cleaver: Commentators, columnists and other malcontents will fulminate. Fans will burn shirts and effigies. Billionaire owners will weather the storm in their Bahamian boltholes. Others will feign amazement that people like John Henry didn’t buy their clubs solely because of the rich history and community connection.
Holloway: It won’t happen. Fans will revolt, players will protest, Uefa will threaten to ban players from the Euros and remove them from their leagues, and the clubs will bottle it.
Brown: If fan power prevails and the outrage grows, this Super League won't happen.
Napier: Prince William condemning the move is the tip of angst to come. Wait until the boycotts and rioting outside famed club venues start.
Will the Premier League ever be the same?
Burgess: Yes, eventually. The original architects of the Premier League in 1991 betrayed the rest of the English football system, which caused outrage at the time and has condemned many historically successful clubs to perpetual mediocrity in lower leagues. But that blatantly unfair model is almost universally accepted now.
Cleaver: Isn’t this meant to be a Champions League disruptor more than domestic leagues? It won’t help the Premier League, but it’s not going anywhere soon.
Holloway: No, I don’t think so. Not unless all the owners of the Big Six are forced out.
Brown: The groundswell of antiSuper League will grow and there will be something that gives.
Napier: Should this go ahead, it will only serve to exacerbate a footballing class system. Teams such as Leicester winning the league will soon be distant memories, confined to fairy tales.
Will this change the way you engage with your team as a fan? Burgess: I’ve been following Liverpool since the early 1980s but had no interest in yesterday’s match with Leeds and the rest of the season seems a bit blase´ now. But I still love the club and players . . . just not the owners . . . so that feeling will fade. But if this goes ahead, I’ll be even more nostalgic about the past and cynical about the future.
Cleaver: Yes. “My” team is one of the six. I view the owners and executives as s**tbags and will throw my passivefollower heft behind my second team — Leyton Orient (or perhaps even Everton to be really provocative).
Holloway: No. I’m not a fan of any of the Big Six teams. I will watch on sporadically as normal. And if the Super League goes ahead, would I tune in to watch Barcelona beat Tottenham twice a year? Probably.
Brown: The match against Leeds meant nothing to me yesterday. I should have been glued to it, desperate for a win that would boost Liverpool's top four chances. But the club owners don't care about being in the Champions League. However, one thing I have grown up with as a Liverpool fan is the fact the club is much more than any one individual or owner, and this insane proposal
won't stop the love affair I’ve enjoyed with Liverpool since I was 9 years old.
Napier: Disillusioned is the best description. Even elite sport must be about more than money alone. This sheds a blinding light on what happens when you sell your soul to the highest bidder.
Who are the winners and losers, should Super League go ahead? Burgess: Aside from the cashed-up team owners, agents, broadcasters and players, a lot of the global fan base will enjoy this artificial carousel of a league, with the ‘ stars’ clashing regularly. The biggest losers will be the local fans of these English clubs.
Cleaver: Winner: The Wizard of Id — “Remember the golden rule; he who owns the gold, makes the rules.”
Holloway: The winners are the money-men at the top of the pyramid. The losers are everybody else in football. It’s football at its worst.
Brown: The clubs who are part of it get richer, but football suffers. The pyramid system at the heart of the English game is destroyed.
Napier: Fans are the biggest losers, club owners the only winners.