Football fail! The Super League that threatened the beautiful game
How 12 of football’s most elite clubs held the sport to ransom by launching their own Super League
TRAITORS, snakes, liars. The death of football. The craziest 72 hours in sporting history. All this – and more – has been said about the extraordinary events that had fans baying for blood and threatened to change the beautiful game forever.
But the European Super League was dead in the water before the first ball could be booted. Yet the fallout continues as fans and commentators accuse club owners of caring more about money than the game and the supporters who live and die by it.
SO WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED?
Twelve of the richest teams in the UK, Spain and Italy joined forces to create the European Super League (ESL).
Founder members were England’s “big six” Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Arsenal; Spanish clubs Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid; and Italian sides AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus.
Three unnamed clubs were also going to join, plus five other teams that would qualify annually. Super League teams were to play in mid-week games starting in August.
The ESL is based on the franchise system of American sport leagues, where there’s no promotion to higher leagues and no relegation to a lower league.
French and German clubs didn’t take part – notably Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the biggest side in France, and German teams Bayern Munich, the reigning European champions, and Borussia Dortmund, one of the most respected and supported sides in Europe.
PSG is closely aligned to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and the German sides are subject to a rule that gives members of each club the final say on important decisions, making it impossible for board members and CEOs to do as they please.
HOW IT WOULD HAVE WORKED
The 20 member teams would automatically have qualified, regardless of their onfield performances. The ESL would’ve walled itself off from the other European leagues, effectively destroying the structure of European soccer.
“What the breakaway clubs want is to take control of the Champions League,” said sports media analyst Francois Godard. “It’s an aggressive attempt to get Uefa to sign up to a revamp of the Champions League that gives the teams more power and commercial returns. If the ESL were to launch, the Champions League would collapse.”
England’s big six said they’d remain committed to the English Premier League but experts say their focus would’ve been
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on ESL games.
“It was a real possibility they would’ve fielded weakened teams for domestic games at the weekend,” a board member at one of the breakaway clubs said.
The Premier League said the ESL would “undermine the appeal of the whole game. It will destroy the dream of fans of any club in England and across Europe that their team may climb to the top and play against the best”.
WHY DID THEY DO IT?
The ESL members have made billions over the years – but many have massive debts, which observers say was the driving force behind them signing up.
Former FA chairman David Bernstein said ESL members were driven by “greed desperation”.
The coronavirus pandemic hit these clubs hard. Accounting firm Deloitte estimates that between 2019 and 2021, the 20 top-earning clubs missed out on revenue of more than R34 billion.
Barcelona’s net debt more than doubled in a year and stood at R8,3bn by June 2020. For Real Madrid, the figure was R6bn. Juventus’ net debt was R6,1bn, while for AC Milan it was R1,77bn.
The latest figures for Man United show its debt at R9bn while Tottenham had the biggest net debt of R11,9bn after building their new stadium. Arsenal’s net debt is at R2,1bn.
The ESL was underwritten with funding of $5,5bn (R35bn) from American bank JP Morgan Chase. Funding was secured against expected billions from the TV broadcasting rights and sponsorship the league would produce.
WHY IT OUTRAGED FANS
European football has its roots in communities and for fans and the towns they live in, their teams are institutions. Fans believe the ESL would’ve sucked the heart out of the sport. “The belief that one’s team, no matter how small, can make it to the top tier, playing against the best clubs is a dream many smaller clubs cling to,” explains Stefan Szymanski, the author of Soccernomics. “Versions of this dream have happened,” he wrote in The Conversation. “Leicester City went into bankruptcy in 2002 and was relegated to the third tier in 2008 – but won the Premier League at odds of 5 000-1 in 2016.” National pride was also an issue. A Fifa rule would’ve prevented players in ESL clubs playing for their countries – which meant competitions such as the World Cup would be far less dazzling affairs. “If some elect to go their own way, then they must live with the consequences of their choice,” said Fifa president Gianni Infantino. “Either you are in or you’re out.”
THE BACKLASH IS IT OVER NOW?
Furious fans protested outside clubs in the UK. Prince William, English Football Association president, also waded in.
“Now, more than ever, we must protect the entire football community and the values of competition,” he tweeted. “I share the concerns of fans about the proposed Super League and the damage it risks causing to the game we love.”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola slammed it too. “It is not a sport if it doesn’t matter if you lose,” he said.
“We need football to be fair and we need competitions based on merit. Unless we protect these values, the game we love is in danger,” David Beckham said.
At the launch of the ESL Florentino Pérez, ESL chairman and president of Real Madrid, said the clubs signed binding contracts. Less than a day later, however, all six English clubs – starting with Man City – had left and teams from Italy and Spain soon followed.
Pérez insisted the league would benefit all of soccer, which he said was at risk of economic collapse because of the coronavirus. Professional teams make their money through sponsorship deals, ticket sales, merchandise sales and sales of broadcasting rights.
In 2019, Manchester United, for example, raked in about R12,2bn (R3,4bn in sponsorship; R2bn in retail sales, including licensed gear and products; R4,7bn in broadcasting; and R2,1bn in matchday ticket sales). Yet in 2020 the club recorded a loss of over R454m.
Ceferin refuses to rule out sanctions. “It is admirable to admit a mistake and these clubs made a big mistake. We need to rebuild the unity the game enjoyed and move forward together.”