New football league will be anything but Super for region, says Chamber boss
AN exclusive European Super League solely open to the biggest clubs in Europe would have a huge impact on the teams left behind, according to the boss of one of the UK’s biggest business groups.
Scott Knowles, chief executive of the East Midlands Chamber, said teams such as Leicester City – currently third in the Premier League and through to the FA Cup final – could face a big financial hit, as would the cities they are based in from missing out on big matchday bonanzas.
When plans for the new league were announced earlier this week, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City announced they were signing up to it along with European sides including Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona AC Milan and Juventus.
But last night it appeared Manchester City had withdrawn from the proposed new group, with Chelsea set to follow suit, after it was widely criticised.
The Super League plan has support from investment bank JP Morgan, which has apparently offered £4.3 billion in loans for teams involved.
The clubs that want to do it have said they still want to play in their domestic leagues, but if the plans succeed it would have a huge impact on the Champions League and Europa League.
A joint statement including UEFA and the English, Italian and Spanish leagues said they would consider “all measures, both judicial and sporting” to prevent the competition going ahead – including trying to bar the competing clubs from home leagues and their players from UEFA’s international competitions.
As a sign of the amounts of money already involved in European competitions, Leicester City made a profit of £92.5 million in the 2016-17 season, when they reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
By comparison, when they finished fifth in the Premier league last season, they made pre-tax losses of £67 million. Even taking into account lockdown losses, the difference is vast.
Mr Knowles said: “The East Midlands is home to some proud football clubs with incredible histories that many people in the sport will rightly point to when highlighting the reasons why a European Super League is such a bad idea.
“Nottingham Forest, of course, are two-time European Cup winners, many Derby County fans will remember their team reaching the semi-final of the same competition and it was only four years ago that Leicester City played in the Champions League – with big hopes they could qualify again for next season’s tournament.
“Previous calculations have suggested the value of Leicester City playing in the Premier League is worth more than £16 million per season to the city through accommodation, inner-city transport, and food and beverage spend, while the Champions League could be worth up to £5 million. Should Nottingham Forest or Derby County manage to reach the
Premier League in the near future, the cities of Nottingham and Derby could expect a similar economic uplift. But the implications of a European Super League on a watered
down Premier League in terms of wider interest – and the effective prohibition of these clubs from entering the top European competition – would likely mean such financial opportunities for these clubs and their communities would no longer be on the table. The same would be true for those clubs further down the football pyramid, including Mansfield Town and Chesterfield.
“Supporters of these clubs are often invested, emotionally and financially, in the possibilities that exist of climbing the sporting ladder but a glass ceiling would no doubt diminish the rewards at every level of the game. The celebrations surrounding Leicester City’s success in the FA Cup semi-final, in which some fans were allowed to attend for the first time this year, demonstrated the important role that football clubs have in their communities.
“Sunday’s occasion at Wembley offered us a welcome glimpse into the future of sizeable crowds eventually returning to stadiums, and the benefits this brings to businesses that rely on these large-scale events.
“So it’s hugely disappointing that as we should be revelling in such a positive step in our roadmap out of lockdown, we are instead talking about something which will only narrow the opportunities available to people in areas like the East Midlands.”