European Super League? No, thanks

RORY FYFE SMITH on why the current set-up is the one we should stick with…

FOR decades many pundits and the head honchos of football have predicted the creation of a European Super League.

But I think this will never happen.Why? Domestic football with a good balance of European competition is better.

Currently, we have the best of both worlds with a mixture of local rivalries and the elite teams of each country playing one another.

At present, the big clubs can be the big fish in their pond.

For example, this season we have Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, PSG, Porto, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Juventus, Napoli, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund all playing for the chance to be champions of the top six leagues in Europe. Why give that up to be mid-table or relegation strugglers in a European Super League? In addition, how many of these elite teams would want to give up local and regional derbies to potentially play games in half-empty stadiums against teams they have no linguistic or cultural connection to if we had a European Super League? Imagine having to travel all the way from Manchester to southern Italy or petro dollarbacked Kazakhstan for a dead rubber game? How is that going to appeal to fans of Manchester United or City?

Plus, what if the league has promotion and relegation? Instead of travelling 70 miles up the road to play a team you have an intense historical rivalry with, you could end up travelling thousands of miles away to play some team from an Eastern European nation you could not even mark on a map. How is that supposed to drum up support? Even Manchester United v Real Madrid is not a rivalry - and they are among the two biggest clubs in the world.

So how is Dinamo Zagreb v Glasgow Celtic or Hamburg v Sporting Braga supposed to suddenly become a fierce rivalry?

It just will not be as intense as Manchester United v Liverpool or Rangers v Celtic.

Quite simply, France, Germany, Italy, England and Spain do not need European Super Leagues.

They have enough big clubs in their leagues and large enough populations, rivalries and finance to fund their elite teams.

A European Super League would just mean some of the big clubs not winning as many trophies – and you can bet they

wouldn’t like that.