SUPER LEAGUE THREAT WILL MAKE SURE MEGA CLUBS GET A PAY OFF..
YOU might have missed it but there has been another European ‘super league’ development over the past few days.
The latest document to emerge, origin not 100 per cent clear, proposes a 20-team event – to use the word ‘competition’ would be a gross falsehood – fronted by 15 clubs.
Their participation is guaranteed, as is £310million to join and around £200m in annual earnings. Per club.
Five clubs will be able to qualify for the event but will not get as much dough as the 15 founder members. And we all know who those founder members would be – no need to go into any more detail.
Indeed, further detail is irrelevant. There is talk of a merchant bank being involved and that is pretty much all you need to know.
Oh, and it will not impact on domestic leagues.
Other than the fact that it would make the select few a lot richer, of course.
FIFA, with UEFA’s support, have issued a strongly-worded warning to anyone thinking of riding along with the latest nonsense.
Any club that goes for such a gimmick will not be able to participate in any competitions sanctioned by FIFA or UEFA.
Any player who goes for it will not be able to play in the World Cup or the Euros or any tournament organised by any of football’s major confederations.
Football supporters’ groups have been instantly vociferous in their opposition to it.
And Pep Guardiola did not seem overly keen.
Which is all good but surely not needed. We can only talk about our own football and is there, seriously, a big club out there who would sell their soul for this sort of stuff ?
Jaundiced by commercial greed, our instinct might be to say ‘yes’. But think about this. They are not daft.
Take Liverpool Football Club, for example. Their history and traditions are entwined with the European Cup, entwined with the notion of earning your right to compete for it, entwined with winning it, entwined with noble failure.
There might be the odd exec who thinks history is bunk but an entire fanbase would be alienated if they swapped the challenge for Ol’ Big Ears for a Mickey Mouse exhibition tournament.
Similarly for Manchester United.
And you would like to think it would be exactly the same for the fans of
Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, AC Milan, and so on.
While the financial operatives at established big clubs might crave the scenario where the right to play in a European competition is granted and not earned, that idea is anathema to the common supporter.
It is a heinous thought.
They simply would not stand for it. They certainly would not buy into it.
And don’t be fooled – those in power at places such as Old Trafford and Anfield know this.
But they allow their names to be linked because it puts a modicum of pressure on the existing authorities to find a way, within the current structure, to make sure the big clubs get a few more quid. Or euros. Or whatever.
So in the unlikely event you were concerned, do not be.
There will be no so-called super league now, soon, or for a very long time.