Last Sunday, a big announcement shook the most popular sport in the world, football. Twelve teams from three of the best leagues in Europe (Spanish LaLiga, English Premier League and Italian Serie A) released their project of creating a European Super League. This new competition will follow the model of American leagues, with no promotions nor relegations.
The 12 founding teams will also invite three top European teams until reaching the number of 15 squads. The Super League is thought to be comprised of 20 teams, so the last five would be elected between the development reached by the teams in other competitions. The teams will be divided into two groups, and after this preliminary stage, the first three teams in each group will qualify for a knock-out stage that will decide the winners of the tournament.
The announcement has provoked a mixture of reactions and a complete earthquake in the world of football. The “founding fathers” of this new competition are England’s “Big Six” (Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Arsenal), Italy’s Internazionale, AC Milan and Juventus and Spain’s Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid. This new league will be headed by Real Madrid’s president Florentino Pérez.
Pérez justified this movement on Monday, during a televised interview on Spanish TV. According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic and the young generation’s lack of interest in football are leaving this sport in a critical situation. He stated that there are lots of matches of “poor quality”. “Between all major clubs we have lost over 5.000 million euros. (…) We want to save football. We are ruined,” he said.
However, reactions have been mostly against this new project. The increasing criticism towards this new Super League has come even from other major teams. Most of the fans are opposed to the project because they feel that football is increasingly ignoring them and that it is becoming more a business rather than a sport.
Thousands of fans from the founding teams have expressed their disapproval. For the past 30 years, fans have seen how football is increasingly turning its back to them. More expensive tickets, absurd schedules (so matches can be seen in China or Gulf countries), competitions taking place thousands of miles away from where they should be played (the Spanish Super Cup was celebrated in Saudi Arabia, the Italian Super Cup has been held in China, Qatar or the USA; in 2019 there was even an attempt to hold the Spanish Clásico in Miami).
They also criticise that this will be a “league for the rich”, where the most powerful and wealthy teams can play only against each other and not against weaker teams, as they currently do in their domestic competitions. This has been felt like a slap in the face for the modest teams, making them feel despised.
As Leeds United’s coach Marcelo Bielsa said, “what gives health to the competition is the possibility of development of the weaker, not the excessive growth of the stronger. The logic that rules the world is that powerful get richer at the expense of the weaker get poorer”.
This Monday, before the match against Liverpool, his team wore a T-shirt with the Champions League logo that said “Earn It”, about this team creating a new league out of nowhere. This will be emulated by Cádiz this week, in their match against Real Madrid.
Major European teams like Germans Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, and French Paris Saint-Germain have also rejected the idea of joining this new competition. In a press release, the Bavarian team stated “Our members and fans reject the Super League. (…) FC Bayern says no to the Super League”.
Top sports federation and organizations have also expressed their disapproval. From FIFA to the International Olympic Committee, the biggest sports bodies are opposed to this new competition. UEFA went further and has announced that is planning to start legal actions against the 12 founding teams, but a Spanish court stated in a preliminary ruling that neither UEFA nor FIFA can stop the plans.
There is criticism even inside the founding teams. Manchester City’s coach, Josep Guardiola shared his opinions: “There is no sport when there is no correlation between effort and success.” Manchester United’s star Marcus Rashford shared a picture on Twitter which showed a quote from Sir Matt Busby: “Football is nothing without fans.”. Last night, Liverpool players refused the idea of playing this new tournament, led by captain Jordan Henderson.
Top retired stars that played for some of the founding teams are also opposed to this new tournament. Former players like David Beckham, Luís Figo, Gary Lineker or Éric Cantona showed their dissatisfaction. Alan Shearer (who has the scoring record in Premier League) went further and asked for sanctions against the six English participating teams participating in this project.
This crisis has caused even governments wanting to intervene. Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Tuesday, the 20th with representatives from the Football Association and the Premier League. After the meeting, the government announced that will take measures to stop the plan. French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have also expressed their objections against the new competition.
UPDATE: Last night, due to the high pressure and protests from the fans, the six English teams decided to withdraw, while they were reports that Internazionale, AC Milan, Atlético de Madrid and FC Barcelona were hesitating. Super Liga stated in a press release that the competition is suspended, and the project has to be “redesigned”. For this time, fans, players and the sport itself have won. However, this is not going to be the wealthiest team’s last attempt.
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