The Rich Get Richer: The European Super League

On Sunday the 18th of April, after various circulating rumours, a European Super League was announced with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur, 6 of the 12 current teams included.

This closed ‘league’ has been created with the idea of allowing ‘elite’ clubs to take on each other every week, creating a top competition and make another revenue system for these clubs.

The league has been created via the owners of the clubs with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, heading the project.

It is safe to say fans, who were not consulted nor heard when this project started to be formulated, have made their opinions clear after the announcement on Sunday night.

There are many, many things appalling about this so-called ‘elite tournament’ and it starts with removing the true competition from football.

The football we have come to know and love is built on the idea of dreams, on the idea that your team can do anything and go anywhere.

The formation of a league solely for the teams who can afford to spend hundreds of millions on the world’s best players completely removes that dream.

The best football stories come from the underdogs, the chance to be unlikely winners from a bad deficit. You take that risk away from football, you take away what it is based upon.

It is quite simple, if you can’t aim for the top, it loses ideals and the split between the billionaires’ clubs to everyone else continues to grow.

FIFA and UEFA have condemned the league in each of their statements, threatening to sue the teams and permanently remove them from competitions.

They want to ban players from international tournaments, as they also share the view that a closed league is against the values and morals that has held up football so many times before.

Quite possibly the biggest issue with this so-called league is the alienation of fans.

None of the English teams’ fans or supporters’ trusts were consulted, nor informed of the plans and it comes simply out of the ownership.

Football supporters’ work throughout the week to afford to go and watch their team on a weekend.

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Football was built on the foundation of being entertainment on the weekend, something to grab onto after a hard week.

Building a league on the instinct of financial wealth only helps to drive up ticket prices and push away the fans that make the game.

The game at the top level has been growing apart from fans for a while and this move from the soulless boardrooms of the money bags owners, only speeds up the process.

Over the past 18 months, stadiums have been empty and games have felt almost dead. The message ‘football is nothing without fans’ has been spread everywhere.

In most cases, it’s the reason for the club’s financial losses, but instead of holding that at the level, it was pushed aside. These owners have decided to kick us whilst we’re down.

The real reason for this whole idea is simple, money.

This past year, almost every football club has posted losses, no gate money, no football for a time and the annual rise in transfer fees and wages continuing, as usual, have cost and admittedly there is no getting away from that.

It’s possible that the pandemic we are in has sped up the process of the creation of this league, with financial losses being the main motivator continuously. It is said that the teams involved will get a cash injection of 3.5 billion Euros.

The issue is what this creates between the teams in the league and everyone else. Money in football goes up every single year and that can be blamed on shoddy governing of owners by UEFA and the FA or the continuing growth of broadcasting deals.

The difference in incomes between Premier League teams and EFL teams is staggering. Even the difference between the top half of the table and the bottom half is monumental.

It has been made clear enough over the past few years that teams coming up from the Championship can barely compete with anyone in this league, with 2 of last years promoted teams currently in the relegation zone.

Now there is some blame on the EFL for bad broadcasting rights but, in no way does channelling money into the clubs that are worth billions and have owners who can afford to chalk out £100 million cheques help.

All this league does is create a gulf in cash flow and competition and continues to destroy the dreams that make us love football.

All English Premier League

In the ESL’s statement, Florentino Perez stated that this league would help football at every level, but the opportunity to do so without this Super League has been there for a long time, without action.

It does not seem to be a truthful comment, more a buffer, this league separates the billionaires from the millionaires and take’s them to a place where they hold the cards and where they can make all the money they want.

No one will hide from the fact there is a lot of things that need to change in football, from broadcaster’s greed to the influx of unimaginable wages and it’s no secret that the FA and the Premier League need to look themselves in the eye, especially after their handling of the COVID pandemic.

To separate the ‘Top 6’ from the rest is most definitely not the way to do it. Football and fans need to come together more than ever.

All this league does is create financial disparity, destroys any idea of future close competition and further, pushes fans away from the game they love. The whole idea stinks of owners greed and what modern football is today.

My hope is that this league does not stand but football looks at itself and what it has become and allows for reform that suits the majority of parties.

You can never remove money from football, but it needs fans and we have to stand up and make that clear, you can try to push us away, but you can never take what is ours.