The (not so) Super League
What is it?
To avoid all of the nonsense, here are the proposals
- 20 teams
- 15/20 in there every year
- 5/20 enter on merit
- This would not replace the premier league, instead it would replace the champions league
Why is it being proposed?
The simple answer is greed.
The slightly longer answer regards the spats with UEFA. The majority of the owners are involved with American company JP Morgan, which would effectively replace UEFA as the governing body for this European competition. This is because the clubs want more power over their own rights with an opportunity to earn more money. This has been in the works for a very long time, however it has been accelerated by the opposition to the (lack of) changes to the new champions league format that is not considered to favour the big clubs.
Some consider this a negotiating tactic, others consider this as a concrete plan that is a certainty, only time will tell. One thing is clear, the American owners driving this change appear to be craving an NFL format competition that would eventually replace domestic leagues and create a global football league of rich franchises with two divisions.
UEFA are far from perfect, but there is no situation where owners of football clubs should be the governing body of a competition.
Why is everyone against it?
There are generally two schools of thought to this one: the lovers of traditionalism that don't want to see the champions league replaced and those striving for equality that are unhappy with the lack of clubs that would qualify on merit.
For the traditionalists, I say one thing - the world is evolving. Even the proposed champions league format would see radical changes that you won't like and I hope you support the European competition traditionalism rather than supporting the corrupt and unjust organisations of FIFA and UEFA. However, I do see your point. The reputation of the league cup has slowly deteriorated with the winners now receiving a qualifying place for the UEFA conference league rather than the Europa league, FA cup semi-finals played at Wembley are rarely a team's best eleven and the constant rotation of squads in the European competitions has led to a deterioration of quality for the vast majority of the early round matches. There is a very fair argument that nobody wants to see Real Madrid vs Liverpool twice every year, but I can assure you the same people are those that complain when they have to sit through Chelsea vs Krasnador twice in the group stage of UEFA's most prestigious cup competition. This concept is one I will return to as I have a little more to say about it. Regardless of my views of the traditionalists, we as a footballing community have spent years establishing and glorifying the appeal of playing in a champions league final and the competition remains the one everyone wants to win with the majority of its integrity still intact; this nuclear change could disrupt the delicate equilibrium (regardless of the corruption and "dodgy dealings") that domestic, European and global football exist in. Similar to this, it would completely disrupt the relationship between FIFA, UEFA, domestic football associations, fans, club shareholders, football players and media companies have with eachother.
The second school of thought is the one I fall into. As a Manchester United fan, I am glad to see that the majority of Manchester United fans agree with me on this despite the competition favouring us as a club. The idea that 15 or so teams will automatically be entered into this competition regardless of their domestic performance frightens me and goes against everything we aim to establish in sport. For example, the idea that Spurs and Arsenal will enter this competition based on their dreadful domestic performances this season illustrates how this is undoubtedly "money over merit". This to me simply is not acceptable and never will be.
Analysing the current (and proposed) champions league format
Looking away from the super league concept for now, I would like to explore the issues with the current champions league format and the new proposed format that will provide a little more context as to what the big clubs are actually looking for.
The reality is simple, the current champions league format is not representative of the best 32 teams across Europe. Of course the format is based on merit, however nobody will argue that the 32 teams in the champions league group stage are the 32 best. This is where the issue begins to arise in terms of integrity of the current competition. In essence, we should strive to find a format that allows us to have the best 32 teams across all of the European nations and have them in the same competition, on certain years this may mean there "should be" 8 premier league teams, 5 German teams etc... meaning the split is not even. Is there a way to achieve this? The answer is quite simply no. The split changes every year and there is no real perfect algorithm that can quantify who are the best 32 teams in Europe.
The proposed champions league format that has now been swept under the carpet a little takes even more merit away from the qualification process, however there would still be many more clubs qualifying on merit than the super league proposals.
Similar to the super league, the new format would see the end of a 4 team group stage and instead replace the 32 team competition into a 36 team league where each team plays 10 games based on their seed. Another similarity with the super league is that there will be places available that are based on club size (ie history) rather than merit. This was described as a "blatant power grab", however the adjectives do not compare to the ones being used to describe the super league.
In my opinion, the integrity of the champions league is beginning to deteriorate, UEFA are not an organisation that are fit to run the competition any more and the new proposed format is not one I support. In contrast, we should never have a competition run by football club owners rather than an independent governing body and the super league takes away even more of a merit based format.
The (lack of) power of FIFA and UEFA
This is something that is rarely discussed and honestly I find a little bit scary.
Let us get this straight, FIFA and UEFA do not own football. To some extent, they run modern football, however they simply are not the be all and end all of football. FIFA is a proven corrupt organisation, fuelled by bribes and absolute idiots and sadly this has always been the case. Sadly the structure of UEFA are very similar.
So what do FIFA and UEFA own? At the time of writing, they "endorse" all of the top global football competitions including domestic leagues, the Champions league and the world cup to name a few. They effectively do run football, but this is because we give them the power to do so.
This is not the first time there has been an attempted coup, but the scale of the clubs and the capital that could be invested into the super league mean this could be the beginning of the end of UEFA and FIFA as independent governing organisations of modern football. Without going into too much depth about the decline of domestic football across Europe, there is nothing stopping these super league owners to create their own replacement to domestic competitions, world cups and other European competitions to accompany this super league. This is where I hope the fans and players will group together to stop the owners of the big clubs being the governing body of all of the credible elite footballing competitions.
My thoughts summarised
I believe that we somehow need to create an algorithm that allows the champions league to be the best 32 teams in Europe, regardless of the split across the European leagues. If this means 6 teams from England and 2 from Spain and then the next season we see 4 teams from England and 7 from Spain so be it. We just need to find a way to improve the quality and to some extent integrity of the competition from the very early stages.
As a 17 year old, I am far less of a traditionalist and I am young in terms of my experience of changes in football. Because of this, I am not particularly loyal to the current champions league format and I wouldn't be opposed to the champions league being more of a league format rather than the way it is run now. Possibly more controversially, I detest UEFA and FIFA as objective organisations due to the widely evident history of corruption so I wouldn't be opposed to a new governing body replacing them or at least seeing seismic changes in the management structure of the current organisations. However, I am firmly opposed to the governing body being run by owners of clubs; it is mortifying to imagine the Glazer's making important global footballing decisions.
I have massive issues with the super league format but I also have issues with the champions league format. There should never be an opportunity for clubs to qualify for a competition based on their reputation rather than domestic merit on that season - the idea of this simply isn't football.
I think players now have the power. No matter the outrage, the domestic uproar should will be a small deterrent for the clubs involved because they know that there will be enough American and Chinese interest in the competition to make it economically viable on a global scale. It is simple as if the top players refuse to play in the competition, big issues arise. The sad thing for me is that no matter what I say here, if there is a super league and the top players and clubs are in it, I will watch it. I really do wish this wasn't the case, but it is.
Something controversial that many won't agree with is that the premier league just isn't worth watching without the big 6. In terms of global interest in English football, there will be a rapid decay, removing more of the money from the sport in this country, eventually seeing the quality of the competition rapidly deteriorate and the effects of this will undoubtedly be seen down the English football pyramid.
I really do hope this is a negotiating tactic and eventually the FA, UEFA, FIFA and the big club owners can find an agreement that creates a continental competition that keeps its integrity with no fixed spots for the big teams and is run by a non-club affiliated body. However, if we don't, the super league is likely to be the first of a reform of all of the current footballing competitions as we know it.
We need the big 6 in the premier league. We need international interest and investment in the premier league to protect its quality and integrity. We need elite continental competitions to be qualified for based on some sort of merit. We need UEFA and FIFA to be run like a fit for purpose organisation free of bias and corruption. The early signs are that we will have none of them come the start of next season.
Further reading & bibliography
- The objections to the Australian rugby super league
- The NFL competition format
- Charlie Stillitano
- JP Morgan and its stakeholders
- The historical hate towards Florentino Perez
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