A super cup from the biggest European football clubs, a sort of private champions league
It's been talked about, behind the scenes, for a long time, but even the most innovative observers never imagined that it would go from project to reality. However, the news has fallen: twelve clubs - and not the least - have decided to secede and create a private championship, replacing the current Champions League, a first in the world of European football.
Since modern European football has existed, that is to say more than 70 years ago, no one had imagined such an obvious privatization of the flagship sport of the old continent.
On a very American model
In Europe, there is the UEFA, headed by the FIFA, and the national bodies, all these beautiful people operating according to a well-oiled pyramid model. The creators of what should be called "The Super League" decided to work on the basis of American models as we can see them with the NBA for basketball or the NFL for American football. In either case, and even if we do not perceive it very well on this side of the Atlantic, it is a matter of private competition generating considerable income for investors whose interests are less sporting than financial.
The putschists are twelve in number
The pandemic will have had the effect of making think the biggest European football clubs whose finances are threatened by their inability to make their merchandising work as it should. But we will also see that these are not the only financial reasons which pushed our twelve slingers to create the Super League. But above all, it should be known that it is undoubtedly the twelve clubs bringing together the biggest stars of world football which are in the maneuver. We find there, in fact, the AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea FC, the FC Barcelona, the Inter Milan, the Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, on Real Madrid and Tottenham.
The principle is quite simple: the founding clubs create a competition reserved for them, but do not exclude being able to invite other clubs to join them over time.
A purely financial objective
The promoters of this Super League do not hide it: the idea is to be able to garner more income, in particular on the basis of television rights, than what FIFA currently offers for all competitions, national and international, confused.
Initially, the founding clubs will receive a capital of 3.5 billion euros in order to be able to pay off the debts contracted during the covid-19 crisis, but also to improve their infrastructure and make European football a real commercial machinery.
The creators of this Super League even seem to be able to bet on revenues far exceeding the small ’3.2 billion euros in revenues traditionally generated.
An invitation football competition
Things must have turned out well in the dark as the Super League co-founders already know how things are going to play out. First of all, you have to know that there will be one season per year and that it will unfold as we are used to seeing them with qualifying and then playoff games.
Participating in this competition, the twelve founding clubs, necessarily, as well as three other clubs considered essential to the competition and which will be automatically qualified for the following years. Finally, five clubs will receive, year after year, an invitation card to participate in the competition. This invitation card will be determined on the basis of the club’s performance the previous season and, without doubt, any football stars who could play in said clubs.
It could also be a way of attracting big French and German clubs to the competition who, to FIFA's delight, refused from the outset to participate in the sling.
A legal-football battle on the horizon
The reactions were not long in coming. Smaller clubs deplored the decision, while some political decision-makers such as Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson denounced a break in the principle of solidarity which had been the beauty of European football until then.
And if FIFA calls for a constructive dialogue between the parties, it is UEFA which is already fanning its arms since it announces that all the clubs participating in this dissident competition would be de facto excluded from national and international competitions under its tutelage. Worse, players employed by clubs participating in the Super League will no longer be able to participate in major international competitions. A blow for a team like that of the Red Devils which have many stars among the clubs singled out.
No schedule for the new competition
It remains to be seen whether the decision to create the Super League was not intended to move the lines within FIFA and UEFA, which must consult in the weeks to come. In the meantime, football fans can stay tuned to our newsfeed for more information.
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