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Are Manchester United, Arsenal and the English elite correct about a ‘European Super League’?
In keeping with the zeitgeist of 2016, England’s biggest football clubs feel it’s time to renegotiate their position in Europe. Reports that the chief executives of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool met in London last week to; allegedly, discuss the formation of a ‘European Super League’ were met with much derision. One item on their apparent proposals leapt off the page and made every football fan wince. This is the idea that the new competition would be a closed shop, implying that the biggest clubs are assured of their participation on annual basis with no possibility of other clubs being able to qualify. This notion is indeed an affront to the meritocratic principles that we hold dear in football, and in sport generally. The game should respect neither name nor reputation; trophies and points are to be earned and not granted – or so we like to think.
The secretive dealings at the Dorchester Hotel do however raise an important issue. The future of European competition and growing disillusionment with knock out football (an issue I was forced to confront for the first time after reading , which I thoroughly recommend to fans of all stripes).
One reason that following football is such an attractive pastime is the familiarity, comfort and routine it provides. Therefore, any calls to alter the schedule with which we have grown so attached is greeted with a dose of conservatism. This is actually a good defence mechanism against avaricious ideas such as the ’39th game’, or ideas that are downright flawed such as Greg Dyke’s proposal to blood Premier League B teams in the Football League.
From a few different circles though, a sense of ennui around the Champions League has developed over the past few years. This is very much the era of the ‘super club’, and it is an objective fact that Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid have dominated the competition in recent years. In the eyes of some, this is a fantastic thing. After all, the competition is supposed to be the highest level of club football and those three teams epitomise that in every respect.
It does however, mean that the tournament has taken on a slightly cyclic and repetitive pattern; the same draws being made with the same outcomes produced. Manchester City, Arsenal, Bayern and Barcelona seem to have endlessly played each other in various combinations. Until the semi final stage when the continental behemoths play each other the competition isn’t always as competitive as it claims to be, with only a few exceptions. This is why many fans felt gleeful excitement following the Europa League draw which paired United and Liverpool, as well as Broussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspur. Two evenly-matched sides going at it over two legs is a rare sight in the modern Champions League that is; to use a Wenger-ism, dominated by ‘super favourites’.
You could well argue that this is a very Anglo-centric perspective, a response to the fact that English teams have failed to make an impact on the competition since Chelsea’s 2012 triumph. Concern about the competitiveness of the Champions League however, is felt among many of ‘smaller’ European clubs too. Their concerns are the driving force behind the discussions that are alleged to have taken place last week. Television revenues are not re distributed quite so democratically in Spain and Germany as they are in England (which is saying something). With Premier League clubs about to bear the fruits of an £8.5 billion TV deal, the concern of some European clubs is that the Champions League will become a contest between Real, Barca, Bayern, PSG plus the English teams, which; ironically, is what a ‘Super League’ might look like.
Such sporting concerns aside, there can be no denying that the dollar bill is a driving motivation behind such radical proposals. It has long been understood that league formats are far more lucrative than cup football. Like any investment, people are willing to pump an awful lot of money in if you can offer security. League football is extremely secure in this respect. There are a fixed number of games and the top teams are guaranteed to meet, which is exactly what broadcasters desire. Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu recently voiced support for Champions League ‘wildcards’, the thought process being that Barcelona v Manchester United will pull in more viewers around the globe than Barcelona v Leicester City.
This flagrant sacrifice of principles in return for cash angers fans and rightly so. Traditionalists; with whom I sympathise in this case, would like to see the European Cup revert to a cup competition right from the start and only involve league champions. Financial imperatives mean that this is never going to happen. However, perhaps all fans should start showing a bit more of an interest in cup football; note the blanket of apathy that descends every time its FA Cup weekend. There are a few obligatory remarks made, along the lines of ‘what a shame the FA Cup isn’t what it once was’ before the eager public rushes back to the never ending story of the Premier League. It’s like regretfully pronouncing on the death of the black cab industry just before phoning Uber for a lift home. Fans now echo managers by stressing the importance of ‘having less games’, which when translated from Doublespeak means getting knocked out of every other competition. The perpetual narratives of the Premier League are enough to satiate many. Everything else is just superfluous.
If a European Super League was to form, I sense the landscape would look something like this. The top Premier League sides would possess two teams; one to compete in the Premier League and another team, presumably better and more expensively assembled , would compete in the Super League. Fans would support the Premier League outfit in the traditional way, with the Super League team there for the purposes of entertainment and exhibition. This is rather like American sport, where fans feel most vociferous and more emotionally attached to college sport, with the franchises of the National Leagues a more distant relation. It all sounds rather dystopian, but as the global footballing audience grows and demand to see the best teams play more often intensifies, something akin to this vision could be the result.
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