By Mathias Habal-Shore, Y11
Three weeks ago, it was announced by some of the most powerful owners in world football that a European Super League was to be created. The premise of the tournament was to create a league with 20 teams that starts in August, and would be played midweek, until the end of the season in June. The 20 participants would consist of 15 “founding clubs”, who could never be relegated, and 5 clubs who qualified based off of their performances in the past domestic season. When the tournament was announced, the league had accrued 12 members, and was looking for an additional 3 to reach their goal. The most notable teams of the 12 were the “big six” teams of England, Barcelona, and Real Madrid, whose president Florentino Perez, was driving the project.
As soon as the project was announced it received major backlash from fans and UEFA, who said that the teams participating would be banned from domestic tournaments such as the Premier League, and their players would not be allowed to play in the World Cup or the Euros.
The reason the project received so much backlash was that in the eyes of fans, it would kill football, because rich teams would make more money from the league, and poorer teams would face an even larger disadvantage. Football is a sport where anyone can win and make it to the top, the perfect example being Leicester City winning the Premier League in the 2015/16 season with 5000-1 odds. The Super League would be a closed league, making it impossible for teams currently at the bottom of the footballing pyramid to make it to the top.
The owners driving the project expected backlash to some extent, but it became evident very quickly that it wasn’t just backlash. All fans, no matter who they supported united and made sure that the league would not happen. They protested outside stadiums, on social media, and in any other way possible. The criticism from fans led to the quick downfall of the Super League, as 9 out of 12 teams pulled out within one week of the announcement.
However, the problems did not end. As the Super League started to die down, UEFA announced plans for a reformed Champions League in 2024, which involves more games, and completely changes the format of the tournament. With there already being fitness problems in football due to the number of games played, this project is also receiving backlash, and some fans are also starting to express how the reaction they showed towards the Super League should also be shown towards racism. By trying to start a European Super League that could have killed football, the owners of the biggest clubs in the world made fans realize that the sport revolves around them, and if they unite they can drive anything, or anyone out of the sport.
