When Tragedy Turns to Triumph: The European Super League Story
The opening paragraph has taken roughly three forms over the past day. Figuring out how to broach one of the most important topics in world football history is no easy task for someone that takes this stuff as seriously as I do. The best place to start is often the beginning, so why rock the boat now? I have been privy to the idea of a “European Super League” for about two years now. The rumors that some of the major powers in football were contemplating such an act have been swirling for a good decade now. However, discussion of the idea was always met with skepticism. In my head, this was just going to be the best teams in the world playing ten to twenty games against one another for a trophy and you would be promoted into it based on certain criteria and relegated out of it for not meeting the league’s standards. I imagined something like a more exclusive, year-round Champions League. I loved this concocted idea I had of it. Who wouldn’t want to see the best clubs in soccer playing a couple more games per year? Unfortunately for me, this naïve thought experiment I had conducted was nothing more than an idyllic charade insulating me from the tragedy of an impending reality.
On the 18th of April 2021, The European Super League would be announced by its twelve founding members. This would not be like any major soccer league in the world (outside of the United States) in that there would be no relegations or promotions after the conclusion of the season. Instead, the league would have fifteen teams that would be established as “founding members” who are in the league permanently. There would be five more teams that would then be able to qualify for the final five spots based on accomplishments in their domestic competitions. The games would take place in the middle of the week as a replacement for UEFA tournaments. The season would be set up with the league being split into two halves and competing in a group stage of sorts, then eventually getting to a knockout stage where a winner would be declared after a playoff, not dissimilar to the current Champions League. This is almost identical to the proposed changes UEFA was planning to make to the Champions League itself.
*Disclaimer: There is an insane level of detail and discussion surrounding this topic and it would be impossible to cover it all. For the duration of this article I will not be talking much about UEFA, but just know, they are not the good guys. UEFA is a corrupt and greedy organization that does not care about your favorite players. My lack of discussion regarding them and their transgressions is not a sign of support. I simply cannot cover this entire story while also trying to navigate the waters of what UEFA has done to world soccer.*
The Super League proposal has since been met by some of the most universal backlash to a major sporting announcement I have ever seen. Whether it be fan forums on places like Reddit’s r/soccer or post-game commentary from Manchester United’s very own Gary Neville, the world is in awe of the greed and blatant disrespect for the fans that these teams have shown. As it currently stands, twelve teams are a part of the founding members right now. Those teams are AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Tottenham Hotspur.
So, some people reading this may be wondering why this is such a big issue. If these twelve teams wanted an alternative to the Champions League so be it. That’s not what this league does though. Let’s start at the very core of what world soccer is. Every single team at every single level has one thing in common: one bad season can mean relegation for a team. No matter how big, no matter how well you did the season prior, there is always a chance for your team to fall to a lower league. Sheffield United finished in the top half of the Premier League table last year. This year, with eight games left to play, their relegation has been confirmed. With the money that has flooded soccer, there is not that same threat as there may have been decades ago, but that spirit still lives on. There was a period where Arsenal was sitting mere points ahead of the final relegation spot more than a quarter of the way into the season.
These teams were guaranteed $425 million per year just to join. The idea of the league is to take the United States model of sports leagues and apply it to European soccer. This removes the very core of what European soccer was built on. The idea that no matter what part of a country you're from, or how much money is being funneled into your club, with the right team and coach, you can make it to the top league in your country. This league would have stripped all of that away in an attempt to grab as much money as possible, potentially leaving these teams’ domestic leagues in shambles.
However, none of this matters anymore because in the past twenty-four hours ten of the twelve founder teams withdrew from the super league, and some absolutely momentous changes are about to take place in the Premier League specifically. For a reference point as to how drastically this conversation shifted in the past day, the original title of this article was “The Death of Fergie and the Greatest Lie in Soccer.” In one little rotation of the Earth, everything changed.
Fan backlash was immediate and almost universal to the inception of the Super League. The clubs that began this ill-thought-out crusade were immediately bombarded with hate, some fans going so far as to protest outside of stadiums. The pressure was on, and one of two things was going to happen. Either the clubs would bear the rapturous storm and hope to come out on the other side with some semblance of their fanbase intact, or one domino would be blown over and the rest would come tumbling after. The latter happened. The surprising bit is some of the dominoes that came tumbling down, ones that we as fans did not notice standing in the back.
The first team to pull out was Chelsea. A bit of a surprise that this was the first team to leave, but it signaled a turning point. Within a half-hour of Chelsea pulling out, Manchester City was right alongside them. Suddenly there was a light at the end of the pitch-black tunnel of despair we soccer fans had been shouting into. The Man City announcement was followed by one of the first major and shocking announcements of the day: Ed Woodward’s resignation from the Manchester United organization.
Every single Red Devil supporter, myself included, rejoiced at the departure of the man who had seemingly squandered every good signing he made by overpaying three people around him that were terrible fits. So systematically the entire foundation of the European Super League crumbled. Every Premier League team would pull out, FC Barcelona would say that they weren’t in until their partial owner fans voted on the matter, and by the end of the day on Tuesday, only two teams remained. The League took less than forty-eight hours to completely fall apart.
Florentino Perez, the ringleader of this circus, would go on to have many asinine and ignorant comments across two press conferences regarding the creation and dismantling of his baby, but even he could not save what was already dead. Over the next day, rumors regarding owners of a few key clubs would start to circle. The Glazers, owners of Manchester United, put out a statement apologizing, attempting to save face. However, the man who made the purchase of the club as easy to pull off as possible is gone. United is one of the five most valuable sports franchises in the world and the rumor is the Glazers may be looking to cash in sooner rather than later. The hate for them has been around for a long time, but according to a few reports, this level of backlash may be too much to withstand.
Stan Kroenke over at Arsenal is also under an immense amount of heat. He stole the Rams away from St. Louis and moved them to Los Angeles in a desperate money grab. His attempts to grasp as much money away from the people he is supposed to care about go back as far as you care to look. The situation isn’t much better at Liverpool, where John Henry and the Fenway Sports Group are now fighting off two sets of fans. Boston Red Sox fans are still pissed about the Mookie Betts trade, and now one of the most legendarily working-class clubs in all of soccer just tried to go as bourgeois as possible.
In one of the most shocking reports we got that fateful Tuesday, one of these clubs' owners’ may have put their team on the market already. There is no way to know if any of these teams will be sold in the near future, but we have gotten to the point where if they were all sold in the next twelve months, we shouldn’t be surprised.
The big lesson to learn from all of this is just how important soccer and its traditions are to the world outside of the United States. UEFA and FIFA have been monetizing soccer and propping up the biggest clubs, taking away a great deal of the parity that used to make European soccer in the big five leagues so great. The draining of parity had been slow and over twenty years, fans began to accept the new ways of life. UEFA continued to dilute the Champions League, making it less and less prestigious. The fans, and in particular the legacy fans, found a thing to galvanize around though. This Super League pointed towards the death of domestic soccer as everyone knew it. So the fans rose up and stood tall against the giants of our beloved sport.
The giants fell, and we fans have to now realize that if we don’t protect our sport, the greed and corruption that is hired by and buying out our sport will win. The three American owners who were heading the charge behind Perez may soon be out because the fans had enough. Ed Woodward is gone, the Super League (in its current incarnation) is dead. UEFA is planning further changes to the Champions League that would add more than a dozen fixtures and further dilute what that competition means. This whole stupid debacle has given every soccer fan the knowledge that if we say no more, they can’t take our game away from us. That’s what the fans need to do going forward. This game is followed and observed by more than half of the world. It means too much to too many to let a few people in Switzerland take that away.