October 27, 2020 was a founding day in the modern history of Barcelona. In the evening, rose Joseph Bartomeu, The club’s infamous president, to deliver a resignation speech after he could no longer prevent the no – confidence vote against him. In the process, he dropped a bombshell when he announced that “Barcelona have reached an agreement on joining a new Super League”, the one that has been threatening the UEFA Champions League for many years. Is this a weapon of mass destruction or a threat devoid of content?
Listen to the frequent flyer podcast: Nadav Yaakovi and Danny Porat on the football war between the Super League and the Champions League
Even before Bartomeu’s pompous statement, many media outlets around the world reported that the big clubs, including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Liverpool, which are backed by JP Morgan, had already begun shaping the new league that would allow them to reach their full potential and make a profit. Bigger than what they are producing these days from the various UEFA competitions. The idea is to establish the league starting in 2024/25 and actually dismantle the Champions League as we know it today. A recent meeting in Turin, between Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid, His Juventus counterpart Andrea Aneili has begun to worry about UEFA and FIFA.
The format has even been formulated: 15 regular invitations (Euroleague version in basketball) and another 5 non-permanent companies that will join the new rising force, in a closed league with rising and falling. According to the publications, the regulars are from the top five leagues: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Inter, Milan, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Dortmund and PS. P. Participants will be divided into two houses and will play 18 games in the houses stage in two rounds. The first 4 from each house (which includes 10 teams) will advance to the quarterfinals to be held using the away house method. So the finalists’ potential will take part in 23 European games, compared to a maximum of 13 in the current Champions League format.
The rationale is clear: the empires want as many large direct encounters between them as possible to maximize profits. The tournament in question is supposed to bring in 4 billion euros every year from television. By comparison, UEFA is putting 3.25 billion euros on the Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup. That means through the Super League much more money will go to a limited number of participants, with a large fan base around the world.
The French champions, in this case PSG, rich as they may be, benefit from the broadcasting agreements in France the same amount that the newcomer to the Premier League receives. So its only economic potential is to increase revenue in the Champions League or Super League, to avoid an absurd situation as currently exists between the English league and the rest of the major leagues. It is therefore not surprising that the Parisians announced this week that Paris is ready to join the Super League also at the expense of its separation from the French league.
The new initiative does not come out of a vacuum. In the summer of 2024, UEFA will end its three-year agreement with the broadcasters and sponsors. Therefore, the leaders of the major groups are now pushing the UEFA into a corner, which will have to make a difficult decision in the coming weeks. Those who are pushing for change have realized that the Corona crisis has hit them hard (teams have reported losses of hundreds of millions) and right now need to get up and break the tools, even if it is a draconian move that will actually destroy the Champions League and severely hurt European football competitiveness.
Another thing that the big teams fear is the new UEFA plant – the Conference League – which is intended mainly for medium-sized teams and will be launched next summer. Currently, Champions League participants enjoy 80 percent of UEFA grant money while the Europa League sweeps the remaining 20 percent. The Conference League is set to receive a share of its own, which could shuffle the cards again in any matter of the UEFA awards ceremony. The big teams, who claim they are not earning enough in the 2021 to 2024 game cycle, do not want to lose more power and pay “solidarity” money to teams From Albania, Israel or Kazakhstan, in the weakened UEFA plant.
Whether there is economic logic in the desire of the super teams to establish a new world order and take care of their interests, it is clear that the existence of a Super League in the format presented here is a huge damage to European football as we know it today. In the end, this is a private and exclusive league that will drastically weaken the leagues from which the rich participants come (even the Premier League), will not allow a place to open a competition (almost completely closed league), and will only increase the huge gaps between rich and poor (Israelis will not be able to play in the league Such). In the world of the Super League there will never be a place for teams like Atlanta or Leicester, but yes for Arsenal and Valencia for example, regardless of their performance on the pitch.
UEFA of course stands on its hind legs and issued the following statement: “UEFA President Alexander Chaprin strongly opposes the Super League. The principles of solidarity, rising, falling, open leagues, are something that cannot be opened at all in negotiations . This is what works best and makes the Champions League the best sport in the world. The idea of the Super League is also boring. “Last week, FIFA president Gianni Infantino joined Chaprin in the braking system, declaring that any player who takes part in the activities of the Super League will not be able to participate in the official FIFA and UEFA competitions. Including World Cup and Euro.
The opposition of UEFA and FIFA are of course an important basis for preventing the creation of this new league and the new veto on non-participation of players in the World Cup, Copa America or Euro in case of joining the Super League, greatly weakens the grandiose initiative of rich teams. It is also possible to join the European Club Association, which is represented by the various league directors on the continent, and although it is headed by Juventus president Andre Aneili, it is believed that it will curb the new ill and reach a compromise with the UEFA. The union that issued a condemnation: “European football is not only reserved for the rich and powerful.”
It should be remembered that the Super League cloud has appeared not only this winter. As early as the early 1990s, the threat of a Super League rose over the office of then-UEFA President Leonard Johansson. His solution was to create the Champions League using the method we know today and change the name of the traditional Champions Cup. In 1998, an initiative was created to create a Super League with permanent members. , But UEFA dissolves the idea of Silvio Berlusconi, then president of Milan, and decided as a kind of compromise to increase the number of champions in two years to 32 teams. By the way, even three years ago, Badr Spiegel published about a move that Real president Florentino Perez was trying to embroider on the establishment of a new Premier League.
Therefore, it will be inevitable to see the Champions League change against our eyes in 2024. UEFA is already considering increasing the factory to 36 teams and giving 10 games to each participant in the home stage (it is not clear at the moment whether in the 6-by-6 format, or in the Swiss method). There is also talk of changing the knockout method and returning to the Final 8 format. Good luck with the Corona Summer Tournament held in Lisbon. Anyway, with all the talk and threats, the Super League seems to be basically a means of pressure on UEFA to please the big teams in the next Champions League broadcast and sponsorship deal and should not be seen as a tangible danger to the game we all love.