Picture Credit: Sky Sports
Just over a year after European football found a renewed sense of unity in the face of coronavirus pandemic, the sport of Football now faces its biggest crisis since its existence, which has led fans all around the globe furious.
Earlier, top 12 of the world’s wealthiest clubs decided a plan to launch a competition, which would be called as the ‘Super League’, wherein those 12 elite European clubs would battle it out against one another to claim even more of football’s billions of dollars in revenue.
This announcement casts major doubts about the very future of the domestic leagues and also the UEFA Champions League that have been the sport’s cornerstone for over a century.
Who are the Top 12 clubs participating?
There are some clubs who have been the driving force behind this project- Real Madrid, Juventus, Liverpool and Manchester, who have invited 8 other clubs to join them. These other clubs compromise of Atletico Madrid and Barcelona from Spain, Inter and AC Milan from Italy and the rest of Premier Leagues big 6- Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Real Madrid’s president Florentino Pérez has been named the Super Leagues first chairman. He has claimed that the league is in response to fans and their entrainment demands.
How does the Super League work?
20 teams will be split into 2 groups of 10 each, wherein they play one another on a home and away leg basis. At the end of the regular season, the top 4 clubs in each division will progress through to the knockout stages. The only difference it has from the Champions League is that the playoffs will be held over the course of at the end of the season.
Why is there fans outrage?
Football is sustained by fans buying into a dream that one day their club will hit on a formula that elevates them to mix with the elite.
There is also a general fear among the Super League’s detractors, players and fans alike, that the league will not only lead to declining revenue and subsequent shutdown of smaller teams outside of the league, but also erode historic traditional football fan culture across Western Europe.
Latest Development against the Super League
United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has pledged that the government would do everything in their power to stop the commencement of this Super League.
It remains to be seen if UEFA or UK Government can make its threat against the 12 team Europe’s Super League or if the latter will successfully put a rebel league in a legally ironclad fashion. Having said that, the mere announcement of the Super League has already created ripple effects across the wildly popular and lucrative industry of European football.