News broke this morning that the top clubs in Europe’s top competitions have joined with FIFA and JP Morgan to float a proposal for an 18 team breakaway (from the Champions League) European Premier League. Here are some initial thoughts about that.
This is all about money and control. The proposal is 18 teams, playing in a league format, with no relegation. That means a guaranteed 34 matches which means more matches for the broadcasters, and more matches that are big name clubs. All of which means more money.
Broadcasters will go nuts for this. You have a big game between Barcelona and some other big team, every single week for 34 weeks. Also, broadcasters no longer chop and change each of the big five leagues, negotiating with various football associations for TV rights. It’s one league, one negotiation, huge money.
The money would be so massive that it would absolutely ruin the Champions League and Europa League and that third league that UEFA want to start. I feel confident making that claim because in order to make it worthwhile, the teams would have to earn more than Champions League money and I expect that we are looking at something in the range of double.
And, one thing that we don’t really talk about enough is that almost all of the top five leagues are dreadfully boring. Juventus, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Man City, and PSG, basically win most of the time. France, Germany and Italy are especially dreadful to watch if you’re at all looking for an upset to the hegemony of the moneyed elite. The Premier League has had a few surprises, so it’s still an interesting competition but if you were to pick which club was going to win the Premier League, most years picking Man City is a good bet.
Another effect is that since the top clubs no longer care about getting into the Champions League, they can keep on completely disregarding Financial Fair Play. And would save a ton of money cooking the books and pretending that they are getting “good deals” for sponsorships from their National airlines. What a huge financial relief that would be for Chelsea, PSG, and Man City.
The problem, however, is that this is probably going to be so much extra money in the hands of a few clubs that it will all but make those clubs “unrelegatable” from their domestic leagues. The distortion between clubs who get into Champions League and those that don’t is already so bad that it makes almost all of the top leagues unbearably predictable. Now imagine if those teams all got another 75-150m on top of what they already get. It would all but ruin those competitions as well. Unless, the money gets so good at the European Premier League level that the clubs involved stop playing in their respective leagues. Which isn’t that far fetched.
That raises two questions for me. The first is why would the FA (any FA) allow this? This is a competition which directly competes with their flagship product, which saps the value of that product, which siphons off money from their Leagues and which concentrates more money in the hands of a few elite clubs.
Not only that but I expect that the “European Premier League” teams would want to stop playing in domestic cup competitions. They already play a little over 50 games a season and this would take their totals to over 70. There is no chance they would want to play in an FA Cup match, if they could even find the time.
Then there’s the question of which clubs would be included? Well, it would have to be a popularity contest, wouldn’t it?
- Man U
- Real Madrid
- Barcelona
- Juventus
- Bayern Munich
- Arsenal
- Man City
- Liverpool
- Chelsea
- AC Milan
- Inter Milan
- Borussia Dortmund
- Schalke 04
- Paris Saint Germain
- Olympique De Marseille
- Atletico Madrid
- Monaco
- (and then one of like Ajax, Celtic, or Porto, or someone fairly well followed but hopefully not Tottenham)
That, frankly, sucks for every other club in all those leagues. Why shouldn’t clubs like Atalanta be allowed at the top of the table? And then think about what this does to future investment in mid-table clubs? Why would anyone buy a club or invest money in a club that could never make it into the elite competition?
One of the things that drew me to the Premier League (and European football in general) was that it was a meritocracy. Teams didn’t just get to suck for 20 years like they do here in the USA and collect a paycheck. Competition up and down the pyramid, and even inside of the elite competitions, was based on merit: who could coach the best, attract the best players, find value where others couldn’t, and so on. That was largely destroyed when Chelsea came along and has been utterly eviscerated by Man City and others now for the last 20 years. To the point where it’s ruining most of the leagues and making even the Champions League monotonous. This proposal would only accelerate that, throw gasoline on the fire, and burn the whole things down.
Already the football competitions around the world are enough for players we should not pile more load on players even if its for money or not.
If you remove the pressure of relegation and failure to qualify for European competition, you take away the edge, which is vital to competition. If halfway in Arsenal is well off the pace in terms of points, what incentive is there to fight hard?
I won’t work, and therefore it won’t fly.
You could argue that there isnt relegation in many sports, like the major ones in America. But at least they have supposed equalisers like a draft, and a salary cap. Of course theyre vastly different…but it underscores that a league of the kind mooted won’t work for football.
According to many reports it’s only five prem clubs & rumoured Arsenal isn’t one of them?Hard to believe if true? But any list of 18 is going to be very objective.What is the criteria for admittance.club value?,fan base,European success,Team value,History?For ex you’re list leaves out Benfica & Lyon.The danger if no promotion or relegation.If not admitted.Are you in the wilderness for 20 years.How will you ever attract the top players?There would have to be a second tier.much likethe Europa league.A minefield.
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After waiting for a post, like London buses (maybe buses in many more countries as well), 2 posts in quick succession. Thank you.
Monaco? They have a lower average attendance than Plymouth Argyle! (League One).
Re. Spuds. There was a golden monologue on Guardian football weekly yesterday from mr Glendinning. It’s at 39:20. and it perfectly distilled how I feel. How can they justify being so entitled? Levy has spent the last 10 years hanging around and smoking with the big kids in the park, and now he thinks he is one.. You have to check it out.
The only way I can see this super-money-greed-league working is if it did actually include promotion and relegation. Replacing the current European competitions with a two-tier system. Instead of Europa and CL we get SuperLeague 1 and 2 with the top 40 teams on the continent. The question then becomes, how do you get selected into this? I recon a ranking points system based on domestic league finishes would work out. An average of the previous 10 years’ positions gives you a head-start and a bump up the league in the first season.
It’s a novel idea but to stop entrenchment and keep competition high, half of the teams should be relegated each year. Every season 10 are relegated into Superleague 2. Then the bottom 10 in Superleague 2 are replaced by the next highest finishers in their domestic leagues. This keeps things moving in the domestic league as well as the Euroleague. Nobody wants the same 10 fixtures for the rest of eternity.
This idea is purely to counter the top teams in league 1 just get fatter and fatter and richer and richer, while all the others try (and fail) and climb the pyramid. One bad season from Real and they could find themselves down in Euroleague 2. This is a pipe-dream, but the beauty is it would keep competition and audience figures high for both leagues.
All this glosses over the biggest issue that this new league is purely artificial. Matches between the biggest teams don’t have that geographic or historical edge. The beauty of these CL fixtures is that they are rare events. Arsenal-Barcelona should be a truly special occasion, not just a monotonous regularity.
Good analysis. I totally agree. As Gary Neville (I know) said, “Football is going to eat itself!” I can feel a lifelong passion crumbling in my hands.