I would like to apologize in advance. What I am about to say will probably be unclear or perhaps even offensive.
I’d like to start out by saying that I have a complicated relationship to sports in general. I’m a pretty liberal guy (you’ve noticed!) and the idea of me willingly spending money that basically goes straight into a rich guy’s pocket is anathema. I think what I’ve done over the years is what Andrew suggested we do in his blog today: love the club, not the owner. So, money I send to the club doesn’t just support Kroenke buying a new game preserve in Texas, it also pays for the average people at the club, people who love Arsenal and what it stands for in the community.
So, here I am, over 20 years an Arsenal supporter and 13 years basically a brand advocate with this blog. I’ve bought dozens of jerseys, I’ve flown to see games in Europe and here in the States, and of course I have poured years of my life and money into this blog. I have gotten to the point where I laugh if someone calls me a “plastic” or tells me to “stick to NFL”. If I’m a plastic then everyone is plastic.
When I first started following Arsenal, things were different (all things change!) than they are now. The owners were some sort of rich guys from England, the stadium was an art deco masterpiece, and the football was astonishing. Yeah, I’m a plastic: I jumped on the Arsenal bandwagon in 2000 after they beat Man U to win the League. I loved the gold lame kit, the SEGA sponsorship, Freddie’s red mohawk, Thierry’s unbelievable talent, Vieira’s fireceness, and King Kanu leaping over Wiltord!
Nowdays Arsenal is a much more corporate experience. We have an owner who lives in Texas, we are 10th place, we have a giant new stadium, we don’t play beautiful football, and we don’t have a great team full of players that I will cherish for 20 years (except maybe Saka and Smith Rowe!). My first ever Arsenal match was in 2006, against Charlton, and when I ordered a pie and coke before the match, the pie was inedible and the coke was lukewarm, flat and no ice. Food at the Emirates Stadium is much better and you can bet your ass there’s ice in the coke!
Football has changed in so many ways since I started following. It’s become much more analyzed, more slickly packaged, more broadcasts, more money going into players, and so on. Even the football of Arsene Wenger, who wanted to turn the sport into an art form has gone. It has become a technocrats dream. Eduardo Galeano predicted it all the way back in 1997:
“The history of soccer is a sad voyage from beauty to duty. When the sport became an industry, the beauty that blossoms from the joy of play got torn out by its very roots. In this fin-de-siècle world, professional soccer condemns all that is useless, and useless means not profitable. Nobody earns a thing from that crazy feeling that for a moment turns a man into a child playing with a balloon, like a cat with a ball of yarn; a ballet dancer who romps with a ball as light as a balloon or a ball of yarn, playing without even knowing he’s playing, with no purpose or clock or referee.
Play has become spectacle, with few protagonists and many spectators, soccer for watching. And that spectacle has become one of the most profitable businesses in the world, organized not for play but to impede it. The technocracy of professional sport has managed to impose a soccer of lightning speed and brute strength, a soccer that negates joy, kills fantasy and outlaws daring.
Luckily on the field you can still see, even if only once in a long while, some insolent rascal who sets aside the script and commits the blunder of dribbling past the entire opposing side, the referee and the crowds in the stands, all for the carnal delight of embracing the forbidden adventure of freedom. ” (Soccer in Sun and Shadow)
We saw an insolent rascal just the other day, Lionel Messi scored an impetuous goal against Atletic Bilbao to win the Copa Del Rey. It was the kind of goal that all of us dream of scoring from the first time we pull on boots. Despite the corporate nature of football, despite the duty of football, we still get these moments from time to time. It’s why we are here.
But only a big club like Arsenal can even attract “plastic” fans like me. Imagine an American with no connection to the sport supporting a team like Tottenham! I suppose there are some but they must be masochists.
It’s the bigness of the club which has led them to form a Super League. Here’s where I’m going to say something which will offend: I think I get what’s going on here and frankly, it’s not all bad. I’m not saying it’s good but it’s not all bad!
Yep, you’re mad but hear me out. What’s happening here is that 15 clubs have agreed that they no longer want UEFA getting a cut of their profits. The UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and whatever they are calling the new competition wouldn’t exist if they didn’t have the draw of clubs like Arsenal, Man U, Barcelona, and Real Madrid. Those clubs get a bit of a bump in payments as a sort of recognition for that draw but a lot of their profits are going to UEFA and other clubs in other countries.
And let’s just admit that the Champions League format isn’t great. It often creates its own distortions. For example, Olympiakos getting into the Champions League every year actively harms the Greek Super League. Olympiakos has won 46 titles. They have been in the Champions League for 33 years. The money they get from the Champions League plays no small part in that dominance. Is that truly a “meritocracy”?
Of course we all want a meritocracy and on the face of it, qualification for the Champions League seems like a meritocracy but the last time a “small” club won the Champions League was 2004, Jose Mourinho’s Porto. Before that it was 1995, Ajax. That’s just two teams in 26 years. And we also know what the money from that League does to distort competition, even in the Premier League. So, while the UEFA competitions are a “meritocracy” in that anyone could possibly qualify, they are in practice very imbalanced.
And – non sequitur here – but UEFA also pays lip service to things like kicking racism out of football. A 10 match ban for a guy racially abusing another player and nothing on the club whose supporters held up a banner with the N word on it? Are you fucking kidding me? This shit happens all the time in UEFA competitions and has been going on for years and UEFA responds with sickeningly paltry fines and bans. Or how about their supposed implementation of financial fair play? Utter joke. PSG might just win both the men’s and women’s Champions Leagues this year. Financial Fair play wasn’t even a speedbump.
And UEFA don’t give a flying fuck about the players. You know what that new third UEFA tournament is about? Making sure that clubs like AC Milan, Inter, Arsenal, and Spurs keep playing in UEFA tournaments. And leveraging those clubs’ popularity to make yet another money-spinning tournament.
So, if you’re taking a stand against the Super League, and I totally understand why, it’s important to recognize that by doing so, you are sort of supporting UEFA because what the Super League is doing is giving a fat finger to UEFA. The Super League isn’t another Premier League, it’s replacing the Champions League. Read the statement: they will play matches during the mid-week. They are saying “no thanks” to the Champions League.
And let’s not forget that what UEFA are doing (just voted in) is the exact thing that the Super League are doing! They are going to give permanent spots in the Champions League to the so called big clubs who wouldn’t qualify on merit! Plus they are expanding the tournament so that they can generate even more revenue by ensuring that there are more matches between the so-called big clubs. So, if you would rather see Arsenal in the Champions League, what actually, are you defending?
And save me the sanctimony from UEFA’s president or whatever other big board member is out there right now pretending that they care about little clubs or the footballing pyramid. They don’t. They are being cut off from the hogs trough and are squealing.
Of course, this is a business decision. Of course it will exacerbate inequity in the footballing world. And of course, all right-thinking people oppose this sort of movement. But it’s not like the Champions League is some great thing we all need to preserve! It does a lot of the same things that the Super League will do but under the cloak of meritocracy.
In essence, this is a battle between two greedy sons a bitches to see which one could be more greedy! And I have a feeling that the Super League is going to win. Why?
Well, first off JP Morgan has already agreed to finance it and the teams have agreed to a 23 year television revenue sharing contract with JP Morgan. Also, this summer – if everything goes through, which it will – every team is going to get 300m Euros up front. Clubs like Arsenal can use that money to pay off their debts and still have a lot of money left over to buy players. Barcelona is carrying a billion in debt, this money will help them get financially stable.
There are a lot of pundits suggesting that the Premier League should punish the 6 teams joining the Super League or even dumber “kick them out.” They can’t do that, nor will they do that. They can’t “kick them out” because that would void their current television contracts. And what rule would allow them to punish the teams with points deductions or fines?
UEFA is also talking about trying to force players to not be eligible to play in the World Cup. LOL. They don’t have the authority to do this and they definitely can’t tell Brazilian or African players that they can’t play in the World Cup. I suppose FIFA could oppose the Super League but I have a suspicion that they will actually get on board. They have always hated UEFA nosing in on their business. And with UEFA out of the way, FIFA could have World Cups every two years. Or whatever tournament they want to hold.
And look, what the 12 founders of the super league are proposing isn’t all bad:
- Uncapped solidarity payments to their respective leagues, much more than what the PL gets from UEFA
- Formation of a Women’s Super League
- Salary caps limited to 55% of a club’s revenue
- 5 “merit-based” allocations in the 20-club League
- Fewer games than the Champions League/Europa League format
- Financial stability for these big clubs
Of course I am opposed to both the new Champions League model and the new Super League. What I have been trying to say here isn’t so much that I support them but rather that I understand what’s going on here. This is 15 or so clubs who are sick of UEFA’s shit and tired of giving them their profits. Most of the teams who have signed up here are perennial Champions League clubs anyway. And hey, if UEFA wants to continue with their three club tournaments, this doesn’t stop them. Nor does it stop the Leagues from sending teams to the Champions League or whatever. In fact, ironically, it would probably increase the diversity of Champions League winners if these 15 teams are not in that competition. I mean, maybe Leicester could even win the Champions League! Though that depends on whether Bayern and PSG sign up for the Super League – at the time of this article both teams were either silent or openly opposed.
And so, while I get the outrage because it is anti-merit, and yes this is completely motivated by profits, I also get why the clubs want to do this. And this is now so far down the road that I feel like it is inevitable. But I’m not going to sit here and defend UEFA or take their side in this dispute. Heck, I say let them battle it out for supremacy.
I get your point Tim, and maybe you deserve some credit for taking a glass half-full approach. FIFA and UEFA are certainly no paragons. The expanded CL format was dumb, there’s too many pointless international friendlies, and the WC in Qatar is a ludicrous fiasco. But I’m certainly not a fan of trading that for something even more money-grubbing and worse.
If you believe that the Super League owners are going to stick to the commitments you mention above, I have a Tacoma Narrows bridge to sell you. They will find that they aren’t making as much money as anticipated and cut them. None of them have done anything to make me believe that they are worth their word.
It says something when the sportswashers of Man City and PSG are looking relatively good on this. Or the rumor that the reason Mourinho was sacked today was because he refused to take the players out for training (if that’s true, it pains me to say this, but well done Jose). The tone deaf social media posts of Arsenal yesterday were ridiculous.
And yes, smallish clubs haven’t won the CL much. But even in recent years, a few have come close, Spurs and Ajax, on budgets much smaller than the usual suspects. And that was good for watchability.
I enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament because it does at least have some degree of unpredictability. Or to take another example, one of the most exciting Arsenal matches I can remember watching was the 7-5 victory against Reading in the League Cup. That sort of thing wouldn’t happen in the Super League world.
Maybe the horse has left the barn, and we’re screwed no matter what at this point. But I’m loathe to accept the most screwed option.
The Super League won’t stop the Arsenal kids playing in the League Cup. It will only stop Arsenal’s first team playing in the Europa League…
Technically perhaps true. But I believe the FA has oversight on the League Cup, and they aren’t acting too keen on this.
Few things here:
1. Man City are in the group.
2. PSG aren’t in the group because they are virtually guaranteed Champions League football forever given their financial backing and the fact that the French league is on the verge of total financial collapse.
3. Bayern also
4. No, Jose wasn’t fired for “taking a stand”
5. The new Super League includes salary caps, which would actually make the competition more competitive.
Yes, City, after initially not saying anything, are in.
As for Bayern, they are not in (nor Dortmund). But in the case of both the German clubs and PSG, the CL competition would be much diminished with everyone else missing. So I’d imagine the calculation goes beyond them being “guaranteed” CL football. You could make an argument that stance has a fair amount to do with the German model of fan ownership.
And yes, I doubt Jose was fired. But the fact that was even a rumor says something abotu how disliked this idea is.
Maybe a salary cap would make things more competitive. It still wouldn’t make me interested in seeing the same matchups over and over again with no promotion/relegation. That’s one of the big things that motivate me to watch vs. the NFL model. Again, just because things are broken right now doesn’t mean that the Super League is the right way to go.
You’ve just convinced me this is not as bad as I first thought.
Sorry for the double negative, but Tim was not trying to convince us that the Super League is not as bad as we first thought. Rather, Tim was trying to convince us that the Super League is really no worse than the UEFA Champions League. And I think I can see that viewpoint.
Parts of your arguments have swayed me a little. The ESL would be great to isolate the contagion that has been juicing football for the last 20+ yrs. How can Barcelona and Real, two of the richest ,highest revenue clubs in the world, be a billion Euros in debt? They’re idiots! Making disastrous on field and off field decisions. 142$ million Euros for Coutinho?!? Or us, Raul spending 72 million pounds on Pepe?!?
Fence them off in their own little billionaire playground while the rest of the clubs left in the domestic leagues would still have excellent players, and would be forced , really forced this time to adhere to a sort of FFP, if only because the money would really no longer be there!
Bravo!
Cry havoc and loose the dogs of war.
It’s a damned shame, but I can’t be arsed to care much. Basically, the American owners have “convinced” the other club owners that an NFL-model (or as close as the Europeans can get to an NFL-model) is the correct approach for profitability. Salary caps are the dead giveaway.
And you can bet your bottom-dollar that this is a done deal. No investment bank with the stature of JPM publicly gets involved without the cake being baked,
The king is dead. Long live the King.
Thanks for the thoughtful observations, Tim. I went to my first game in 1965, lost touch with footy when I came to the States in ’83, got back into it when games started streaming on the Internet. While money has always been part of the game, Abramovich changed the rules and made it all about money, so now the so-called Big Six are defined not by their performances but by how much their owners are willing to pay to buy their titles. Our owner doesn’t care shite for titles as long he’s making a profit, which is why we’re now a mid-table team. I’ve been able to live with the hypocrisy of supporting my team in spite of its owner, but I think this may be a bridge too far. You’re absolutely right about UEFA, their outrage is so obviously driven by self-interest, you have to laugh. But after this latest outrageous money-grabbing move by a Company that brags about its “values” and its heritage, I just don’t feel like my heart’s in it any more. Think I’ll go outside and get some fresh air.
Thank you for putting this out there. I didn’t think it was too bad an idea when it came out. It feels like a fight between a legacy thought process and a new one.
The now large organizations (superclubs) are trying to mitigate risks by subverting the existing system and with its inbuilt corruption and power structures, european football was always ripe for such kind of reorganization.
With greater guarantees of revenue, there would be a greater dependence on academies and the grassroots that help fill those academies. Setting up new rules would allow them to expand into newer geographies to set up larger academies and pipelines. I suppose that’s what they meant by infrastructure.
Isn’t it also about generating employment, wouldn’t it allow to move money faster downstream through a private enterprise than a bureaucratic organization like fifa or uefa. All of these organizations do say they want to develop football, but most of the world around us was constructed because of need and competition. Fifa and uefa do not have competition, so they have no incentive to grow or become better run. This is a wake up call to this industry.
Just thinking.
One of the reasons I am following Arsenal more closely at the moment is that I am curious to see what Arteta can do with a relatively small transfer resource. He has to create silk purses out of sows’ ears and make us successful by his skills, not the club’s access to megafunds. Hale End is a critical part of this, and Per Mertesacker matters. Trying to get us back to a CL place also matters. I’d hate all that to get lost in a financial windfall or for it not to matter because we are guaranteed a CL place, regardless of who’s guaranteeing it.
One other thing I find weird is how much Arsenal fans hate UEFA competitions and yet they don’t want to join the Super League. Things I’ve heard a LOT of Arsenal fans say:
-(for 15 years) What’s the point of Arsenal in the Champions League, no chance to win!
-I’d rather Arsenal didn’t play in the Europa League, better chance to win the Premier League.
-I’d rather Arsenal finish outside of the Europa Conference League places.
That is uncalled for.
Arsenal fans were unhappy with the objective of merely participating in the CL via the 4th place trophy.
Now we don’t even need to win that iconic trophy anymore.
You know that trophy actually matters to a guy called Wenger.
Always good to consider the other side of the argument. However I think you have missed the point here, Tim.
While I 100% agree that I am no fan of UEFA – nor the new (or frankly current) “Champions” League format – whether or not the ESL was intended to be a replacement for the Champions League, my issue with it is the damage it will inflict on the Premier League (and by this I mean the top division of English football).
You’re talking 30% of the Premier League’s clubs being permanent members of this league. Plus presumably another one (the best of the rest as one of the lucky 5 in this supposed meritocractic allocation).
Option A – the Premier League retains these teams.
Where do you think the TV money will go? The Premier League is instantly devalued and will become the equivalent of the Carabao Cup for these teams. The money for the unlucky 14 will diminish, and they will get progressively worse. Re the special 6, they will use the threat of leaving the league (and draining whatever last tv rights money) to claim a bigger share of the (smaller) pot. And then ultimately how long until they have an official ‘B’ team to take their place in this league?
Option B – the Premier League kicks the teams out (or more likely a new English First Division is created, just as the PL broke off from the FA’s original First Division). Without the 6 biggest teams it’s a devalued competition, and tv and sponsorship rights will reflect accordingly, and the teams get progressively further behind the ESL teams in an ever increasing cycle (eg hands up who has watched a Championship game in the last 5 years?).
I couldn’t give a crap about the impact of these proposals on UEFA. But they will destroy the top division of English football, and I will never give a penny of my money or second of my time to watch any team who participates in that. Which will force me to watch and support eg Fulham or Brentford with their not quite as good players and fuck you Stan for inflicting that on me for the rest of my life.
There’s a 40 second video floating around of Wenger stating a few years back ( maybe more recently than that) , that the intention of an ESL type structure is to wrest financial power away from the Premier League. Of course that there are 6 EPL clubs that want to split undermines that argument,unless you conclude that they don’t really give a shit about English football, which I do….
I really don’t know if I agree that this will destroy the Premier League. The Premier League is already awash with incredible money being pumped in from wealthy owners and hedge funds. Is there ever a chance that Man City will finish outside of the Champions League places? I guess so, but really? And didn’t the formation of the Premier League effectively kill the Football League 30 years ago? And aren’t these clubs effectively already getting huge sums from UEFA participation, which puts them into unassailable monetary territory even if they don’t get unlimited cash injections from an Oil state?
Option A is the only option until the current TV contracts run down, unless clubs like Leicester are willing to pay back the money they are getting. I don’t think it’s automatically true that the PL games will be hit by lower quality, why wouldn’t big clubs want to win the PL? Arsenal wouldn’t and that’s a fair criticism but you bet your ass that Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, Man U, etc will all still be trying to place as high as possible.
Option B isn’t viable both because of the current TV contracts and because as you point out it would be an incredible financial drain. These 6 clubs are already promising to share the revenue with their Leagues, and that it will be an un capped percentage of earnings, unlike what happens now with UEFA. Seems to me like “small” clubs would benefit in that situation. Also, option B isn’t viable because the league required 3/4 of the members to vote on a proposal like that, which would require one of the six teams to vote to kick themselves out of the Premier League. Can’t see that happening, can you?
I don’t believe we are currently getting huge sums from UEFA participation, relatively speaking, no. And neither did Spurs until very recently.
Dial back a few more years and Man City weren’t either. In fact a few more years than that and Man City weren’t even in the Premier League, Chelsea were at best a mid table side, while Newcastle were tearing it up financially and sportingly. Or Blackburn Rovers a few years before that.
So yes, while it seems crazy right now, in reality things go in cycles and once eg MBS buys Newcastle, or Leicester do a Spurs and start consistently making CL spots, or Sheikh Mansour gets tired of his plaything / dies of Covid / fires Pep and appoints Jose or whatever unexpected event transpires, their territory is both absolutely and inevitably assailable.
The ESL changes that. Because membership and income is guaranteed. And yes, of course if they are still in the PL (which my understanding is that 14, not 15 clubs required for major changes), they will still want to do well. Just as they don’t go out to lose a Carabao Cup game. But prioritisation will be for the ESL, as that is where their gravy lies.
Regarding the 3x funding comment I read that too. I’d like to see the actual numbers, because I’d wager a strong bet that once you’ve removed the funds the big 6 take from UEFA competitions, the remaining amount being paid to English leagues is negligible. And triple peanuts is still peanuts. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if the increase is more than offset by the c. £500m contribution that CL subsidises to the Europa League teams – which of course will disappear. Or perhaps I’m just being cynical, and they really are doing this for altruistic reasons….
I think individual perspectives will depend on where you were raised. If you’re American you’ll be familiar with the NFL model and it doesn’t take a great leap of faith to see how it would work (wait until they propose draft picks and salary caps).
If you’re a Brit of a certain age that still remembers the connection between the club and the local community it’s a little more of a wrench.
But the reality is globalisation ain’t reversing and it’s not like the formation of the Premier League in 1992 and exclusive broadcasting deal they cut with Sky weren’t a power grab at the time. The reality is football became big business many, many years ago.
The most poignant comment I read today is that Arsenal football club wears our shirt but not our values. C’est la vie!
Salary caps are already baked into the proposal.
I understand your UEFA angle Tim, but I have to say this is a very American opinion.
In your dismissal of the European Cup I think you are dismissing the two key fundamentals of European club football. History and Hope. Without which, what is sport?
Pride. The history of rivalry and hope of competition for EVERY team. Be they geographic or personal, these club interactions resonate on a far deeper level over here. We are talking 140 years of competitive history, not 50 at a push for the NFL circus.
Greed. Theoretically a team can rise up and take on the established elite purely due to talented management, smart investment and skill. Leicester for example. But now what? At this snapshot in time the top 12 cash in their chips to sell their souls and their history for an even larger piece of pie. Disgusting doesn’t come close.
It is capitalism at its nadir. But it goes further than football.
Envy. Europe as a continent is built on thousands of years of history, you feel it in the streets and in the buildings, in the culture and the art left from generation upon generation. Sorry to say but I have visited North America many times, and while it has noble qualities, one thing it is not good at is recognising its past. Erase and repeat, profits above all. Things are just not like that over here. The model does not translate.
Sloth. I find US sport mind-numbingly superficial. And none more so than NFL, on which this super league is heavily-based. Never mind the tedium of the interminable advertising breaks and the lack of promotion and relegation. There is so little depth to the whole charade. While the Draft defines all players as mercenaries straight out of College, the fact a team can be up-rooted 2000 miles to a different time-zone at the drop of a hat says it all. It is just a bravado pantomime where the pinnacle of the sport, the Super Bowl, is a glorified add break for whatever fast-food is on the menu and whatever washed-up pop star they can roll out.
Wrath. The biggest issue of this manufactured league is the lack of jeopardy. How can any lover of Football be onboard with a competition that sees the same teams play each other over and over and over again into eternity with nothing but prize money on offer? It is mindless at its very core and against everything football stands for. From its working-class roots to its modern-day professionals, no matter who you are, it comes down to an unscripted 90 minutes on 2 acres of grass. Risk and uncertainty are what make the sport.
Gluttony. In no universe does Arsenal fighting it out for 6th every season in a Super League come close to the one-off big occasion of a Champion’s League night. It is not even in the same dimension. Maybe there will be playoffs, and maybe there will be drama, but with the same old teams competing year after year, there will be very little variety remaining. A vacuum for the vain.
Lust. I am now interested in the Europa league, but I didn’t use to be. I am because Arsenal are in it and for them it is a chance to progress back to the top table. To re-invest in the club and once again reach the final of the European cup, the competition everyone dreams of winning. The best club in the Continent, on merit. What can be sweeter than that? To be the best you have to earn it, pure and simple. No-one has a divine right to succeed in sport, it has to be earned. If you get knocked out, you get knocked out. The fundamental pressure of a once-in-a-season chance to progress is one of the greatest drivers of success. When your club’s future is on the line it means more – a lot more.
I don’t know where we go from here. I have said before I would agree with a super league in principle if it was an extension of the domestic league, with promotion and relegation. But this over privileged dolls-house of d’ck-swingers is not and never will be the game we all love.
NFL was formed in 1920.
Also, I’m not having an “American” perspective. I said in the piece that I’m opposed to the idea but that I understand what they are doing. I find it a bit offensive and dismissive to just say “you’re saying this because you’re an American who watches NFL.” I don’t watch NFL, just FYI.
Yes, as I wrote in my piece on the proposed changes to the Champions League (which are the same as this proposal – that clubs get in on history not merit) I am opposed to that proposal (which was ratified yesterday) and this Super League one for that exact reason.
I in no way meant to offend you. I just disagree with your statement: “But it’s not like the Champions League is some great thing we all need to preserve! It does a lot of the same things that the Super League will do but under the cloak of meritocracy.”
I have seen this sentiment repeated and feel it must come from a place of ignorance. No matter how vaguely meritocratic the CL is now, a closed league like this has nothing. Either you’re in our you’re out. Tough sh’t.
Leicester are the clearest example: from Championship to the Champions League in less than 5 seasons. If that is not a meritocracy I do not know what is.
Their rise up the table and continued investment is in large part because the CL is the pinnacle of European club football. Take that away and what have you got? A closed shop and the top where the fat get fatter and the poor get poorer beneath.
A Super League is hugely different from the Champion’s League – which I think it needs to be preserved for the health of the game – if nothing more than as an incentive for performance. Take away all incentive and risk and you are left with a shell of a sport.
I don’t think you watch NFL, it just is the clearest example of where I see this Super League heading. Our owner is a major player in that very sport / entertainment vehicle. Ironically it actually works because the whole industry is geared that way. My argument is that surgically attaching this new league format to the top of an (in theory) meritocratic football pyramid absolutely destroys the rest of the competition, at all levels.
This isn’t meant to be anti-American and I hope it doesn’t come across that way. It is just my reasoning from the heart why I feel this format does not translate across these sports or even across the Atlantic as it stands.
Well argued, sir. I agree 100%. The jeopardy of relegation from a league and elimination from a cup are as much the source of what makes each game and competition interesting as is the prize at the end, which can of course only be won by one competitor.
Relegation and elimination are of course anathema to money-men like Kroenke (“you wouldn’t be in it if you wanted to win things”) whose involvement in sport appears to be more about growing investment than the sports themselves.
Tim your criticisms of UFA and its own proposed buy-off proposals for the dirty dozen are well made and entirely accurate. Neither proposed new structure portends an encouraging future. You are also correct that the present structure of both the CL and EL are unsatisfactory and some change is required, However the proposed closed shop destroys aspiration and competition which are the basis of the football pyramid. This sounds like a proposal for a Harlem Globetrotters experience. Fine technicians, meaningless games.
This closed shop cartel proposal is a cancer on the game and I am ashamed that my club is one of its driving forces. It does reek of a stateside plot. If this proposal succeeds and the Arsenal remain involved as they will as Kroenke is clearly up to his scrawny neck in it, my commitment to the Arsenal is dead.
“I have seen this sentiment repeated and feel it must come from a place of ignorance.”
I find that people who say stuff like this come from a place of arrogance. If you step down from your supposed high place for a few seconds you might see that what I said is that they are similar. “IT DOES A LOT OF THE SAME THINGS” for example?
THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE GUARANTEED PLACES FOR BIG CLUBS AND THEY WILL GUARANTEE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FOOTBALL FOR ANY CLUB THAT MAKES IT INTO THE FINAL BRACKET VIRTUALLY ENSURING THAT A TOP 16 CLUBS IS PERMANENTLY IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE.
“But they are there on merit!”
Are they? Is Man City there on merit or did they merely buy their way into the Champions League? How about PSG? And what about how Bayern Munich are the only club to win the League for 9 years now? And how they just buy up all their opponent’s best players every year? This is merit? It’s vulture capitalism under the cloak of meritocracy.
My point is that UEFA and their new Champions League format is just as bad but because it has the guise of meritocracy a lot of brain geniuses like you are happy to choke it down.
That sir was quite brilliant
Shame the Jose news got buried today as there’s plenty to discuss there. Spuds need CL revenue and halo (don’t we all?) but the fact they’ve acted quickly is a bold move. They’re increasingly mirroring the Chelski approach. Wonder who they’ll recruit?
I agree. I didn’t think they had the balls to fire the Special One.
The fact that they did so, actually worries me a bit.
Will worry me if they persuade Nagelsmann to join.
“History and Hope” is well-expressed, OTAMOTPUOS.
Many years ago, as a new North American fan of European football, I found two novel aspects, completely different from my experience:
1) That the intensity of the rivalries and of home and away supporters actually required they be segregated. What exactly is an “away section” anyway. An Italian musician friend, Roman and a Lazio supporter told me of attending away games under police escort just to get into Stadio Olimpio. Whaaat? At a Bluejays game I’d have to put up with obnoxious Yankees or Red Sox fans sitting right next to me.
2) The non-monopolistic nature of football leagues whose team memberships were based on merit. That a club could be relegated or promoted depending on where they finished the season.
The year we should have won the Leicester City did it only a couple of years after promotion. And they remain one of the better teams in England.
The American sports business model adoption in Europe will erase the unique appeal of European football and I wouldn’t be at all surprised at Stan Kroenke being anything but silent in this regard and major proponent and architect. He came, he bought and he conquered: turning European football into an NFL structure and making Arsenal a typical mediocre KSE club. What a shame.
Yes, your two points were also what attracted me to football many moons ago.
One minor quibble.
The NFL does still have some pretty engaged rivalries (or at least used to):
– Raiders v Chargers was always an iffy proposition.
– Eagles v Cowboys (the old Eagles stadium had a jail to deal with miscreant “fans” onsite.
– Cowboys v Washington Football Club (Back when I was an NFL fan and up for a tussle, I wore my Cowboys jersey to FedEx Field and was involved in a couple fracases). and
– and Browns (now Ravens) v Steelers.
Each of those venues had “traveling” sections and, if you were down to clown, you could find some trouble.
Now, the NFL is a sterile, soulless, and corporatized product, and I am no longer a fan…but there used to be passion.
I do agree with your other points.
Lonestar, It was a a highlight of my life meeting Roger Staubach in an elevator of the Dallas Westin Galleria. He was busy, off to some appointment with real estate customers, but actually waited for me a good 10 minutes, to run downstairs to the mall and buy a jersey from the Cowboys store which he duly signed. What a gentleman and what a legend! In thanks, I sent a Martin acoustic guitar to his office, which I’m told he still has to this day!
1Nil, that is a fantastic memory. Roger “The Dodger”, is indeed a diamond geezer (and a former Navy officer). I met Randy White and Emmitt at golf tourney several years ago. They were ok.
I am a recovering Cowboys fan…
I could no longer hack it when Jerry Jones got all “megalomaniacal”…
My objections to this new league are:
1) Despite the increased, stabilized revenue, what incentives are there to “win” the league, or better yet, try to achieve a baseline level of competitiveness so you can’t be relegated? Arsenal aren’t going to suddenly go out and use this money to buy better players, why would they care? Kroenke will spend the bare minimum, as he does with his NFL and NBA teams that haven’t won sweet f*** all. At least with the need to qualify for the Champions League, there was a carrot incentive for improving you team’s performances with the promise of pay-off.
2) The arrogance of the proposal that these teams continue to play in their respective domestic leagues, despite an even more disparate financial system. If you’re a team in the ESL, you have +/- 150m more (by projections) to work with than those teams on the outside, so it makes City v. Norwich an even bigger joke. Why not remove these teams from the domestic leagues altogether then, make the ESL a truly separate higher pan-Europe division? Then at least we’d see Napoli win Serie A, Sevilla win La Liga, etc. What’s to stop these uber-teams from using the additional funds to stock-pile even more young talent that gets stuck in some U-23 ESL pseudo-league and keeps them from other teams.
3) There is no regional balance, at all.
4) That Arsenal and Spurs, two teams with no European pedigree, think they are at the level of Madrid, Barcelona and United, is embarrassing.
And… trust me, Real Madrid v. Arsenal will get old after the 10th time in 5 years. It won’t be any more special than a regular season NFL game of say, the Jacksonville Jaguars v. Minnesota Vikings. The NFL would be nothing if it weren’t for fantasy football and gambling and a fascination with watching steroid-freaks give each other CTE.
1) Agree.
2) they have proposed salary caps and also promised revenue sharing with their domestic leagues.
3) Agree.
4) It’s just about how we are one of the biggest financial teams in the world, it’s not about sporting merit of course.
I for one, welcome our new ESL overlords!
Great post. I’m not thrilled with the idea of the SUPER DUPER League, but I don’t think it’s any worse than UEFA.
I also don’t think it will destroy the Premier League or even damage it – fans will still watch the League games like they do now and this is simply replacing one mid week tournament with another.
I find it difficult to care about the whole meritocracy aspect of the discussion around these tournaments considering that, as soon as draws for qualifiers or groups are made, everything possible is done to systematically crush the smaller teams through seeding that ensures the biggest teams always have the easiest rides and are purposefully kept apart as much as possible to keep them in the competition at the expense of the minnows.
Maybe you can call it reward for consistency, but it ensure none of these individual competitions EVER give all teams an equal chance.
Every one of these competitions is already structured to make it easier for big teams with huge resources to win because, God forbid, 4 of the biggest teams ever end up in one group and we lose two of them before the knockout stage.
And the current system already excludes winners of smaller leagues to make room for ‘bigger’ non league winners so where’s the fairness and merit in that?
These competitions are already bent out of shape to ensure profit before fairness.
Boo!
So, long time Arsenal fan, think mid 70’s and an American, yes, not an oxymoron.
First, I hate this idea!
Second, free market capitalism unrestrained leaves the human population as slaves and an uninhabitable planet in the long run!
The elites run and own everything in the USA, notice I did not say socialists, because is that not what the NFL is all about, along with being a monopoly. Also, let’s be clear, the big markets in the USA dominate the airwaves and playoff spots normally, whether it be nbA, mlB, nhL, or nfL.
This entire thing is a $ play and that is that.
Give you the perfect equivalent for us AFC fans, think Detroit Lions in the NFL, last place or thereabouts every year, had an 0-16 season, should get 1st round picks to get us out of the landfill, but we have not won a playoff game in 25 years!! Think about that for a second, 25 years in a “meritocracy”. $h*t owners and management will never get us to the top level: sound familiar? Fleece the fans every single year without fail. I no longer watch the Lions….
I do not know how to process this yet, change my focus to the MLS and inferior players, but still watch the game I love? Or just shut down futbol completely, or switch leagues to Bundesliga or Ligue One? Hmmm, not sure how I feel about that either.
Each of these entities, fifa, uefa, fa, superleague are all pure scum, but if AFC does not go along, if this league goes through, it will die as being a premier club, 10 years gone by in reality, maybe a good thing actually, stay local, or championship league and play a game the fans and players love.
Naw, that will never happen, stan the maN will take the $ and run, all the while “managing” our club into oblivion and anonymity!
Lastly, bet everyone can’t wait for 105 commercials every match, vaR challenges, endless drama over what is a foul, goal, and offside. What a $h*testorm.
Will spend more time bird watching, which is just fine by me. Long live the titmouse:-)
I am not angry, I am disappointed. Disappointed in these clubs and a bit in you Tim.
You put forward the pros and cons of the super league (thanks for the balanced view), but only pointed out the cons of the Champions league. The Champions league might not be perfect, but it deserves as much analysis as the super league for us to see if it really is the same or a better alternative.
Let me put forward some points to defend the Champions League (and mind you, I didn’t say UEFA):
1. To tell the truth, the Champions League made these teams, not the other way around. None of these sides would be as big as they are without the exposure that the European Cup gave to them, and up to a point, some are still surviving on the memories of those past achievements in the very same competition. This applies to sides that were big before the large cash injections of the 00’s. The competition made them and the competition can make more. This applies in every single sport, no-one is bigger than the competition.
2. The exposure of the Leagues that housed these historical sides by European football served to pull eyes towards them, and among those eyes, was Sheik Mansour, Abramovich, etc. There is a reason the Champions League was a big target for Chelsea and Man City’s owners.
3. The presence of a super league negates the reason behind winning the Champions League being a prestigious achievement. The reason Leicester winning the League will resonate for ages, and much more than whatever Man City do, is that it was achieved against the odds. It’s like qualifying as a Ranger in the United States military, after the rigorous training has been lightened, it becomes meaningless.
And this sham of different winners making a tournament more exciting is a plain falsehood. Different winners or the same winner, as long as it is competitive amongst the challengers, it will be exciting. As long as those with no hope are giving their all, it will be exciting. As long as the winners are deserved, it will be exciting.
4. This point though is the most disappointing one from you Tim and probably why it can be viewed as having an American mentality to this. Normally when we discuss football, we usually monopolise the discussion to clubs whose aims are European qualification (top 4), trophies, titles, big signings, big salaries, big names and global appeal. It’s important to not only take others into account, but to also put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself “what does this person expect of their team going into each season?”
What does the Super League take away from a Shaktar Donetsk and Shalke 04 (10/11)? APOEL (11/12)? Malaga and Galatasaray (12/13)? Atletico Madrid (13/14)? Basel and Monaco (14/15)? Wolfsburg, Gent and Dynamo Kyiv (15/16)? Leicester City (16/17)? Sevilla, Besiktas, Basel and Shaktar Donetsk (17/18)? Ajax and Porto (18/19)*? RB Leipzig, Atalanta and Lyon (19/20)?
None of these sides consider themselves as genuine contenders for the Champions League, but they embody the very essence that makes football what it is. It’s not the big clubs that carry football, it’s the hundreds of smaller clubs, not really trying to take them down, No! But like Leonidas in 300, they go into the season hoping to make these “God King” clubs bleed. Ask Leicester fans about their sojourn into Europe and you never hear disappointment at a lack of money blocking them from winning the whole thing. Their fans reminisce about the opportunity received as reward for their performances in qualifying for the Champions League, and also the opportunity to write a story which can have a happy ending even without a trophy lifted at the end. The joy/attraction of football is not exclusive to the winners of titles.
To tell the truth, the fallacies of UEFA are there for all of us to see, but as a follower and reporter, of many smaller clubs around Europe, the super league is a horrible idea and a killer of so many footballing cultures across the continent. Not just the Premier League and the leagues that these “big clubs” play in, which seems to be what everyone is fixated on. Europe is a continent with many football associations that have many clubs playing under them, with just one dream in mind, to share the biggest stage, even for one game, with some of the best clubs in the world. Some dreams are that modest and simple, are they less deserving of a place if they perform better than these so called “big clubs”? Even for one season?
I watch Atalanta a lot and they should be rewarded for their performances by qualifying over a club that has money but fails at the very thing it was formed to do, which is to play football! Especially if they have the finances to do so quite well. If the so called big clubs are not run properly, well hey, there are many clubs that were big which have fallen and seen others take their place. Every decade has seen changes in dominance amongst clubs, and that is football’s natural progression, not this artificial change disguised as positive progress. Lest we forget, clubs like Leicester, Atalanta, Dortmund, Atletico, Sevilla and others came up in the last 15 years based off of meritocracy, without substantial financial backing.
Those stories are still relevant and remain an integral part of football.
*Fxck Spxrs!
entities opposed to this proposal are so because there’a s huge money-making venture in which they have no authority and earn no revenue. likewise, this venture threatens their current bottom line and future earnings. ironically, i just watched a video on espn where a guy suggests that there should have been this same outrage from uefa about racism in the game; a topic we were discussing this weekend. they don’t care about the players, but they do care about their money and power.
to my european-based brethren, a salary cap is not about making things equal between the teams. it’s about maximizing how much a business can spend on their biggest expense; the labor force. this allows them to ensure that they keep a bigger piece of the pie.
its no surprise that three of the 6 english teams involved in this are owned by americans. the american sports franchise business model makes it very lucrative being an owner. this is an opportunity any owner would want to be part of.
Many good points are raised but I think you have found an argument (franchise model vs. UEFA) that allows you to avoid the main question: does the move to a Superleague make Arsenal a better club to support. To me it clearly doesn’t and is an obvious cheat to take the risk of being beat by clubs that are either richer or better run (of which there are 8 right now in the EPL according to the standings). This move would both take fun out of watching Arsenal struggle to qualify by merit and shift the values of the club from one that I identify with.
One issue I have with the comparison of the Superleague to the NFL is that there will be no draft to act as an equalization payment for the richer (and presumably more successful) clubs. There will be a very narrow path for clubs to be competitive with Superleague teams.
In other words, I am not siding with Uefa of the FA but rather I just want a good product to watch and I don’t get how these oligarchs think they are doing that by squeezing more competitiveness out of an already rigged system.
I had initially been angrily opposed to the Super League – and still am – but I think your piece is well-reasoned. I’m the johnny come lately here. I don’t have the lifetime experience of following the club. I understand how this is just another step away from it being London’s/England’s club, and for those that have a lifetime connection to the club, it’s a betrayal.
There are some other things at play here, I suspect. For these 6 PL teams, they feel penalized that they are dramatically better than many of the teams that get in CL from the smaller countries of the world, but they are forced to play in the 2nd tier Europa league (I assure you Stan thinks this way). Why should Galatasary and Slavia or other teams get CL when they are clearly inferior? Thre may be some merit to that argument.
I think the ESL guys believed this was coming from somewhere, by someone, sooner or later. American, Chinese, Middle Eastern and other global oligarchs would create something like this, and they would then have less control. Better to preempt it and do it themselves. I can see this reasoning.
I am a lifelong Steelers fan. I honestly doubt that my team would be competitive in 2021 if there were no salary cap in the NFL. Big cities and big teams with richer owners just outspend the other teams and create an imbalance in power. It’s no more apparent than in European football. While it does limit players’ money at some level, it also gives cities like Pittsburgh an equal shot at talent. How a cap works for European football, with talent all over the world, and no draft will be fascinating.
I would have been a proponent of reforming the CL a bit more, and seeing more PL teams able to compete regularly. I don’t like the ESL, am sad it’s happening and dismayed that Arsenal have been a big driver of it. But I absolutely understand why it’s happening.
LAGUNNER, I feel that a lot of people who say they understand are taking the position of the owner and seeing it from that perspective. Unfortunately, the owner’s primary concern is financial and thus all of this makes sense in that way but sporting wise, I don’t see any instance where it makes sense or improves on what already exists. If anything, it has far more downsides for football and the only upsides are for the owner’s.
Firstly, continental competitions are men at to offer everyone an equal opportunity to compete, from any country. The Champions League format already rewards the richer leagues with more places in the competition, so these sides have a better chance to enter than these clubs from far flung places.
Secondly, if we are to be fair and make a European competition, we should afford everyone the opportunity to compete. With limited spaces, there is an inkling of meritocracy in how Gala or Slavia can make it in over an Arsenal. Your bank account and fanbase does not constitute merit, but with the Super League, it constitutes a right to participate.
Even if these clubs thought that a super league might come from else where, football is a culture globally and the reactions to changes are not taken on board as easily as most think. The Chinese league is an example of money not being enough in the world of football, in this space you will find that players incredibly attached to their sense of community and clubs are far more community institutions than most believe. But like I said, the focus is so focused on the top sides and leagues that most miss what the rest of the continent brings to the table.
Also, the idea of clubs governing themselves is a scary thought when you consider what they already ask of fans. self governance is never good for anything made for a community of people, and that includes the police, military, and believe it or not, football clubs.
On this salary cap, I don’t get the fixation on it. It seems like only Americans understand the value of this component well, but still, who does it benefit? How does it improve football? What is the idea behind its usefulness in a team that will be getting revenues of over 300 million a season from a single competition? Have they said the savings will be used to reduce ticket prices? Food prices?
I see the understanding of this in the same way that a boss punching an employee for not completing a task. There is a reason for doing that and I am sure any in can see it (from the boss’ perspective on why he did it), but it is still physical assault and a horrible thing to do
Couldn’t agree more, Devlin. The owners are self-interested people and live in a world in which concepts like fairness, community, sporting and meritocracy have no place. Their concern is whether they are going to own and control football, or someone else is. It’s no surprise they want the former. To take your analogy, they believe that if they don’t punch their employee, someone else will come and punch them (the owner). Kill or be killed. At that level of wealth and power, that’s how they think in order to survive. Terrible, greedy, entitled and (perhaps rightly) paranoid people. Thank god it doesn’t look like it’s happening.
The salary cap has helped protect smaller market teams – like Pittsburgh in the NFL – from their wealthier rivals from bigger cities. All TV revenues are shared by the teams equallly – with the exception of playoffs, I believe. If implemented correctly, it keeps the league from devolving into haves and have nots/ Not a panacea, but it has merits. If insituted in the PL, it would give the mid and lower table teams a fair, sporting chance and create more of a meritocracy in that teams can’t buy championships, they have to earn them.
The best outcome from the ESL mess is that Stan sells the club. Now that he actually has to manage it to succeed, he may realize he’s out of his depth. He’s realized a huge gain on the club. I imagine he could find a buyer. We can only hope.
There is no level playing field in Europe and inequity has grown immensely in the past 30 years. English football hasn’t been the same since Abramovitch allowed Chelsea to distort the market, hoover up talent and become ‘a big club’. One of the great ironies was their objection to Man City doing the same.
PSG did the same in France while Bayern’s hegemony is based on longstanding extra investment and pillaging parochial talent to ensure deplete opposition quality much like Manchester United’s traditional approach. I have fond memories of great coaches building great teams to lift the European Cup like Celtic, Ajax and Feyenoord did by beating the established ‘big boys’ of the day. Something we will almost certainly never see again.