The ‘Beautiful Game’ almost destroyed by club owners who only care about money. When this daunting idea was put into place fans, managers, captains, everyone who loved the game of football came together and voiced their opinions, whether that be in protest or on live television. It wasn’t surprising how angry and upset they were. It has been proven to money-minded club owners that the sportsmanship in football means everything to fans and athletes and that’s why the ‘top teams’ decided to leave the super league because they knew that the fans’ support was more important than financial profits. Also, if fans weren’t supportive enough, the Super League would not have made the profits that were promised. From the public’s viewpoint, money is what this league was about. The question we need to ask is do we want to compromise sportsmanship, growth, fairness, equality and fan ship for money?
Champion’s league is already doing the job
The Champions League has been around since 1955 and has always brought drama with every game. So why exchange that for the Super league? The Champions league allows the top few teams from Europe’s leagues to have the chance to play each other for the cup. Even though games aren’t played week in week out, it still brings the excitement and the views.
In 2018, 1.3 billion people around the world watched games within the champions league, showing how popular the competition is. Therefore, why exchange a historical and fair competition for a league that is excluding teams because of their financial state? This would have been the only league in which teams would have been selected simply because of their wealth. Why weren’t other teams from around the world invited? FC Porto for example have won their league 29 times in which they have been in the Champions League most seasons and have won against some of the teams that were invited to the Super league previously so what makes them any different? That is not the football we love and cherish! The Champions League was made to provide competition for Europe’s top teams every season as well as give the fans something to enjoy and it has never failed to do so. Why change that now? Another reason why the Champions League is beneficial is that it’s a good way for managers to see other players from around the world who they may try and use in a transfer to strengthen their own squad.
Impact on athletes
Another reason why the European Super League is a terrible idea is because there has been no say for the players on these teams. This once again shows that the Super League is all focused on money as the players weren’t confronted before this idea was put forward. According to an article, it was believed that Manchester United players first found out that their club had signed to be part of the Super League through social media!
Finding out through the media is unbelievable and it doesn’t seem true that not one person who is part of this club decided to ask for their opinions. After all, players are an extremely important part of the club. There is no doubt that these players would have felt worthless. In some ways, it allowed these players from all the teams involved to unite and come together and express their emotions on why they disliked the idea of the Super League. True sportsmanship lies in standing up for the right things.
Impact on football economics
If there was one good thing that was to come from the European Super League it would be money. The reason the league was created was so that the 16 teams who originally joined up would share over £3 billion between them. But what is so important about money? when looking at club debts, shows that the majority of the clubs who were to take part in the existing leagues were millions of pounds in debt so being part of the Super league could have helped them to potentially pay off that debt. But then again, the saying ‘created by the poor, taken by the rich’ on protesters minds shows that these owners probably had no intentions into putting the shared money into the clubs they own. Furthermore, having the Super League will also allow the ‘top’ clubs to be worth more because they don’t have to worry about being relegated due to it being a fixed league. Of course, the pandemic has had huge impacts on revenue and for most of the 12 clubs that were originally involved in the Super League, they have lost as close to £100 million so was the Super League an opportunity for these clubs to bring in more revenue from ticket sales, viewership and other fan-based sources of income.
From the eyes of fans, players, ex-players and pretty much everyone except the owners of these clubs, the idea of the European Super League is probably the worst one to be brought into football. However, the fans always have the final say which concludes this final score being 1-0 to the fans against the club owners! Hopefully, the opinions of the fans and everyone else within the footballing world will be taken into consideration from now on when making such drastic changes
References:
- Champions League TV viewing figures plummet ‘by 35 per cent’ ramping up talk of new European Super League – The Sun
- Manchester United players unhappy with the club’s decision to join the European Super League – Reports (sportskeeda.com)
- Why Super League plan makes financial sense for top clubs – BBC News
About the Author
Keiran Sharp is an enthusiastic football player and future sports psychologist. He will be pursuing sports psychology at university in 2022.
Growing up I had always been interested in sports, in particular football. I trained as a footballer for most of my life. I don’t see football as just a game, I see it as a distraction from everything around me. I have seen how sport can impact the world in various ways and I want to understand how it can potentially change lives. I am inspired to explore what athletes do ‘behind the scenes to reach new heights. As a future sports psychologist, I am keen to find the deeper meaning of different sports