Written by @SymesCyber
First off let us start off with a bit of background, for those of you that have been hiding under a rock for the entire pandemic (and I wouldn’t blame you if you had been, to be honest).
Proposals for the Super League began way back in the 1970’s, before gaining legal traction over a decade later in the late 1980’s. But even after being pushed forward by Italian corporation Media Partners in 1998, the plans never made it past the planning stage. That is until 2009, when Florentino Perez decided to take up the mantle and see if he could manage what others had previously failed to do by making the plans a reality.
Perez at this time had a bee in his bonnet with the idea of the Champions League – deeming it “obscure, problematic, and an obstacle preventing clubs growing their infrastructure and business.” It took until 2018, but Perez finally got to discussing his ideas with Spanish, Italian and English clubs, looking to get the breakaway league finally up and running and providing them all with strong financial backing.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and the financial issues the pandemic caused, the clubs began to feel an urgent need for a new competition, after they all began to feel the big losses caused with no match day revenue as fans were unable to attend games. Perez’s Real Madrid was especially struggling, and led to him pushing the Super League concept through to reality.
The new competition drew interest and backing from banking giant JP Morgan, who pledged $5 billion towards the formation of the league – and after later accusations of additional backing from Saudi Arabia, had to come out and confirm that they were the only backers to the project.
And so, with no signs of the pandemic letting up, we reach 2021. Perez announced the formation of the European Super League on the 18th of April, which happened to be the eve of a UEFA meeting regarding revamping and expanding the Champions League. Convenient timing, Senor Perez, convenient timing.
The clubs announced as founding members of the ESL were the following: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.
All 12 clubs issued a joint press release within which Perez stated he hoped the Super League would provide higher quality matches and significantly greater economic growth for those clubs involved.
The announcement, however, was not well received, well, anywhere really. Football governing bodies FIFA and UEFA both condemned the project (despite FIFA having been in talks with the founding clubs for months prior to this endorsing the whole idea), as did the respective leagues and ruling bodies of the clubs involved. What followed was like something never seen before, and unlikely to ever be seen again – fans of all six English clubs involved came together as one to speak out, loudly, against the plans.
Fans of clubs not involved also threw their respective voices in for extra weight. Then you had heavyweight players such as Bruno Fernandes of United, Joao Cancelo of City, and our own James Milner going on record with their apparent disgust of the whole thing. Gary Neville’s thoughts on the plans caused such a storm they went viral!
Within 72 hours, 9 of the 12 founding clubs had, for all intents and purposes, withdrawn their names from the Super League. John W Henry came out and apologised to us, and to Jurgen Klopp. Joel Glazer likewise to the United fans (coupled with Ed Woodward’s resignation, which delighted their fans no end!), and so on down the chain. Club after club, owner after owner one by one came out apologising to their respective coaches and fanbases.
The Spanish newspaper Marca later reported there was an apparent $300 million penalty for leaving, although the European Super League denied this and said the quoted sum was false (not that there wasn’t a penalty mind, just that the amount was wrong…).
A few weeks later on 31st of May, El Confidencial (the Spanish version of The Financial Times) revealed it had gained access to the binding contract signed by all 12 clubs the previous month, and according to that contract, the founding clubs had agreed to jointly own and hold equal stakes in “European League Company SL (SLCo)” – a limited liability company based in Spain that would own, operate and manage the Super League.
Fast forward to 20th of June and The Times reported that all 6 English clubs have yet failed to formally leave the Spanish holding company, remaining co-owners and shareholders. The project organisers stated that the competition would eventually relaunch in a modified form. The binding contract it has been reported by those close to the venture has no mechanism for withdrawal, as only unanimous consensus by all 12 founding clubs can collapse the league and any club leaving unilaterally faces unlimited fines.
So, basically folks, despite appearances to the contrary, the Super League still exists, and the 6 English clubs remain very much still attached. As do the 2 Milan clubs and Atletico.
Let us now move onto the legalities surrounding this whole fiasco. Back on 19th of April, UEFA came out in defiance of Perez and announced they would be making legal assessments – which led to the ESL informing both FIFA and UEFA they would respond in kind to prevent the competition being stopped.
In the coming weeks the British government announced plans to commence a fan led review into governance of English football, and that they would look at the 50+1 model used by their German counterparts. At least they could get one thing right during the pandemic. But the legal battle between the Super League and UEFA raged on in the European courts.
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On 30th of July a court in Spain ruled that UEFA must rescind the penalties handed out to the 9 clubs that withdrew from the project and cease their ongoing disciplinary action against those still tied to it – Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus. The case will now move to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg for assessment where they will review UEFA’s monopolistic position over European football.
So now that we’ve got the facts of the background and the legal stuff out the way, lets discuss this a little bit. Let’s move from facts to opinions. Which are all my own, by the way.
There was a lot of backlash over these plans from the outset. Not a single fan of any one of the 6 English clubs were happy with the proposals put to them, nay, thrown at them really, because there was no previous discussion. If there was, this wouldn’t have got any air. But it was sprung on all of us, like a stealth ninja surprising us as we walked wearily in our front door after a long hard day at work.
Liverpool fans protested at Elland Road before their away game against Leeds. Chelsea fans protested before their game a day later against Brighton. Fans of United, City, Arsenal all put banners up at their grounds making their feelings known on the subject. At the Emirates Stadium Thierry Henry’s statue was even pictured holding a card asking for ‘our Arsenal back’.
The European Super League was not wanted, at least here in England. And as quick as the Super League was sprung upon us, it began to crumble amid pressure from all sides, and the owners of all 6 came out and apologised. So why then, are we still in it? I don’t believe it’s because there is “no mechanism for withdrawal” as stated earlier. There’s always a way. It’s why clubs have expensive lawyers on retainer.
John W Henry, our principal owner is a smart businessman. Surely, he’s not just waiting for the dust to settle, and the legal battles to reach some form of conclusion, before adding us back into the ‘modified’ ESL, is he? All the owners are smart businessmen – that’s why they’re the owners of the big clubs, and I’m just a penniless volunteer sat here airing his thoughts on it all, wondering what the end game is here.
Florentino Perez is dedicated to this project. And why wouldn’t he be, he’s put 12 years of his life into it. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are all committed to the cause and whilst happy to review the proposals that made the whole idea unfathomable and hard to stomach in the first place, including the Americanised idea of no relegation, will be carrying on with their breakaway plans. The initial issues which led to this, the monopoly of UEFA, have not gone away, so the Super League isn’t going anywhere either.
The 9 clubs that withdrew all received heavy punishments including fines and threats of sanctions if they tried this again. But with the latest court ruling, what does this mean for the future? Have they basically been given free reign to re-join the Super League at some stage in the future? It certainly seems that the courts have opened that door.
With proposals of how the league will work currently under review, the possibility that West Ham, Wolves or even Everton (don’t laugh!) could become eligible for the league at some point, and that none of the ‘big’ teams will be safe from whatever relegation will look like in the ESL… don’t think this is going away.
The European Super League is, sadly, here to stay. And at some point, it will become a reality, of that I’m sure. Despite what we’ve been promised.
Hold onto your hat’s folks. This will be a bumpy ride.
@SymesCyber
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