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Just 24 hours ago the future of football looked like it would be changing for the worse. Well, that may not be the case now.
The past 24 hours of the footballing world could make a 50-part documentary. There really has been that much happening to do with the new European Super League. At 11 pm on Monday, Super League plans accelerated with Florentino Perez’ press conference.
The Real Madrid president stated that no matter if clubs felt doubtful about the future of the Super League, they wouldn’t be able to leave after each club had signed a 23-year contract to join, making fans fear for the worst.
Just 12 hours later, doubts began to form from English clubs Manchester City and Chelsea FC. The two clubs were doubtful originally about joining the Super League and since then doubts have only been worsened.
Liverpool’s team coach booed outside of Elland Road on Monday night just showing the level of disregard that fans have towards the creation of this Super League and the level of backlash has reached the top of the clubs with the reveal of the resignation of Ed Woodward brought forward from the planned end of the season announcement.
Although Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has announced he is set to leave his role at the end of the season – the pressure continues to mount on Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli and Perez to follow suit – amid the backlash from supporters up and down the country, is this really the end of the ESL?
When the proposals were confirmed on Sunday evening, many speculated the self-styled “Big Six” and the other founding members in Europe had an ulterior motive to just ring-fence a competition for their own financial gain.
Conceived as a four-step plan, the clubs were to first simultaneously release the story to put the entire footballing world into complete meltdown. Next, take the insults from their outraged fans, pundits and ex-pros alike at no cost as money at stake outweighs their reputation. Then, put pressure on UEFA and FIFA to form a new Champions League agreement – perhaps negotiating the Premier League an extra place, or offering a greater slice of the television and sponsors – and finally, put the idea back in the cupboard until the next time they need some more cash.
But on Tuesday evening, the protests outside Stamford Bridge confirmed the clubs involved were deadly serious. One after another, the scheme started to collapse. Within an hour of Chelsea’s withdrawal, Manchester City swiftly followed. Woodward then confirmed his resignation, followed by the rumours that the Glazer family were planning on selling the club, while the other four English clubs had reportedly handed in their notice to pull out of the plans.
These plans came to fruition in the late stages of the evening with all six clubs revealing their intentions to remove themselves from the plans. Surprisingly though Arsenal have been the only club apologising through their social media accounts, accepting they got it wrong. With AC Milan, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid also planning on leaving in the coming days it seems the ESL is crumbling.
However nice it is to see clubs starting to pull out of the competition, can they really be forgiven and forgotten this easily?
The billionaire owners may have finally decided to listen to the fans, but new rules and regulations seem the only future breakaway attempts can be stopped. Many have suggested the UK government – who expressed their unanimity with fans as the heart of the game – need to set up an independent regulator, overseeing the owners in the top division.
Others believe the FA should introduce a system similar to the German 50 + 1 rule whereby fans own the majority of their club and prevent privatization.
But some only see a world where every higher-up from each ESL club follows Woodward out the door and heavy punishments are distributed to truly stop these conversations from happening again.
A key point of Perez’ proposals were the elites facing off at higher consistency making it more attractive globally. Fans do want to see the elites play each other, just not on a week in week out basis but rather on rare occasions at the penultimate stages of European competitions, such as the Champion’s League and as mentioned earlier with UEFA looking to restructure the competition starting in 2024, it offers a larger pool of underdog challengers.
Fans want to see underdog stories. The Huddersfield Town’s of the world, beating Manchester United in their first season in the Premier League. The Leicester City 5000/1 title story. Athletic Bilbao’s Basque side under Bielsa in the 2011/12 season.
Football should never be about the money aspect as to why clubs are considered elite, if Grimsby Town are taken over tomorrow by a consortium worth billions, are they then the elite? It’s hypothetical yes, but the point remains the same. Money over merit is a delusional and dysfunctional methodology of how football should work.
The clubs lined up to be involved are without doubt the football elites, yet the levels of respect for the charlatans in charge of these clubs continue to lower. Can we class the elite of our sport as the elite if the worst of the elite are not given the threat of relegation?
The timing of these announcements makes complete sense, owners of these clubs knew there would be backlash but backlash isn’t a word fitting of the response that the footballing world has had towards the plans.
These owners thought that the silence inside the grounds would be mirrored outside the gates of our second homes. They thought we would be silent or manageably silent. Football has proved it won’t be silenced by those looking to change the integrity and core values that the sport was made from.
But what happens next then, what happens to these clubs? What happens to the 12 that tried to take football from the fans? Does the punishment come from the government? Or do the decisions stay in the hands of the footballing federations?
The clubs aren’t the ones who deserve the punishments, the fans don’t deserve the punishment but rather the ones who tried to tarnish the history of clubs with their greed for trying to change the models of football in this country that have existed since 1888.
With reports suggesting that the English ‘Big Six’ would be facing lawsuits from the Super League emerging in the early hours of Wednesday morning, is this enough?
As mentioned earlier is this the last we see of these plans. Who stops these executive’s making those same decisions? Yes, the clubs have made a stand, but what is the definition of a club in modern-day football? The decision to split from the Champions League was done in the boardrooms with no input from managers or players who found out the news through social media platforms and news outlets.
— Jordan Henderson (@JHenderson) April 20, 2021
Yet would these clubs have left the plans without fans, staff, managers and players opposing the league to such a heightened level? Unfortunately, it’s unlikely they would not, proving that the club is nothing without the latter. Strip clubs of the fans, players and staff and you leave nothing but history remaining, a history tarnished by the actions of those at the top.
But what happens if the owners and the board go, the history remains intact, there will always be suitors for clubs in a business as big as football has become? This is the outlook that will likely be looked at by the FA.
Don’t punish the clubs or fans with the burden of fines that could result in job losses and changes to the structure of at the end of the day, they’re clubs. Fines directed towards the owners of these clubs seems to be the most fitting punishment for trying to impact the nation’s football pyramid. A massive price to pay that could have cost the nation it’s sport, it’s passion, it’s pyramid.
Why shouldn’t these six get point sanctions or temporary bans from European competition? However, you see it, it is vital to remember that clubs have been punished before and will continue to be due to financial reasons. Chelsea’s transfer embargo, Wigan’s point deduction, Sheffield Wednesday’s point deduction, Bolton Wanderers’ point deductions.
Yet the reasoning behind stays the same, poor ownership. The level of bad ownership will likely not change today or tomorrow, but will any owners ever reach the controversy levels of those in charge of the six have done this week?
Probably not. This has to be a guarantee though, not a probability. Ownership rules in England have to change, the 50 + 1 model is proven to work in Germany. If the action required isn’t taken through this scenario just becomes another statistic. Another bad owner in the English pyramid.
“It’s not the clubs, should the players be punished? Should the mangers be punished? They shouldn’t be. It’s the owners of these football clubs not the football clubs who are the big problem.”
– Jamie Carragher
What is guaranteed though, with or without change to the structuralisation and ownership of clubs, is that those behind the divide will face pressure to leave their posts as owners, chairmen, executives of clubs. The farce of the Super League has led to anxiety, absurdity and anger towards those wanting to split from football’s roots.
There are many loose ends though in this Super League tale and as the days, weeks and months unfold more will be revealed about plans, promises and punishment. The one thing crystal clear though and will remain to be the main factor through it all.
Money.
As a sport, football will not continue in the same way without money, that is a fact, wages, infrastructure, coaches. Money is and will always be involved with the sporting side. As a business though the opportunities are unfortunately limitless and as we have seen the greed of those in the power of the elites is a dangerous minefield that could forever change our game.
What must be remembered though is that these owners are the greater evil to football. FIFA and UEFA, who are by no means innocent corporations but act as a lesser evil than those behind the Super League – have had their fair share of corruption and scandal themselves, most notably the Qatar 2022 World Cup bids. As fans, we will never know to the extent how much money interferes with the game. What is sure though is the fact that our game will never be taken from us. At least not without a fight, as proven over the last few days.
Football is nothing without the fans.
“This is not Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea, City, Spurs, Arsenal this is John Henry, this is the Glazer’s, this is Stan Kroenke, this is Roman Abramovich, Daniel Levy and Sheikh Mansour that’s who it is.”
– Jamie Carragher
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