European Super League

[Moosheep]

The idea of a European Super League has been around for a while; the top clubs from across Europe break away from their national associations, forming a pan-European league (with massive financial backing from Rupert Murdoch no doubt). Although I have not heard anything about this recently a quick Google search suggests that the idea is still bubbling away beneath the surface with many people within the football world seeing it as an inevitable development, and in the not too distant future at that. The last structure I heard being suggested was for 38 teams competing in two leagues.

When I first heard about the idea I was passionately against it, thinking that it would rip the heart out of English football. A few years down the line and now I find myself thinking differently. What would a European Super League actually mean to English football?

Firstly we would obviously lose our biggest teams from the EPL. No more Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City or Liverpool. Maybe goodbye Tottenham and Everton too? I have no idea how they would decide which clubs would be allowed into the new league but I guess it will be a lot more to do with financial muscle and commercial appeal than about how they have performed in recent seasons. You can bet that if the league was to start tomorrow, regardless of their current league position, Southampton wouldn't be invited to join!

Once the big clubs go, the money follows. A new ESL TV rights deal would dwarf anything that we have seen in the EPL to date. The Premier League TV money would shrink massively leaving the remaining clubs facing a huge (90% plus?) loss in income. With English football no longer being seen as the best league in the World, foreign investors would lose interest and sell up. Prize money would drop and sponsorship deals dry up.

With the money gone, next go the star player. The top +/-750 players in the World would no doubt follow the money to the ultra-lucrative ESL.

So why do I think that this would be good for English football.

For starters the gap between the rich and poor clubs becomes a less insurmountable barrier. The difference in the finances of clubs in the EPL and Championship narrows significantly. Teams would be competing on a more even footing. Being relegated from the Premier league ceases to be "worse than death" and maybe we would start to see all clubs in that league play more attractive, positive, attacking football, in the belief that they actually have a chance of winning something, rather than the negative, "park the bus" style of football we endure week in and week out at the moment.

With less money available, wages within English football would no doubt drop significantly making the running of a club more sustainable. This would also have the effect that English clubs would no longer be seen as such an attractive destination for overseas players, resulting in more home grown talent in our top leagues. The positive effect of this would be felt right from the grass roots up to the England team. No doubt the overall quality of player would drop, but that does not necessarily detract from the entertainment of a game. I guess this will depend on why you go to the football!

The transition would be painful and have to be carefully managed, but once the dust settled I personally think we would end up with a more competitive and sustainable league, with clubs less commercially orientated and more community focussed. Far from ripping the heart out of English football maybe a European Super League would give English football its soul back.

What do other people think?

Moo

 

[eatonparkboy]

A very interesting topic Moo. 

I have always wished that the clubs whose priority is CL football rather than any domestic, would leave the English game altogether.

When I started attending football in 1960, it was still fresh in my memory that we had sold Mulbarton born Monty Norman to Tottenham, a club about to do the league and cup double but who we had beaten two seasons earlier, along with several other 1st division clubs, in the FA Cup. In fact, Burnley were about to progress to the QF of the European Cup while Liverpool languished in the 2nd Division.

There was a sense then that, although the big clubs were head and shoulders above us it was because of attendances, history, location etc and not because of the clubs shareholders and directors. And if you were a tradesman or self employed, you were probably only a fiver off players wages and even the abolishment of the maximum wage a year later didn't see wages quadruping etc.

But as grounds. leagues, rules, marketing, spectator age and gender have changed, and in many cases for the better, the ever increasing thought that unless you have a massively wealthy individual or company as one or all of your shareholders, you are unlikely to get a mention on MOTD let alone challenge for anything, appals me as someone who believes that football is about the best not biggest winning things.

We know the clubs who would leave tomorrow if they could and we know that the money would follow them. And I would like to see that. The really massive TV money would follow and football would hopefully return to sensible budgeting, realistic wages and movement of players from club to club within the divisions instead of the farce we endured by spending all that money on RVW last season.