European Super League plot won’t get off the ground… but I’d love to know which Big Six side would miss out
ANOTHER week and another plot put forward to extract billions from football.
Last week’s plan to hand over both the power and the money to six clubs in the Premier League was trumped.
Even the clubs that put it forward voted against it.
This week up pops another weed and I doubt you would need to be a genius to guess who’d like this particular weed to grow?
The weed comes in the form of a European Super League and based on a scheme for a fixed number — probably 18 again — of the most prestigious of European clubs to play in a new league of which five clubs will be invited to join from the Premier League.
So, one of the six have been dropped. I’d love to know which one. But try as they might, I doubt this European Super League will ever get off the ground.
It needs the support of Fifa, who have not given it and declared it is not even interested in it.
It will be fought to the death by Uefa, who have NOT been invited to be part of it and is currently investigating the clubs who have put this forward to see if they have contravened their regulations by attempting to form a breakaway league.
It also needs the support of the FA who put our clubs forward for European competitions.
But while FA chairman Greg Clarke is involved in a daily “he said/she said” spat with EFL chief Rick Parry, he is too busy to even comment on it.
Look, I am not against profit being made from football. It is how progress has been made. Neither am I against sensible
modernisation. The invention of the Premier League was such — a successful method of busting the chains that had held together the increasingly weary body of the 104-year-old Football League.
But I am against the methodology used mostly in US sports to insert monopoly and cartel to protect your investment.
In this European Super League 11 clubs would be labelled as “core founding” clubs and as a consequence they would be “immune to relegation” for 20 years. TWENTY YEARS!
No wonder this as yet unformed league has already been described as boring!
So, what of football fans? Are they demanding changes to the Premier League voting system?
Are they demanding changes to the Premier League format? Are they saying they don’t like the competitive nature of English competition? Are they tired of the Champions League?
Are they asking to pay the huge travel costs 17 times a year to play in this uncompetitive European League? Are ANY of you?
It doesn’t appear that way.
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The Football Supporters’ Association summed up their thoughts this week: “Seriously, if you’re a club owner or football financier who thinks a global health crisis is the perfect opportunity to rip up and reshape football to suit billionaires . . . you have no idea how much fans detest your concept. It will not go how you think.” Pretty clear what they think then.
No doubt next week, abracadabra, along will come a new plot.
A re-heating of the Fifa plan for a World Club Cup every four years, an Olympian feast for no reason other than to show which organisation is boss. And to add to the freebies.