I am not a football fan. I am a fan of my football team. I do not watch football. Unless my football team is playing. Am I the right person to speak about the Super League? Maybe not, but I can see that many are saying things without understanding what they are really saying. I will take their words, and I will give you my two cents.
Who else thinks this Super League bullshit is a joke??? I’m hoping every soccer/football fan in the world realizes how damaging this is to our game. #NOsuperleague
Simple: the Super League is bullshit, but not a joke. I would hate to watch an European game and not hear the UCL anthem. I would hate it if Inter Milano does not play Serie A games. But it is not what the 12 separationist clubs asked. This was the UEFA reaction. If those 12 teams decided to create a new European competition, it means that the old one is not working. War is always bullshit but never a joke. We are talking about 12 of the biggest clubs in football. Their opinion should matter. Will there be a Champions League without those clubs? Yes, but it would not be as prestigious as it is now.
Football is nothing without its fans. We’ve seen that clearly over the last 12 months. If fans stand as one against this anti-football pyramid scheme, it can be stopped in its tracks.
A few years ago I asked a question. Why are football clubs building smaller stadiums. The answer I got was: to raise ticket prices and to keep ultras out.
It made no sense. If we raise ticket prices, less people will go to the stadium. The people that will still go are those that put the big effort in following their teams. Ultras will stay in. They are ready to sing, prepare choreographies. Some are even ready to riot and hurt and kill for their teams.
Let’s face it: football without fans in the stands is sad. But I am sure that if you ask a club owner if it would be preferable having TV revenues + a full stadium, or double TV revenues and no fans, they would pick option 2. Why? Because football was forced to become self sustainable in a sick and twisted way. Football clubs must be managed as industries and companies. The club must be able to generate their own revenues. There is no space for rich families and their wide wallets. There is no more Massimo Moratti buying Ronaldo. But instead, we have Juventus paying Cristiano 30 millions per season. How is that an improvement? It is not. Rich clubs stayed rich (in some strange ways, even historically smaller clubs like Man City and PSG managed to stay rich thanks to their rich owners) and kept winning, while smaller teams stayed small (with a few exceptions, of course). The Super League is the answer to the way UEFA transformed the economics of football. Fans or no fans, if there are sponsors and TV ready to invest in the new format, the clubs will go through with it.
Kids grow up dreaming to win the World Cup and the Champions League – not any Super League. The enjoyment of big games is that they only happen once or twice a year, not every week. Really hard to understand for all football fans out there…⚽💔
Inter vs Bayern does not happen twice per year. That’s Inter vs Juventus. Or Inter vs Cagliari. They are not the biggest of the games, but they happen twice per year. I understand what Mesut tried to say, but big games are made by big teams. Yes, if we have Inter vs Bayern twice per year, the game will lose some of its grandeur, but it will remain a big game. As for kids’ dreams, the World Cup and the Champions League are the two biggest tournaments in the world. If there was another big tournament, kids would dream about that one as well. In 30 years, if this Super League goes through, kids will dream to win it.
Football will be in the near future on a brink of complete collapse. Nobody is thinking about the bigger picture, only the financial side.
I still believe we can solve this unpleasant situation.
Funny enough, Florentino Pérez said exactly the same thing. Football will end by 2024, and this is why they created the Super League. Who is right and who is wrong, I am not sure. But Lovren then speaks about the bigger picture. Which is? He says it is not the financial side. Yes, but if football became a business (and it has been a business for a long time, then the UEFA FFP officially made it a business instead of returning it to dreams, passions and rich owners ready to spend their own money to play their version of fantasy football) then the financial side is what should have priority.
I fell in love with popular football, with the football of the fans, with the dream of seeing the team of my heart compete against the greatest. If this European super league advances, those dreams are over, the illusion of the fans of the teams that are not giants of being able to win on the field competing in the best competition will end. I love football and I cannot remain silent about this, I believed in an improved champions league, but not in the rich stealing what the people created, which is nothing other than the most beautiful sport on the planet.
Teams must deserve to play the Champions League. There should not be teams that play it based on their history. But teams with that history should make their voice heard. They must be part of that process of improvement of the competition. Once again, Super League is bullshit but it is no joke. The UEFA and those clubs should discuss the matter further. Threats of bans are not constructive. I understand Ceferin and his personal issue with Andrea Agnelli, believe me how much Juventus has irritated me since Gianni Agnelli was removed from it in 1994. But the UEFA should be “the bigger person” and listen to what those teams are asking.
This lot think they can sweep up £300m more each season than the other teams and then wander back on a Saturday and play with that advantage in the PL . Deduct points , fine heavily and embargo transfers. I hope they haven’t bought some of the other 14 clubs. #stopthesuperleague
So true, but those teams already play with the advantage of being rich. What is unfair, is the sense of entitlement that they have. The issue is that the economy of football is twisted already. The UEFA FFP did not improve the quality of football. In the nine years of FFP, Juventus was the only Italian club winning the Serie A. In the previous nine years, three different club won the Scudetto. It is not a problem for Serie A. In Bundesliga, only two teams won the Meisterschale against five before FFP. 3-3 in Spain. 4-3 in France. The only exception is the English Premier League, where five clubs won the PL after the introduction of the FFP, against the only three in the nine years before the financial fair play.
UEFA, the English FA, RFEF, FIGC, the Premier League, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, but also FIFA and all our member associations – will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever.
Ok, but why are you pulling people’s heartstrings? We are living in bizarre times, but those are issues that have been bubbling for quite some times. Football will not end if those teams start the Super League. But the UEFA will come out severely damaged. Can we avoid this war, somehow? The UEFA is a governing body and they should organize and regulate elite tournaments. If 12 of UEFA most important clubs are spitting chips, there must be a reason.
I’m someone who loves football. It has been my life for as long as I can remember. I loved it from when I was a young child as a fan, and I’m still a fan now. As a player and now as an owner I know that our sport is nothing without the fans. We need football to be for everyone. We need football to be fair and we need competitions based on merit. Unless we protect these values the game we love is in danger…
I fail to understand where the fans will go if the Super League gets underway. I fail to understand how football would not be for everyone. But the feeling is mutual: football needs to be fair, and the competition must be based on merit.
A few years ago, someone in Milan proposed a new football economy model involving players’ wages. The person proposed to set the wage on a fixed rate, then pay players bonuses based on their performance during the season.
Another proposal made in Milan, and very close to how Aussie favourite sport, NRL, works involved once again players’ wages. This other person proposed to have players on open contracts, only able to move at the end of their contracts. No transfer fees involved, unless the player is younger than 23. In that case, the buying club would pay the selling club. And because those kinds of transfers usually involve big teams buying youngsters from small teams, it would help promote small clubs’ growth.
Do we need the Super League? No, because we have the Champions League. But teams believe that the UEFA top tier does not work. It lacks competitiveness. It does not guarantee many matches. It does not create enough money.
Must the UEFA be this harsh towards the 12 teams? Yes, because they will be screwed in the process. But being this harsh will create additional tension that will end up damaging UEFA itself and the national football association involved, forced to renounce their top clubs.
