First, they came for the Champions League knockout stages. The prospect of an ‘elite’ club getting knocked out after just one tie didn’t sit well with them. That slid by. Then they came with the seedings. The big guns needed to be separated until later on. That slid by. Then they made the top four leagues get four automatic slots. More money was being made, and they needed to be the ones making it. That slid by. And finally came the European Super League, the latest invention to modern football.
The European Super League Was Inevitable
It Has Been Coming
If for some reason you’ve been living in some kind of bubble. If you didn’t know what set the world of football outraged yesterday (lucky for you, and sorry to break the news), then now you should. It was confirmed that 12 clubs had helped in the embryonic stages of the European Super League. Three clubs each from Spain and Italy, and six from England (where two of those clubs are currently outside the top six).
The European Super League had been coming for a while now, like Julius Caesar marching on Rome. And like Caesar on Rome, this was two things. First, it was avoidable and completely foreseeable. Secondly, it was simply the inevitable culmination of football’s hyper-capitalist model.
Football’s Rotten Model
Right from when directors in Britain were finally allowed to profit from clubs – then they began profiting off of them. Right from when the European Cup was stripped down and reclothed in the sartorial form of the rich. From when Sky gave the world a ‘whole new ball game’ in 1992. Right from when games could be rescheduled with reckless abandon and little care for the fans. When ticket prices shot up, and new kits were being made every season. From football’s unhealthy relationship with gambling. From here comes the European Super League.
There’s the recognition that football is only a part of society. That the game reflects the larger society as a whole. This is always trotted out when it comes to racism and other forms of abuse. But for some reason, we keep missing the point with the state of the game itself. The European Super League is merely the next stage of expansion in footballing capitalism. In a for-profit system that has to keep eating, this was what would come next. For football as a sport, this makes zero sense. For football as a product, this was completely logical.
Football’s Feigned Ignorance and Hypocrisy
Hence, the only real surprise has been the surprise of people towards. Mentioning how this is the death of the game. How the soul of football is being stripped. In fact, this is simply a new phase. The soul of football had been stripped a long time ago when working-class fans became stooges for venture capitalists and petro-states. The European Super League is no nail in the coffin, simply milking the game’s death for its cause.
Which makes it especially rich to see the likes of Sky, the Premier League, FIFA, and UEFA go up in arms about this. Not just the fact that they’ve moved faster on this than they’ve ever done to tackle abuse in football. The fact that they’re only against this European Super League; the one in which they’re out of the picture and not benefitting. Gary Neville and Micah Richards made solid points about the European Super League on Sky. But that’s with Sky, who – in the midst of a pandemic – decided to put games on a pay-per-view basis. Sky, who played a key role in gutting the influence of fans back in the 1990s.
European Super League – What Comes Next
The European Super League is inevitable. But given the outrage that has come, there’s a chance it could be stopped in its tracks for now. However, that only takes us back to a time when UEFA were about to ratify a new Champions League format that would keep helping the rich and not caring about the fans. A time when the Premier League would keep selling rights to Amazon. When FIFA would host a World Cup in Qatar in winter. A return to the time that would only take the European Super League back to being inevitable.
Real change can only come about from the product merchants getting taken off the game. From the fans having a say and being in charge. From this system being weeded out and thrown away.
Main Photo
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