World Football’s worst attempted coup took a beating from fans and was knocked out in rapid fashion.
Opinion By Benjamin Royer, Staff Writer
On top of the European Super League’s grave lies a tombstone. The Tombstone says, “Rest in Infamy.”
Twelve European football teams including Liverpool and Real Madrid joined together to create a Super League to play “as soon as practicable.” The boards of the clubs had been working through the pandemic to find a profitable path for the league proposal. The move brought backlash from supporters of the clubs involved to celebrities across Earth.
“Star Wars: A New Hope” taught us a valuable lesson. The underdogs take down the Evil Empire in satisfying fashion. This time, the fans sent a big message to the richest of owners in world soccer.
The European Super League was not built to thrive from the get-go. Minutes after its announcement, the Union of European Football Associations threatened sanctions on the teams involved. They sent a memo discussing the removal from European competitions that some clubs were already involved within.
“Gentlemen, you made a huge mistake,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a speech to European soccer leaders at the UEFA annual meeting acquired by the Associated Press. “Some will say it is greed, others [will say] disdain arrogance, flippancy or complete ignorance of England’s football culture. It does not matter.”
Domestic leagues would have hurt if the Super League would have happened, especially those within England’s football culture. Clubs within these leagues rely on television deals and sponsors to stay afloat. If the large teams involved within the Super League left, it would leave the rest of the clubs involved in a dire situation.
American owners in the Super League such as Manchester United’s Glazer Family and Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke own both Premier League and NFL football teams. They were two of the ownership groups spearheading the effort. They immediately faced backlash from supporters of both their clubs.
Their attempt to make the Super League happen was to try and replicate the money-making machine which is a sports franchise in America. The guarantee of profit instead of risking money each season domestically was the hope.
This is not the checks and balances system that has been placed in English football for centuries.
“Football is a working-class game where anyone can beat anyone on their day and it’s that that makes it incredible, it’s that that’s made it a global force,” said English late-night host James Corden on his “Late Late Show.” “I know that 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.”
Corden speaks the truth of what many football fans have been thinking, but unable to say on a national stage. Fairness in football needs to occur.
After all the backlash from fans alike, clubs moved to leave the Super League. Leaving their goal of world football domination dead in the water.
Clubs should still be punished for their attempt to change the game in such drastic ways. They could see point deductions and transfer embargoes placed upon them in the future.
Sports are lucky to see the Super League not occur and football fans can take a huge sigh of relief that the attempt came up short. The Super League will live in football history forever.