Unless you’ve been living under a rock – and in this case you can count yourself lucky – you already heard a thing or now about the infamous European Super League.
Whilst this idea is not exactly a new one, shocking reports began to emerge by Sunday afternoon (European time), before the official announcements were finally released at around midnight.
Juventus, Milan and Inter – alongside the top three Spanish clubs and the Big six from the Premier League have decided to form their own quasi-exclusive money league, which holds some similarities to the NBA, MLS and NFL to name a few.
Naturally, you’re either in the Super League or you’re against it. Therefore, every local football federation, alongside FIFA, UEFA and even some political figures (French president Emanuel Macron being one) sprinted to describe their resentment of the notion.
The idea of pitting together 20 Top clubs in one league based on their status as big clubs rather than merit is truly cringe-worthy for the purists of the sport.
But is the current system any better?
Whilst the Champions League allows every single European team the chance to qualify for the group stages, this idea has become more of a motto rather than a reality.
Europe’s current elite competition allows direct access for 16 clubs from the Top 4 leagues (That’s 50% of the group stage participants) and when you add the representatives of the likes of France, Portugal and Russia, the smaller footballing nations are left with very few spots to battle out for, and must go through some never-ending qualification rounds.
Therefore, UEFA trying to come out as the defenders of the smallfolk is a mere hypocritical ploy, and their threats of banning the players from the twelve mutineer clubs from all International competitions is a major disgrace, considering the fact that these footballers had nothing to do with the decisions taken by their employers.
Whilst the European Super League is undoubtedly an idea born from greed – and perhaps a mean for survival when we consider the financial troubles facing most of these top clubs – Football’s government bodies are far from being clean organizations, and their images had deteriorated in the past due to some shameful scandals.
In conclusion, this idea is not exactly the bane of the sport, as the pure basics of football died a very long time ago.