The Breakaway Failure and What Next
They're not so Super anymore!
Unless you have been living under a rock over the last seven days - which this newsletter heartily recommends - then the news of European football’s Dirty Dozen breaking away to form their own competition is a well worn news story.
What started on Sunday night ended within 48 hours. Clubs from England (six), Spain (three) and Italy (three), were all humiliated as they were all forced to either back out completely or admit defeat on the idea.
Fan revolt, government pressure, player power and rival backlash all compounded into a wide wave of mass fury against these 12 clubs and their harebrained scheme to “save” football.
Real Madrid President Florentino Perez’s magnificent Monday TV interview - in which he claimed lie after lie regarding the state of football, as well as wider society as a whole - failed to sell anyone on this new competition. That’s right, not a single person other than those involved were in agreement that this was the future of football.
No one else involved was even brave enough to front up to a camera or a reporter. Not a single one of these slimy owners were considerate enough to answer even just one question as to why this “Super League,” was the tournament we all needed. Their arrogance laid bare for all to see.
Grace Robertson excellently described why the PR side of it failed so spectacularly in her latest newsletter, which is well worth subscribing to, when she wrote:
“The vision of the Super League was football as nothing more than content, with teams little more than brands. It’s quite astonishing, then, that they didn’t have the first clue about how to brand themselves. It told no story about how it fit in with football or how it spoke to what we want to hear right now. It made no attempt to understand the desires of the fan of tomorrow it courted so desperately. It had nothing except an obvious attempt by a handful of rich men to turn football into a cartel.”
But now that the entire thing has collapsed within the space of a week, the entire complexion of European football now looks totally different. As these clubs, UEFA, the fans and everyone else picks up the pieces of what’s left, the sport must move forward and do so in a way that protects the sport from something like this ever happening again.
Sunday night saw a lot of dismay and pessimism about the state of the future of the game. This was clearly something nobody wanted, yet the announcement of the breakaway had finally come.
After years, even decades, of the biggest clubs threatening football at gunpoint they finally pulled the trigger. However, the problem was that their gun drew a blank.
The following 48 hours saw football fight back.
Fans protested outside stadiums, UEFA threatened swift and hard sanctions, the British government stepped in with ideas for football reform and the media tore the plan apart in print and on TV.
The demise of this farce shows that these clubs aren’t as powerful as they all think they are. And let’s make one thing clear, it is not about these individual clubs, but the individuals who own/run these institutions. The likes of the Glazer family, John Henry, Andrea Agnelli. These are the men at the heart of this story, these billionaires are the source of everyone’s ire.
For the longest time the men in charge of these clubs have used the threat of a breakaway to get what they want. UEFA, in particular, bowed to their pressure numerous times in the allocation of Champions League places, in the distribution of TV rights and even for the new Swiss style format for 2024.
But now that they attempted to break away and it failed spectacularly, that threat no longer exists. It is dead.
Now is the time to take back those promises. The guaranteed 16 places for the four biggest leagues? No, thanks. The new Champions League format? Hard pass.
It is time to reform the wealth distribution of the game. Why should we give in to these clubs when they need the rest of us just as much as we need them? Frankly, they even need us more.
Many said last Sunday that these 12 clubs should be expelled from all domestic competition. Football can survive without them and this week has shown them just how true that is.
The leverage they had is gone.
The bargaining power now rests on the fans and the players. A large selection of Chelsea supporters commendably protested outside Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. It caused their game to be delayed by 15 minutes as the bus was blocked from arriving at the ground.
Earlier in the season we saw fans demand the pay per view scheme be scrapped - no reasonable person could ever want to pay £14.95 for any single Premier League game - and it duly was. People power is alive and well.
Players and managers have already set their sights on where their attention is next for football administration. Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Ilkay Gundogan have all come out against the new Champions League reforms. It has more games, but far less interest.
https://twitter.com/IlkayGuendogan/status/1385293404100235272
https://twitter.com/IanDoyleSport/status/1385575031577751554
https://twitter.com/sistoney67/status/1385572821485633539
More protests are being planned by fans of the 12 clubs involved. Arsenal supporters intend to protest the team’s next game against Everton tonight, they want Kroenke out of the club. Manchester United fans want the Glazer family gone yesterday and they too intend to protest the team’s next home game, against Liverpool on May 2.
https://twitter.com/Drasdo/status/1385526959954960385
It also cannot be forgotten that the likes of Perez and Laporta have pleaded poverty just weeks after they chased Mino Raiola around Europe in hopes to secure the signing of Erling Haaland, which will no doubt cost in excess of £100 million.
Arsenal convinced their players to take a pay cut last Summer to save jobs and then turned around and laid off 55 staff only a few months later. All the while they gave massive contracts to Willian and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and spent £45 million to sign Thomas Partey. Arsenal are ninth in the Premier League. Super League, indeed.
With reports already spinning up that Man United are in talks to sign Cristiano Ronaldo this Summer, these clubs cannot be afforded the opportunity to slink back into their domestic and continental competitions without facing heavy sanctions.
It can never be forgotten that these owners threatened the very fabric of the game we all know and love. This story cannot simply be allowed to move on as part of the never ending cycle of news.
Just because they backed down (or did they?) doesn’t mean they can be forgiven with only a slap on the wrist. An example must be made of all clubs involved.
All of the threats considered before the collapse on Tuesday night must be followed through with. The ownership laws of the English clubs must be looked at. Labour leader Keir Starmer’s suggestion of a move towards Germany’s 50+1 model should be just the beginning. Greater regulation is needed otherwise the owners of the Dirty Dozen will eventually learn from their many mistakes and breakaway again. Because the Empire always Strikes Back.