European Super League - RIP

We play Football to treat ourselves with joys, pleasures, and beauties of life. These memorable and exciting moments do not constitute the primary purpose of the very existence of a sport. The treacherous world of sports is primarily based on, not the love for the game, or the enthusiasm of the fans, or the spirit of the sport, but the fundamental basis for the structural existence of this sport are the extravagant sums of money involved in the system. It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry and the collective revenues generated by multiple events and teams often exceed hundreds of billions of dollars.

The whole sporting community of the world’s most-followed sport, football, got an idea of the vital role money plays when some of the strongest clubs in football revealed their avarice and acquisitiveness. Different clubs indeed have different brand values, often based upon the number of trophies won by these clubs and individual awards secured by their leading players. However, when all these different clubs compete in different leagues like the English Premier League, the Spanish league, La Liga and UEFA Champions League, the revenue generated by the governing bodies of these leading leagues are often distributed on the basis of equality and equity, among different clubs competing. As a result, the clubs that carry the glittering, glorious, glamorous and glossy trophies based on the strengths of their squads, often receive similar sums of money as the bottom-placed clubs do.

This leads to resentment among the top football clubs in the world and serves as a repercussion of the prevalent system of leagues and competitions for these clubs. The major clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea often generate most of the revenues for their own respective leagues. Similar trends have been observed in French League, where Paris Saint Germans leads the way. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus has claimed most of the trophies in Italy while Borrussia Dortmund has remained impregnable in the German setup.

While all these clubs spend millions of dollars to retain their dominance, they hardly get fairly rewarded by their respective leagues. This disparity led to increased resentment among these clubs. All this accumulated to give birth to the idea of the league that shook the football world during its 48 hours of existence. The impact was deleterious. The concerns were grave ones. The integrity of the glorious sport was questioned. Sports lovers were baffled. Millions of fans were devastated at the idea, And the future of this global sport had been jeopardized by the very notion of the European Super League.

12 major European Clubs came together under the Umbrella of this super league to overthrow the control of UEFA on European football. According to the concept, Three Spanish Clubs namely; Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, will have six leading English Football clubs in the form of Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal to set up a separate league functional on weekdays to provide top-class competition for the fans and the broadcasters.

AC Milan, Inter Milan and Ronaldo-led Juventus were also among the founding members as these twelve top-tier clubs from three leading global leagues came together to challenge the domination of the UEFA Champions League. The idea meant that all the top players will be competing in a highly competitive league which was expected to feature a total of 20 teams with five qualifying clubs.

The official notification was served in the early hours of the day at 0730 BST on Monday, 19^th of April. The idea instantly attracted a great deal of criticism as it threatened the sustainability of the rest of the leagues and could have demolished the financial models of minor soccer clubs. UEFA certainly would have received the hardest-hit, had the proposed European Super League, gone ahead in accordance with the plan. UEFA immediately contacted the major European Leagues and FIFA to ensure that ESL received a severe backlash from all the stakeholders.

The major clubs were expected to generate more than five to seven times their current revenue and would have increased the player’s salaries by four to five times. The league meant that soccer stars like Lionel Messi, Mo Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Gareth Bale will be playing against each other more frequently. Wealth was promised to all those, who opted to join the concept. The only thing that became uncertain with the arrival of ESL was the integrity and true spirit of the world’s greatest sport.

The authorities reacted immediately with some severe threats. English Premier League immediately wrote to all its clubs, suggesting them to strongly oppose the European Super League and also avoid being part of any such plans. UEFA, with the support of FIFA, refused to acknowledge any such league and also made it clear that these clubs will no longer be allowed into the European setup and their players will not be allowed to compete at Global events like World Cup, COPA America and Euro Cup.

While fans became increasingly concerned about their favourite sport, political stakeholders also opposed the notion. British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson strongly condemned the league. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also opposed the idea of the European Super League, citing the true spirit of the game as crucial to its essence.

Soon, all six English Clubs had returned to the original fold by pulling out of the super-league. The idea drew praises from the British PM, who called it the right decision. Eventually, only Juventus, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona remained part of the concept as the other nine founding members succumbed to the outcry and quit the European Super League.

With only three members left in the mix, European Super League had no other choice but to suspend its operations. After drawing eyeballs from all across the globe and causing fears among ardent lovers of the sport, European Super League was no more.

While there will no longer be an additional trophy of ESL to play for, you can make the right call for your own local competitions played with equality and equity in the true spirit of the game by purchasing highly affordable trophies at 1st Place for Trophies. We encourage the existence of the sport, in its true spirit and to support that we offer a variety of glamorous, glorious, glossy and glittering glass trophies and medals for football.