After rumours and meetings about an elite European league surfacing around the football world. On Sunday the European Super League was officially announced. The League has 12 founding members namely Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur. 3 more clubs are expected to be announced shortly as the fixed elite clubs.
Before the announcement, UEFA along with the national Leagues of the clubs announced that the teams will face a trial and will not be allowed to compete in their respective leagues. Additionally, their players will not be allowed to participate in the Euros and the World Cup. Despite all these threats, the official announcement was made. The current Real Madrid president Florentino Perez who is the mastermind behind all this will be the first President of The ESL. Joel Glazer, Co-Chairman of Manchester United will be the first Vice-Chairman of the Super League. In addition to the Men's League, a similar Women's League is also set to be formed in the near future.
Competition Format
1. 20 participating clubs with 15 Founding Clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.
2. Midweek fixtures with all participating clubs continuing to compete in their respective national leagues, preserving the traditional domestic match calendar which remains at the heart of the club game.
3. An August start with clubs participating in two groups of ten, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth will then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions. A two-leg knockout format will be used to reach the final at the end of May, which will be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.
Pros of the European Super League-
1. A platform where all the big clubs and elite players compete in a League format.
2. Financial security from the founding clubs' point of view
1. No Promotion or relegation for the Founding members which means that no matter what happens the 15 elite clubs will always be a part of it.
2. Money circulation to the lower league clubs will be majorly affected by this.
Following the threats of UEFA about international participation of players Chairman Florentino Perez said that they will make a world cup of their own if that happens. It would be no surprise if UEFA and The ESL come to a solution which is good for both parties. The ESL is expected to apply things like Wage caps and Transfer fee limit along with strict FFP rules which UEFA and Fifa have not been able to do and have taken lightly in the past. UEFA has been criticized ever since the formation of the UEFA Champions League for the unfair distribution of T.V rights and a huge gap between prizes.
One thing is certain that if these 12 clubs are said to be money grabbers and greedy then UEFA and FIFA are no innocents. UEFA have failed to take serious actions against Racism, Sexism in the sport despite starting campaigns against these modern problems UEFA have been criticized for not taking serious actions against them. Another argument which alot of pundits have made is that it will kill competition which is just not true because Relegation and Promotion is not the only competition in football. When the elites battle it out for European glory in a league format than the competition will be more severe than ever as for the promotion and relegation battle that goes on in the league.
The major talking points has been the fun about upsets in the Premier League that is a regularity. This competition does not affect the Leagues apart from the fact that the founding clubs will have more financial power which they already do have anyway. Saying that football will be dead is noting but an overreaction. Although this project certainly has its pros the cons are much more severe and overall would be a bad thing for football. The format of a League between the top clubs is something which is exciting but if the 15 clubs can play in it no matter what than it seems unfair to the clubs like Leicester City who have certainly performed better than Founding clubs Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in recent times. So even if a founding club fails to perform in the league and the ESL it will still participate in the ESL and hence will keeping getting heavy income despite failures.
The following weeks are very crucial and will be no less than a cold war. The leagues are already talking about punishing the founding members whereas the European competitions might be suspended or cancelled altogether.
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