Some had been crying wolf for months. The wolves finally came out of the woods at midnight sharp, on the night of Sunday 18 to Monday 19 April, in the form of a press release. By an official statement, twelve of the biggest European football clubs have announced “To have concluded an agreement for the creation of a new competition”, as previously suggested by leaks in the New York Times and at Sunday Times.
The Superligue (that’s its name) is not just another competition project. For its detractors, this initiative threatens the model of European football. Designed by a private company around its founding clubs, the competition would compete with the Champions League, a six-decade monument organized by the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA).
The dissident clubs? Three Spaniards (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid), six English (Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham) and three Italians (Juventus Turin, AC Milan and Inter Milan ). The rebellious clubs know the Champions League on the tips of their spikes: between them twelve, they weigh forty trophies of the prestigious competition (out of 65 editions). Three of them (Real, City and Chelsea), qualified for the semi-finals, can still claim to lift the “Big Ears Cup” at the end of the current season.
All have in common a desire to launch the Superleague ” as soon as possible “. Even if no date has yet been specified. The competition would be based on fifteen permanent clubs (three still to be found) and five occasional. The idea is to make as much resources as possible, rather than having to share the jackpot with other clubs within the framework of the Champions League.
Believing that the old trophy has lost its appeal and does not exploit the economic potential of this sport, the “club of twelve” invokes the “Need to offer better quality matches and generate additional resources for the whole football pyramid”. A “Women’s Superleague” would also be planned, for “To advance women’s football like never before”.
A project of “impostors”
Unsurprisingly, UEFA denounces a “Cynical project”. The continental association Football Supporters Europe evokes the “Last nail in the coffin of European football” and vilify a project “ giving up what made [la] popularity and [le] football success ”. Namely: the idea that sport is organized from the lowest to the highest level, with a form of continuity, at least in theory. The principle of the Superleague would undermine this logic, insofar as the competition would guarantee fifteen of its twenty places to permanent clubs.
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