Business football has lost an important game. But popular “football”, where the ball goes before millions of euros, has not won so far. Certainly, by their protests, many supporters can be delighted to have helped stop the Super League project, announced on the night of April 18 to 19, and disintegrated two days later. As the leaders of its twelve founding clubs (English, Spanish and Italian) had conceived it, it had one goal: to ensure the greatest possible profit to the fewest number, in the form of a private company.
Good news for said supporters: the Champions League, the most prestigious club trophy in Europe since 1955, will continue to exist without the immediate competition of the Super League. Bad news: if it remains open to all, in theory, the old tournament also abuses more and more, in reality, the idea of sporting uncertainty. It already leaves an increasing part to “An oligopoly” of some clubs, as underlined by Wladimir Andreff, president of the scientific council of the Observatory of the economy of sport.
“The competitive equilibrium has diminished”, concedes the organizing body of the event, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The coronation of Steaua Bucharest, in 1986? From the Red Star of Belgrade, in 1991? From ancient history. Since 2004, and the title of FC Porto, the Champions League has rewarded teams from four championships (Spain, Italy, Germany, England).
The fear of desertion
For UEFA, this “Polarization” is explained by the ” financial capacity ” clubs, those “The most lucrative championships”, and therefore by their possibilities of “Recruit the best players”. The governing body of European football is neglecting its own responsibility. “For more than two decades, UEFA has continued to favor the big clubs of the cartel, which has ended up undermining its cohesion”, Wladimir Andreff believes.
The successive reforms of the former European Champion Clubs’ Cup – its name until 1992 – respond to a fear: that the most powerful clubs desert the institution to found their own competition. Because the threat of a “closed” Super League existed in 1998.
A regular threat from some big houses (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Juventus), for “Gain in negotiating power”, considers Didier Primault, Director General of the Center for Sports Law and Economics, in Limoges. “Under pressure, UEFA gave them more and more. ” More matches, more television receipts, more certainties too.
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