European Super League: The Greed League
Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have announced they have agreed to establish a new competition, the European Super League (ESL).
The Super League website states: “The Super League is a new European competition between 20 top clubs comprised of 15 founders and five annual qualifiers. There will be two groups of 10 clubs each, playing home and away fixtures within the group each year.”
In England, the so-called ‘big six’ (Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Liverpool) are in line to join the ESL. This, therefore, excludes teams such as Leicester City and West Ham United, both currently sitting in the top four of the Premier League (ahead of four of the ‘big six’).
These excluded teams are rightly going to feel very harshly treated. All of their hard work to achieve in the top four and win Champions League qualification will mean nothing as that competition will become obsolete.
It has also been reported that there will be a: “qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.”
This, in theory, means that teams outside of the ‘big six’, as well as European teams can become a part of the new league through their footballing achievements, unlike the other fifteen.
One of the most criticised aspects of the new competition is the fact that teams cannot be relegated from the league, and therefore are guaranteed to generate millions of pounds every year based purely on their historical achievements.
The irony is that by being poorly run in the past few years, their failed attempts to achieve success by throwing money at players with huge transfer fees and extortionate wages, have led to them trying to regain success by joining a league built on wealth, greed and self-entitlement.
The recent agreement for this new league to be launched has led to a huge backlash amongst fans, ex pro’s, current players and managers.
Calls for the proposed league to be scrapped have gained a lot of momentumfollowing Sunday evening’s announcement and has been criticised by the Premier League itself:
“The Premier League condemns any proposal that attacks the principles of open competition and sporting merit which are at the heart of the domestic and European football pyramid.
“Fans of any club in England and across Europe can currently dream that their team may climb to the top and play against the best. We believe that the concept of a European Super League would destroy this dream.”
The whole idea stinks of self-righteousness, arrogance and greed and it has to be stopped at all costs.
Max Ashforth is a first-year journalism student with aspirations to pursue a career in journalism. You can find him on instagram @Max_Ashforth.
Feature image sourced from Sky Sports
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