Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
When it was announced at the beginning of 2021, the European Soccer League caused one of the biggest scandals in the sport since Sepp Blatter was arrested in 2015.
The European Super League was designed to be a competition between 20 of the top performing teams in Europe. They announced the competition with 9 clubs signed on (6 from England, and the other 3 from other parts of the continent).
What set the Super League apart from the other European competitions was the fact that it was to be run privately, with no input from the governing bodies of soccer around the continent.
It was very different from other competitions like the Champions League, you can find soccer betting odds on next year's competition here, and UEFA Super Cup.
When the Super League was announced, those governing bodies were appalled and threatened to fine all teams involved. UEFA, FIFA, and other national soccer associations also expressed their disapproval of the tournament.
Within a few months, it was announced that the European Super League was being put on hold until all the legal challenges were resolved.
So, today we are going to be looking at the European Super League - why it upset so many people, what it would have looked like, and whether there's a chance we will ever see it come to fruition.
The European Super League was designed to be a direct rival of the UEFA Champions League. This is currently the biggest club competition in European soccer.
The League was going to be made up of 30 teams - 12 of which would be the founding members of the league. The other 8 spaces would be competed for by teams across Europe.
This format meant that the 12 teams that bought into the competition first would be guaranteed the chance to compete every year - this is not the case with the champions league. All teams are required to compete for a space in the Champions League every year.
Many claimed that this was an elitist system that allowed the richest clubs in the continent to buy their way into a money-making tournament. And that this in turn would widen the gap between the rich and the poor soccer clubs in Europe.
The business plan suggested that the 12 founding teams would be given $3.6 billion for joining the league with more money to come later.
Every year 197 games would be played in this league - 180 played during the group stages and 17 during the knockout stage. It was planned to run at the same time as the Champions League.
During the planning stage, the European Super League had considered bringing on 12-15 founding clubs that would play in the tournament every year.
When they announced the competition, nine teams had already signed on to be Founding Clubs:
The final three founding teams had been planned to be announced later. They had not laid out how the other eight teams would earn their place in the competition each year.
When the founders of the European Super League announced their plans to start the competition in late 2021 - they caused a continent wide scandal.
There were two main issues that people had with the competition - (a) they were trying to compete with internationally supported and pre-established competitions, and, (b) the competition was going to be too exclusive.
The European Super League was designed to be a direct competitor to the Champions League and the Europa Cup. These competitions are directly supported and organized by national soccer associations. They are a big collaboration between the FAs of Europe.
The European Super League was going to be privately run without the permission of all the relevant authorities. The money would go to the clubs, owners, and the investors and it wouldn't filter back into the wider systems.
The other major issue with the European Super League was its exclusivity or elitism depending on who you ask.
As we mentioned above, the league was going to consist of 12-15 Founding Teams. This would mean that the rest of Europe would be competing for 5-8 spaces. This would guarantee the Founding Teams a lot of money, and make it more difficult for the rest of the teams to get a share of the profits.
Due to legal challenges from all over the world, the European Super League announced that it would be suspending its plans until further notice. At this point, they had been working on the plans for the league for about 4 years.
Currently, it looks unlikely that we will ever see the European Super League take place. As the European Court of Justice stepped in to shut the operation now and the 9 Founding Clubs are likely to be fined.
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