The European Super League; Monday 19th April 2021- the day Football died?

In the early hours of the morning of Monday 19th April, major European football clubs simultaneously released statements on their websites and social media accounts announcing the agreement to join and form together the European Super League.

This announcement not only shocked, surprised and angered footballing fans across the nation but sports fans worldwide. An enormous spark of fury and outrage ignited across social media and people's strong, livid opinions on the ESL flooded throughout Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms. Rivalries were dropped and the community of football fans rallied together to show their hatred for the new format and a collective disgust towards the European Super League was formed...

The way we see, engage with and love football was changed from Monday- for everyone. The European Super League, a format that will widen the gap between the mega clubs and the smaller clubs even more. A format that will make the super rich owners even more money. A format that will destroy the integrity of domestic football and the enjoyment that all die hard, passionate fans get from supporting their club. Sadly we live in a world and a society where money can change almost anything and power and greed can flip something so beautiful like the game of football into a money printing cash grab franchise, that is the European Super League. As it stands, it's been reported that UEFA have postponed Champions League and Europa League games as we approach the semi-finals (although this is likely to be false and might've changed by the time you're reading this) and the Premier League have publicly come out condemning the ESL. Which in turn could see the top 6 clubs involved, relegated to Tier 5 of English football. Arsenal, Man United, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool should all be ashamed.

What I can't quite fathom is the timing of the release of the announcement for the Super League; with still plenty of domestic football to be played and just before the semi-finals of the Champions and Europa League. Not only this, but to announce this mafia created cult like competition in the midst of a pandemic where football right now is a comfort and an escape for everyone, especially those who are suffering- albeit mentally or physically, even more so than ever before. It's a kick in the teeth to every single passionate football fan. There's only one aim and goal for the ESL, and that's to fill the pockets of the owners even more; as if they're not rich enough. They're taking away the ambition of clubs like Everton who dream to one day win a Premier League title (like Leicester a few years ago), the wishes of every West Ham fan right now who are believing they'll see their beloved Hammers in the Champions League next season and even the days where football is amazed to see a West Brom side beat Chelsea 5-2 at Stamford Bridge. All these things culminate to create the greatness of football, so without these things; what is football? It's definitely not seeing Barcelona play Man United for the 7th year in a row or Arsenal play Juventus at Stan Kroenke's Ram's stadium in LA (which will inevitably happen like the NBA and NFL playing in the UK now).

It is down right disgraceful and arrogant that these owners think they have the righteousness to form their own league where there's no relegation so they are permanently a "big club", using their club's history and years of success and progress to line their own pockets with more money to buy bigger houses and bigger yachts. What happened to earning the right to call yourself a big club- by winning trophies and legitimately beating teams through skill and determination?

Now that's my rant over- here's some information on the Super League and what you can expect for the future of football:

- Taken from the Super League website itself - https://thesuperleague.com/index.html (I don't even want to link it for reference but have to cover myself)

Competition Format:

"The Super League is a new European competition between 20 top clubs comprised of 15 founders and 5 annual qualifiers. There will be two Groups of 10 each, playing home and away fixtures within the Group each year. By bringing together the best clubs and best players in the world, the Super League will deliver excitement and drama never before seen in football." (Like we've never seen drama in football before, ridiculous statement!)

Top 8 Clubs:

"Following the Group stage, 8 clubs will qualify for a knockout tournament, playing home and away until the single-match Super League championship, in dramatic four-week end to the season." ('Super League Championship'- how awfully franchised and American does that sound by the way..)

Mid Week Games:

"Games will be played mid-week, and all clubs will remain in their domestic leagues." (Not what the Premier League are saying!)

Solidarity and Sustainability: (The most laughable one yet)

"Solidarity payments will grow in line with league revenues and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the founders. These solidarity payments will follow a new model with full transparency and regular public reporting." (Literally just showing off to the world how these owners over time will become 10s of billions richer and how the founding clubs are pushing themselves further away from everyone else).

Participating Super League Teams:

AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Man City, Man United, Real Madrid and Tottenham are 12 of the founding members with another 3 to be confirmed.

So with that being said, that's my article on the announcement of the European Super League. I've been a football fan for my whole life, over 20 and a half years of watching, playing, engaging and spending on football, I have to say my pure love for the sport is drying out. I said this with the introduction of VAR and the absolute shambles of how that's being used by the officials. But now with this ESL announcement it's just becoming more and more clear to me; that the sport I once loved, spending ridiculous amounts of hours daily and weekly consuming it, isn't the same and is pushing me further and further away from it.

19th April 2021 - they day football died?