Manchester United
Super League battle was won - but the war is being lost
A dark day
By Chris O'Brien
April 27 2021
Sunday 18 April was one of the darkest days in the modern history of Manchester United. It had nothing to do with results, the manager or players; but instead an ownership totally devoid of an understanding as to why football is so important to so many of us, or the very principles underpinning the game we love.
On the pitch, it was a good day for the Red Devils. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men made it five league wins on the bounce with a 3-1 win over a resolute Burnley who, despite recently slipping towards a relegation battle, are compact, stubborn and challenging to break down - a set-up that has been United's Achilles heel too often this season. It was another good win under the stewardship of a manager who has done much to instil a sense of pride and belonging in our supporters, while fostering a team spirit to match; sadly a complete oxymoron to what was being cooked up off the pitch.
Even during the Old Trafford action itself few were talking about the game. In the hours before the Lancashire derby, stunning news broke that United were one of a number of European clubs set to announce a breakaway European Super League, with an announcement anticipated later that day.
An official statement was billed for 9.30pm - but, in keeping with the Super league's woeful PR operation, ultimately arrived nearer midnight. Prior to that time, and with exact details still scarce, already proposals for any breakaway were widely condemned. The footballing community used a few hours grace to recoil in almost uniform disgust.
When the announcement finally came - in the form of a formulaic press release and, later, a threadbare website and empty Twitter feed - it only cemented the elitist, out-of-touch nature of this most controversial of moves. That some of the richest men in world football couldn't even produce a slick PR launch when the announcement dropped is testimony to their arrogance and complacency. That they expected any other reaction than universal condemnation shows that these are the wrong people to be running out football clubs.
The scant details offered up? A dozen European clubs - of which United, shamefully, were one - would break away into a new midweek European Super League, while assuming they could retain their spots in their domestic leagues too. Manchester City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool and United's name will forever be tarnished by this. So too, on the continent, will Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain, and Juventus, AC Milan and Inter from Italy. Three further clubs would, it was claimed, become founding members, with their year-on-year participation in this closed shop seemingly guaranteed by themselves. The big clubs would run the show - and they pledged a route to joining them each year to five other clubs; placing a thin veil of sporting merit to this most grotesque concept.
It seems likely that Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Dortmund were supposed to be joining this dirty dozen. In a page now deleted from the Super League's website, the competition listed media partners in both France (No Com France) and Germany (B2O Communications) in addition to England, Spain and Italy. To their eternal credit, all three of these clubs did not form part of the initial announcement and soon distanced themselves from the Super League concept altogether. Unfounded speculation had also linked Red Bull Leipzig and Porto with the failed plan; but seemingly the Super League board, of which United's owner Joel Glazer was vice-president, couldn't even fill their own minimum quota for their big-money idea.
Within 48 hours, the plan had collapsed. In a rare moment of solidarity, football fans, ex-players, pundits, politicians from across the piste and even the big television companies - themselves hardly blameless in football's obsession with money - joined forces and formed unlikely alliances to slam the plan, amid bellowing threats of sanctions. Consequently, the owners who forged this doomed project retreated with varying degrees of staged remorse, and only Real Madrid and Barcelona are yet to formally withdraw.
This project was never going to succeed. Only the greedy owners who cooked up these plans didn't realise that. Yet these moves have long been in the offing - discussed for years. A trawl through internet history shows their website - TheSuperLeague.com - was showing 'Coming Soon' on its home page as far back as October as plans were presumably being advanced.
Much has been penned about why the Super League was an abomination. The plans would have destroyed domestic leagues - rendering European qualification spots a farce, or mere consolation prizes for those clubs not deemed elite enough by Florentino Pérez, Glazer and co for their private Super League. The proposals would have rode roughshod over domestic schedules, and crushed the very football pyramid that has supported the six English clubs for so, so long. Plus - beyond this moral bankruptcy - the product wouldn't have been good anyway. European nights between big clubs are special because of their scarcity - like anything in life, if it becomes the norm, it'll grow stale. These games often have a big prize - knock-out ties for a competition steeped in history. The Champions League is special because clubs earn the right to play in it - and the albeit limited variety of clubs competing is part of its allure. The same, arrogant 15 clubs playing each other mid-week, every week - well, no thanks.
It will be hard to forgive Manchester United for this - though, make no mistake, this wasn't the doing of Ole, Sir Alex Ferguson or the players. It was the owners, who have used this club for dividends and wealth. They - like the owners of the other eleven other clubs - have been given a wake-up call.
But for United fans, and the wider football community, this must not see this as a job well done. In fact, with little fanfare, football has just suffered a major blow for sporting integrity - and too many fans haven't even noticed. Just as the wretched Super League was binned, reforms to the Champions League from 2024 were confirmed by UEFA that are the thin end of the wedge of the very project Europe's governing body were so appalled by. These have been on the table for some while - to only limited opposition. The competition is to be expanded to 36 teams - with two spots reserved for clubs with high UEFA co-efficients who otherwise failed to qualify automatically, instead reaching only the Europa League or new Europa Conference tournament. So, that's reserving seats at the top table for an elite who didn't make it on sporting merit - sound familiar?
Add to that a terrible 36-team league format where clubs play ten games, and the new Champions League set-up is not only anti-sporting merit, but also potentially anti-excitement. More matches at any cost, it seems. Had the football community recoiled in similar disgust to these elitist reforms - like happened with the Super League - then the plans could perhaps have been stopped. But they didn't. These reforms - which we must belatedly and vociferously campaign against - are a reminder as to what happens when football fans continue to stay quiet. The Super League battle was won, but the war for football's soul continues to be lost.
This isn't a rallying call against reform of European football. The Champions League could be changed and probably enhanced - but changes must be done in consultation with fans; not behind their backs. Europe's elite competition should be at the top of a football pyramid where every club, at every level, can dream of climbing the ranks and earning their place - from Manchester United, to Altrincham, to Beechfield United, and every club in-between. It's that dream which helps make football our most popular sport; with more than two million men and women in England playing each year; and it's that dream that the owners of six of England's most famous football clubs just tried to destroy.
Even during the Old Trafford action itself few were talking about the game. In the hours before the Lancashire derby, stunning news broke that United were one of a number of European clubs set to announce a breakaway European Super League, with an announcement anticipated later that day.
An official statement was billed for 9.30pm - but, in keeping with the Super league's woeful PR operation, ultimately arrived nearer midnight. Prior to that time, and with exact details still scarce, already proposals for any breakaway were widely condemned. The footballing community used a few hours grace to recoil in almost uniform disgust.
When the announcement finally came - in the form of a formulaic press release and, later, a threadbare website and empty Twitter feed - it only cemented the elitist, out-of-touch nature of this most controversial of moves. That some of the richest men in world football couldn't even produce a slick PR launch when the announcement dropped is testimony to their arrogance and complacency. That they expected any other reaction than universal condemnation shows that these are the wrong people to be running out football clubs.
The scant details offered up? A dozen European clubs - of which United, shamefully, were one - would break away into a new midweek European Super League, while assuming they could retain their spots in their domestic leagues too. Manchester City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool and United's name will forever be tarnished by this. So too, on the continent, will Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain, and Juventus, AC Milan and Inter from Italy. Three further clubs would, it was claimed, become founding members, with their year-on-year participation in this closed shop seemingly guaranteed by themselves. The big clubs would run the show - and they pledged a route to joining them each year to five other clubs; placing a thin veil of sporting merit to this most grotesque concept.
It seems likely that Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Dortmund were supposed to be joining this dirty dozen. In a page now deleted from the Super League's website, the competition listed media partners in both France (No Com France) and Germany (B2O Communications) in addition to England, Spain and Italy. To their eternal credit, all three of these clubs did not form part of the initial announcement and soon distanced themselves from the Super League concept altogether. Unfounded speculation had also linked Red Bull Leipzig and Porto with the failed plan; but seemingly the Super League board, of which United's owner Joel Glazer was vice-president, couldn't even fill their own minimum quota for their big-money idea.
Within 48 hours, the plan had collapsed. In a rare moment of solidarity, football fans, ex-players, pundits, politicians from across the piste and even the big television companies - themselves hardly blameless in football's obsession with money - joined forces and formed unlikely alliances to slam the plan, amid bellowing threats of sanctions. Consequently, the owners who forged this doomed project retreated with varying degrees of staged remorse, and only Real Madrid and Barcelona are yet to formally withdraw.
This project was never going to succeed. Only the greedy owners who cooked up these plans didn't realise that. Yet these moves have long been in the offing - discussed for years. A trawl through internet history shows their website - TheSuperLeague.com - was showing 'Coming Soon' on its home page as far back as October as plans were presumably being advanced.
Much has been penned about why the Super League was an abomination. The plans would have destroyed domestic leagues - rendering European qualification spots a farce, or mere consolation prizes for those clubs not deemed elite enough by Florentino Pérez, Glazer and co for their private Super League. The proposals would have rode roughshod over domestic schedules, and crushed the very football pyramid that has supported the six English clubs for so, so long. Plus - beyond this moral bankruptcy - the product wouldn't have been good anyway. European nights between big clubs are special because of their scarcity - like anything in life, if it becomes the norm, it'll grow stale. These games often have a big prize - knock-out ties for a competition steeped in history. The Champions League is special because clubs earn the right to play in it - and the albeit limited variety of clubs competing is part of its allure. The same, arrogant 15 clubs playing each other mid-week, every week - well, no thanks.
It will be hard to forgive Manchester United for this - though, make no mistake, this wasn't the doing of Ole, Sir Alex Ferguson or the players. It was the owners, who have used this club for dividends and wealth. They - like the owners of the other eleven other clubs - have been given a wake-up call.
But for United fans, and the wider football community, this must not see this as a job well done. In fact, with little fanfare, football has just suffered a major blow for sporting integrity - and too many fans haven't even noticed. Just as the wretched Super League was binned, reforms to the Champions League from 2024 were confirmed by UEFA that are the thin end of the wedge of the very project Europe's governing body were so appalled by. These have been on the table for some while - to only limited opposition. The competition is to be expanded to 36 teams - with two spots reserved for clubs with high UEFA co-efficients who otherwise failed to qualify automatically, instead reaching only the Europa League or new Europa Conference tournament. So, that's reserving seats at the top table for an elite who didn't make it on sporting merit - sound familiar?
Add to that a terrible 36-team league format where clubs play ten games, and the new Champions League set-up is not only anti-sporting merit, but also potentially anti-excitement. More matches at any cost, it seems. Had the football community recoiled in similar disgust to these elitist reforms - like happened with the Super League - then the plans could perhaps have been stopped. But they didn't. These reforms - which we must belatedly and vociferously campaign against - are a reminder as to what happens when football fans continue to stay quiet. The Super League battle was won, but the war for football's soul continues to be lost.
This isn't a rallying call against reform of European football. The Champions League could be changed and probably enhanced - but changes must be done in consultation with fans; not behind their backs. Europe's elite competition should be at the top of a football pyramid where every club, at every level, can dream of climbing the ranks and earning their place - from Manchester United, to Altrincham, to Beechfield United, and every club in-between. It's that dream which helps make football our most popular sport; with more than two million men and women in England playing each year; and it's that dream that the owners of six of England's most famous football clubs just tried to destroy.
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