Mass exodus comes 48 hours after the officially founding of the break away competition.
UEFA executives spoke publicly on Monday April 19th stating that Real Madrid, Chelsea Football Club and Manchester City would be expelled from this year’s edition of the UEFA Champions League this coming Friday. It was said that UEFA was to meet to figure out how to go on with this year’s edition of the world’s greatest football competition. Leagues and Federations alike across Europe’s “Big 5” issued a joint statement saying clubs that partake in the renegade competition will be banned from their domestic leagues and cups and players from those breakaway clubs will be banned from taking part in their respective national teams, making them all ineligible to play for their countries at the World Cup or Euros.
On Monday outrage poured in from every corner of the earth condemning the Super League, calling it the death football. On Tuesday Chelsea’s team bus was prevented from arriving at the ground for the “Blue’s” home fixture against Brighton Hove and Albion by a human barricade of thousands of their own supporters protesting the club’s involvement in the founding of this competition.
When I brainstormed writing this piece I planned on breaking down the facts as they stand at the moment, however Tuesday’s developments changed everything. I began the day reading ridiculous quotes that Real Madrid President Florentino Perez gave Spanish television. To paraphrase, the engineer of the “Galacticos” promised that the agreement the twelve clubs signed is binding and there’s no turning back now. He made the type of claims I remembering hearing as a child here in America back in the lead up to the founding of Major League Soccer in the early and mid 90’s. ” People aged 16-24 don’t watch football because matches are too long and there aren’t enough goals” was a line I read that instantly put me back in 5th grade trying to defend the beautiful game I love to American classmates who preferred American Football, Baseball and Basketball.
However I sit hours later believing that these ridiculous statements made by an old man who’s clearly out of touch with reality will in fact go down as the beginning of the end of the European Super League. In the past several hours the concept of the League has already collapsed. Clubs around Europe issued official statements condemning the founding of the league and several clubs stating on the record that they rejected invitations to join. Manchester City was reportedly first to get cold feet and announce they were already leaving the League. Chelsea and Atletico Madrid followed suit and it quickly became apparent the bad publicity would be too much. Liverpool was informed from a sponsor that they would be removing their support over the club’s role in the league. At Manchester United Bruno Fernandes voiced his opposition and moments ago it was reported executive Ed Woodward had resigned from his role at the club. I believe it is safe to say that writing is on the wall and this league is dead on arrival. Media partners including BT Sport, Amazon and MediaPro made statements Tuesday that they have no interest in partnering with the unpopular league.
Irrelevant as it is now, I was strongly opposed to the founding of this competition even though I have been predicting for some time. To me, what makes this game the greatest of them and what makes me love football is the fact that the game is the greatest equalizer. In football you do not necessarily have an advantage being born tall or short. Just look at the world’s 2 best players of the decade and a half. Crisitiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have different body types, different mentalities, different skill sets and both have maintained top world class levels of performance well into their 30’s. A footballer is not judge by his/her sprinting ability, nor by height, nor by physique. While speed, strength and height can be valuable tools, a player who lacks those tools can find another to be better. Intelligence, efficiency, ability to adapt and think quickly can all make up for short comings in the measurables listed above. There’s literally a place for every type of player on a football pitch but what makes our football the king of sport in my opinion is the justice that comes from promotion and relegation.
Sure there’s been times where teams have been relegated unjustly but it is overall much more just for a team that fails and comes in last place to be relegated than there is for the North American way of handling failure which is of course to reward those who failed by giving them the first draft picks. There’s nothing I hate more than rewarding mediocrity the way it is rewarded in the NFL, NBA and NHL. For many years I have been vocal in support of bringing pro/rel to the United States. I have a real problem with Major League Soccer’s resistance to it even though I understand the business side of why they oppose. I could not spend the last 10 years of my life supporting the idea of opening up the American Soccer Pyramid and then turn around and support this closed system in Europe. For me a closed European Super League would have been the death of my game as I know it. I’m relived to say for now at least, there will be no European Super League just yet. To hear in further detail my thoughts on this story stay tuned to the Parking the Bus Podcast feed wherever you get your favorite podcasts or right here at www.parkingthebusmedia.com or on the player below in the coming days!
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