Greed versus Competition
So the first thing that comes to mind is money grabbing, self centred. It won’t and we can’t let it happen or football as we know it will change forever. My reaction to the Euro Super League (ESL).
I like this quote from the La Gazzetta dello Sport
“This paper has always been opposed to any project that favours the interests of the few by betraying individual merits and undermining the national tournaments which make up the social and cultural roots of football.”
I have not really come across someone who likes this idea yet, I have even asked on twitter to see if anyone is willing to admit to it and have a chat.
We currently have Leicester and West Ham in the top 4 of the English Premier League (EPL) if it stays this way the Tottenham (7), Arsenal (9) will stay in the European Super League (ESL). This closed American style competition goes against everything the European football system stands for like Bournemouth coming from the fourth tier of English football to challenging the elite. Fans, players and clubs through out the pyramid have the right to dream anyone can go all the way to the top and 2013 FA Cup final Wigan Vs Man C showed just that. It’s not about who has won it the most or how rich you are right now, it is about what you do on the pitch. If you finish in the top 4 you play Champions league if not you don’t.
Football is now a business and has been for a long time which is something we ignore. FSG at Liverpool have come in and transformed the club and are making millions. They paid £300m for a club that is now valued at over £1 billion. These 6 clubs want stability and are trying to make sure they get it. Man U have banked on playing in the CL year in year out and under Alex Ferguson they did so regularly and the board of directors expected to have that money every year. What the ESL does is guarantee them that money as their place is confirmed year on year. If and when they miss out and that has happened a few times recently, they lose a lot of revenue not just prize money but sponsorship deals go down. The ESL prevents this from happening and the shareholders, directors and owners put their business first and the rest of football second the problem here is they need the rest of football. Tesco would be happy to do with out Morrisons, but can Man U do without the EPL?
One of the things they are trying to is get control of their own media rights. For example if Man U can sell this for games, then from around the would they could get 73m (Man U Current facebook following world wide) people watching a game online via a mobile phone, IPad or PC and charge just £2 per person that’s £150m per game. Where currently the media rights are under the Premier League.
If they are playing in the ESL where will the EPL now come as a priority for so called Big 6. Are these ESL games more important than the EPL. Will the EPL become the new Carabao Cup where the best players are rested and it becomes the secondary competition as they are guaranteed ESL status and cash. If this happens will the EPL still get the same broadcasting deals ?
As I wrote this paragraph Liverpool were playing Leeds, which is a great rivalry in English football. Currently Liverpool needed to win to secure 4th place and get CL football next season under this proposal the all things that surround this game will go to the wall as Liverpool Reserves now play Leeds as the game is a dead rubber with both teams sitting safe in the EPL. Every year will will also get more Top 6 games these teams usually meet in the cup later stages, the EPL and now in the ESL. They are currently kept apart in European competition which is difficult in a fixed league, how many times in a season do you want to watch Man C Vs Arsenal?
The rivalries like this between the two clubs that has developed over in some cases centuries. Will Man U vs Inter Milan every year become a fixture that people want to watch and for how long will the excitement be there when you know which European teams you are going to play year on year. The thing that is special about these games is that they don’t happen every year and that it is the luck of the draw.
If the 6 of these clubs are the only ones to get money from the ESL for me the finance gap will only get bigger between the clubs with set clubs in each country guaranteed the ESL finances. The Deloitte money league is the 20 richest clubs in world football the EPL have 7 clubs in
this if you look at the latest version.
Using the Delotte Money and if we keep the same format and everything the same Arsenal will go down to about £360 million as they made £22-25m in prize money for getting to the Europa League final and with Leicester making the CL Last 16 £240m but the actual gap will be closer as the figures are looking at prize money only Arsenal will have no European match day revenue Leicester will and sponsorship deals will change as well.
But when teams joining the ESL are given £260m each just to establish a sound financial footing. Arsenal £674m and Spurs £725m and there is no European football at all Leicester City go under £200m.
Looking at the wider picture in European football, UEFA spread the money around all the different national competitions by a solidarity payments and every team that plays in European competition gets a payment so over the season 100’s of clubs get money which filters back down in to the game all round europe. So get get knocked in the first round you get something or from this season Dynamo Zagreb and Slavia Prague both got to the Quarter Finals of the Europa League and this could make a big difference to theses clubs, under the Super League rules this will not happen and all the money will be kept between same clubs all the time.
Even now in the Champions League we have a big chunk of cash €585m put a side for 10-year performance-based coefficient rankings. So you get paid as long as you have been in it for the last 10 years. This is something I fundamentally disagree with getting paid for past performance. This was something the top clubs were wanting so that they got more money.
The other thing I see happening is that with the money gap increasing the top clubs will be able to stock pile even more of the best players. Using Leicester City & Arsenal from earlier Leicester’s best players will just be cherry picked and we wage gap will be massive as Arsenal & Spurs will have three times the money of the rest of the PL where Leicester can now pay £100k per week and Arsenal a currently paying £300k per week. Leicester won’t change but Arsenal will jump to £750/800k per week. Do you think Chelsea have a lot of players out on loan now 32 with another £300m per year how many will they vacuum up.
Looking around Europe the finances in the leagues are set up very different so the PL Liverpool got £150m for winning the PL last season, Norwich who were relegated received £97m. In Spain this is not such an even balance with the winners receiving 3.5 times more cash than the relegated teams. From info I can find expected TV revenue is around £4 billion per year and the split of the cash will be more based around the EPL set up so it will be a more even split.
The accusation has been levelled at the clubs creating the ESL that they don’t care about the fans and I have to fully agree with this and, although I don’t like the idea of the breakaway league, I can see why it is happening when we consider the massive jump in broadcast and commercial revenue the ESL expect to make your match day revenue becomes such a small part of the business and in the current climate we don’t know when you will be able to fill a stadium again. I am not against change and if there is a better way then I’m interested in looking at any proposal. However it cant be ring fenced, it can’t be aimed at making the rich richer whilst keeping others out.
The EPL has been good for English football and it was a breakaway league to start with, but the big difference is that the competition was not ring fenced where you would now have original twenty teams who have kept all the money to themselves, they may have a lot of it but even my club Sunderland have been there for a while. Overall there has been 49 different clubs in the EPL which is over half of the 92 top level clubs in the UK but at the same time most of this money has stayed at the top of the game as 36 exactly half of the football league clubs have been insolvent, in administration or receivership since 1992.
I also think the FFP rules need to change. Everything should be done on a clubs income and if some super rich man gives money to a club they can spend it but its not loan which needs paid back then leaves a club decimated, which would change some of this but that’s a discussion for another day.
If teams around Europe are tied in to league & cup competitions with rules. There must be some sort of contract around these and can teams just walk away from deals and create new ones with no backlash or side effects. Will Sky TV still pay the same money for a EPL with no top 6 or where they field a reserve team on a regular basis.
If these clubs create the ESL what prevents the next clubs deciding they want more money and looking at the another version something we have herd about before in Scotland was the Atlantic League or Celtic and Rangers joining the Premier League.
With everything I have said and from the reaction around the world I can’t see this working in the way it has been proposed but never say never. I can see this as a starting point for a big change in football over the coming months and it may be a one most people don’t like as over the years the clubs have been given more and more freedom to do what they want by giving these few clubs seats on the FA board, Premier League Board and even the Football League. The FA, UEFA & FIFA have missed the opportunity to get their house in order on things like ticket prices, a more equal distribution of money, agents, good club management. The problem they now have is the clubs are in charge and they already have over 30% of the money in the game at the top end and they want more.
