European Super League: the future of European football?

The growth of football has led the most important clubs on the European continent to consider the possibility of creating a new tournament that allows them to obtain greater income and greater media coverage than the one they receive in their respective leagues or in UEFA international competitions. That’s where the idea of the European Super League came from.

Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid and a business specialist, has been one of the main promoters of the European Super League, a competition that would be disputed between the main clubs of the continent on an annual basis.

This idea arose in 2006 when a dispute between the G-14 (the main 14 clubs in Europe) and FIFA over the transfer of the players to their national teams ended in a threat to form an independent international tournament. The European Super League would be accompanied by a new European football organization that would function outside of UEFA, so the clubs involved would not be part of it.

Much has been said about the issue of the European Super League during the last decade, with multiple rumors floating around in the media throughout the years. However, there was no real evidence of that happening until 2018 when Football Leaks shared a secret agreement between 16 clubs for the formation of the competition, starting in 2021.

Although there are not too many details of the competition given that it has not yet materialized, it can be presumed that each day of the European Super League will have only great matches and that the interest that it will arouse will be enormous. On the other hand, the economic gap between the participating clubs of the European Super League and the rest of the European clubs will be much greater than what currently exists and this would lead to the formation of an even bigger football elite, well above the rest of the clubs.

The issue has been revived recently due to the economic impacts of the pandemic and that has caused alternatives to be sought to combat this situation. However, the European Super League would be the salvation for a small group and the disappearance of a few others, so it would not be the solution to the crisis.