Everything you need to know about soccer’s breakaway Super League — and what it means to Canada

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This article was published 19/04/2021 (1950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Twelve of the biggest clubs in European soccer have announced a breakaway competition that has political leaders, domestic leagues and fans up in arms. To many, the breakaway threatens soccer as we know it. Let us take a couple of deep breaths and try to break it all down (before we have a breakdown) …

So, what just happened?

Oh, just the greatest existential threat to the biggest sport in the world in its entire history. Your typical Sunday night nuclear war, really.

Ohhhkay. I thought this was an explainer.

Well, to be honest, we’re almost 24 hours on from the first reports of this, but it’s still hard to explain any of it without getting worked up. Pro sports is full of greedy bastards and this might just be the greediest bastard move to beat them all. But hey, we’ll do our best to park the disgust for a minute or two and fill you in on things in a calm, considered way. No promises though.

Fair enough. So … again, what just happened?

Well, 12 of the biggest clubs in European soccer have announced a breakaway competition that threatens to change how the game is played in its heartland and beyond, potentially forever. They’re calling it the European Super League (ESL). It’s something that has long been threatened and used as a negotiating tactic by Europe’s giants against the game’s governing body there, UEFA, which controls the game’s most lucrative competition, the Champions League (UCL). The richest clubs have long thought they should get an even bigger slice of the pie. Now they’re taking all of the utensils and baking trays and making their own pie. Also, they’re blowing up the kitchen on their way out. And have no plans to call the fire brigade.

Geez, sounds messy. Who’s involved?

The 12 clubs come from just three countries: six English (Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham); three Italian (Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan); three Spanish (Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona). They hoped they could create their own version of the UCL, controlling all the profits themselves. It looks like one of many major miscalculations. Or maybe they just don’t care, the arrogant sons of …

Yo, deep breaths, remember. Just 12 teams and three countries. It doesn’t sound very super?

No. It’s not. French giants PSG and German powerhouses Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund would at the very least be expected to also be involved, but all have refused.

So what would this even look like?

A lot like the NFL, or for that matter the NBA, NHL or MLB. Very North American, in other words. That’s no coincidence. The financing for the breakaway, rumoured to be an initial $4 billion (U.S.), is being provided by American bank JP Morgan and three clubs with U.S. owners — Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal — have been at the forefront of this push.

To be frank, they want European soccer to run like sports here — guaranteed profits, no threats of relegation, no need to qualify for competitions and no pyramid for a small plucky club to climb all the way up to the top table. There’s talk of a salary cap too.

The Founding Members (yes, they really capitalized that term in their sanctimonious press release announcing the breakaway Sunday night) would be joined by three more teams that would play in the competition permanently, and there would be five rotating slots for a total of 20, competing in a mid-week transcontinental competition.

Wait, they want to create and control a breakaway competition while still competing in their own traditional domestic leagues too?

Yes. Remember that arrogance I referenced? Mix it with all of the aforementioned greed and fold in a complete lack of self-awareness.

Sounds like the ingredients to one messy pie. Have we overdone the pie analogy yet?

Yeah, I think people have had their fill.

So why now?

Specifically Sunday because Monday was supposed to be UEFA’s day to unveil a new format for the Champions League, a more convoluted system that was designed to appease the very clubs now breaking away. In a wider picture it’s happening now because the pandemic has caused a major cash crunch on the back of huge losses of income for these clubs. The majority are already burdened with hundreds of millions of dollars of debt.

Wait. The same guys planning this new competition have already racked up billions in debt in spite of owning the most valuable, most popular teams in the world?

Yep. We never said they were smart or shrewd or socially conscious or anything other than bare-naked capitalists making a sleazy grab for total control of a sport. This may sound dramatic, but it’s a day for drama so we’ll say it: They’re trying to steal the soul of soccer.

This is grim. What’s the reaction been?

Volcanic. The front pages of Europe’s sports newspapers Monday morning told the story. Things only got more heated as the day went on. UEFA’s president called the owners “liars and snakes” and said they were “spitting in football’s faces.”

FIFA was a little less vociferous, but warned the ESL of severe consequences. Political leaders across Europe have lashed the 12 clubs and threatened legal and financial sanctions. Prince William even got involved, warning of the potential “damage” of the move. Retired icons such as Luis Figo and others have excoriated their former clubs. Fan groups have banded together and launched major protests too.

Most remarkably, in the wake of Monday’s English Premier League clash with Leeds, even Liverpool’s own captain, James Milner, spoke out against the proposal saying, “I don’t like it and I hope it doesn’t happen.”

Wait, even the fans don’t want it? How will it work without fans?

The clubs are banking on the global fan base being less pissed off than the dyed-in-the-wool supporters closer to home.

Why should we care?

Well, apart from the moral corruption of it all and the near imperialistic overtones of a powerful few aiming to bend an entire culture to their own benefit … there are also implications for Canada. Potentially grave ones.

UEFA has raised the spectre of any players who compete in the ESL being banned from international soccer. Right now Bayern Munich (almost 50 per cent fan-owned) is not joining the breakaway. But if they did, Alphonso Davies’ international career could potentially be dead in the water. As a player for an ESL club he would be banned from FIFA competition. Fellow Canadian international Liam Millar is on the books of Liverpool and he would instantly fall foul of such a ruling. There’s a men’s World Cup coming to Canadian shores in just five years. Losing its best talent is not something Canada can afford.

Well, at least the women’s game is safe from this …

Not so fast. In its threadbare press release announcing the venture, the ESL cynically dangled the possibility of an identical women’s competition. Fully four members of the Canadian women’s team — veterans Shelina Zadorsky and Jessie Fleming among them — compete for breakaway clubs. A similar potential ban on them representing Canada would be a huge blow.

What’s next?

Likely a whole lot of legal wrangling and brinksmanship. The non-ESL clubs from Spain and England are holding summit meetings Tuesday. UEFA may even look to ban ESL members from the culmination of this season’s European competitions.

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How do you think all this ends?

In a mess. Look, European soccer has been dribbling along the cliff’s edge of something like this for some time. The cash crunch of the pandemic and the increasingly brazen superiority complexes that pervade soccer’s boardrooms have combined to finally see those at the front spark the avalanche. An avalanche they hope brings only more guaranteed cash cascading their way.

But arrogance breeds incompetence and this really could be a grave miscalculation. As usual, it will fall on the have-nots to try to stop the madness of the have-alls. A groundswell of fans moving more and more vocally against their own clubs might prove to be as effective as any UEFA or FIFA threat or political pushback. The pawns are pissed off have some power in all of this. Should the players themselves rail against it, then the end of the sport as we know it may be averted.

But it’s going to get a whole lot messier before there’s any cleanup.

Joe Callaghan is a Toronto-based sports and feature writer based and a freelance contributor for the Star. Reach him via email: joecallaghan84@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter: @JoeCallaghan84