Behind the Super League’s collapse
Lesson summary
Hi there, it’s Jeff and welcome to Plain English lesson number 363. JR is the producer and this full lesson can be found at PlainEnglish.com/363. On today’s lesson: how the Super League plans fell apart after just two days. Plus, we’ll talk about the English expression “at the mercy of” and JR has a song of the week. Let’s get going!
Fan reaction: ‘Nobody is safe from these billionaires’
Fans across Europe erupted in protest when the owners of 12 European soccer clubs announced they were breaking away from the UEFA Champions League and forming their own exclusive league. As you heard on Monday, the new system would insulate the most prestigious clubs from the competitive system of promotion and relegation. In other words, the clubs would guarantee themselves a spot in what would become the continent’s most high-profile league, without the indignity of having to earn their way in.
Three factors contributed to the Super League’s demise. First, many of the owners behind the new league are American and they thought European fans would accept a sports league with an American model. Second, the clubs in the new Super League botched the execution. And finally, sports fans revolted and scared the clubs into withdrawing. Let’s look at each one of these reasons.
First, the owners didn’t have an appreciation for the differences between American and European sports. three of the clubs involved in the Super League are currently owned by Americas: Liverpool, Manchester United, and Arsenal. The owners of these teams own soccer, baseball, and football in the US. They wanted to create a league like the ones their American properties compete in: friendly to owners, not as competitive, and extremely profitable. Many of the other clubs had foreign owners, too; no doubt they were enticed by the American model.
But they didn’t appreciate how European fans prize the uncertainty and the competition. The possibility of being relegated to a lower league is what motivates teams to do better. It heightens the drama for the fans. There is more at stake in every game. Fans in Europe know the differences between the American and the European model—and they didn’t want their clubs playing in an Americanized league.
You heard on Monday that European soccer clubs don’t actually make a lot of money. The club owners—billionaires all—made their money doing something else. But the surprising thing is that these billionaires—accomplished in other parts of their lives—were so incompetent in the rollout of the Super League. They dropped a press release on a Sunday announcing the league. In their hubris, they didn’t bother to do any type of fan outreach or media roadshow to convince the soccer-loving nations that this would be good for their sport. They clearly didn’t try to find out how the media would respond ahead of time. They didn’t even tell the club managers or players much before the announcement. Fans and journalists desperate for information asked club managers what they thought, and the club managers were as clueless as the fans were. They lost control of the narrative immediately.
When they made the announcement, the 12 clubs said that the Super League would be 20 clubs in total: 15 permanent members and five rotating members. They were still trying to convince three clubs to join the league as permanent members. One of their targets, Paris Saint-German, France’s most prestigious team, was not yet on board. Neither was Bayern Munich. When the announcement was made, in other words, the Super League wasn’t even complete yet.
Not only that, but they hadn’t even had serious talks with broadcasters to carry the new league. The whole idea was based on increased television rights, but major broadcast partners—in other words, the ones who would actually be paying—said the new league was bad for football.
What finally killed the Super League, though, was not the incompetent execution, but a good old-fashioned popular revolt. Fans across Europe erupted in anger. They flooded the streets, holding up signs and chanting slogans. “Created by the poor, stolen by the rich,” said one sign. Another said “Barcelona is our life, not your toy.” A popular t-shirt said, “Earn it on the pitch; football is for the fans.” Fans chanted, “You’re ruining our club” and “It’s not football anymore.” Many more chants I won’t repeat here.
Leading journalists and opinion-makers denounced the move. A popular blogger lamented, “Nobody is safe from these billionaires” who will do whatever they want at the expense of fans. One poll showed 79 percent of British soccer fans opposed to the new league. Politicians rushed to be on the side of the super-majority: British prime minister Boris Johnson threatened additional regulation. FIFA, the international organization that governs soccer, threatened that players on the Super League wouldn’t be allowed to play in the World Cup—the ultimate trump card.
The first team to buckle was Chelsea of the English Premier League on Tuesday evening. Fans protested vigorously outside Chelsea’s stadium during one of its English Premier League home games. But during the protests, word leaked out that Chelsea was getting cold feet: it was preparing to withdraw from the Super League. The protest turned to a celebration. Cries of, “We saved football!” replaced the expletive-filled protest chants.
That same night, Manchester City announced it, too, would withdraw. When dawn broke on Wednesday morning, six of the original twelve clubs had withdrawn from the Super League.
Recognizing their mistake, wthey announced they wowners rushed to make statements to control the damage. A chastened John Henry, the American owner of Liverpool, took full responsibility for the debacle. Joel Glazer, the unpopular owner of Manchester United, said they “failed to show enough respect for [the club’s] deep-rooted traditions.”
The next day, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and Milan confirmed their exits, leaving only three teams in the league. The project was dead. FC Barcelona issued a defiant statement saying that “more in-depth analysis is required” to understand the reasons behind the fans’ reactions. All the clubs that had so boldly decided to break away from the UEFA Champions League were now knocking at the door, asking to be let back in.
It was a spectacular 48 hours. Fans, at the end, were ecstatic. In a world where individuals often feel powerless in the face of events and feel at the mercy of large institutions, this was a big win for the common man. The Super League was an idea that had been around since 1998; we even talked about it in Lesson 102 . But having tried and failed so badly, the idea of an exclusive league seems dead for quite some time.
Having it both ways
You know what I can’t believe out of all this. The 12 teams that started the Super League had a vision that they would have a permanent seat at the top league and have guaranteed income. Fine, I can almost understand that. But their vision was to have 15 permanent members and five open spots for other European clubs to compete in! In other words, they wanted to keep the excitement of promotion and relegation even in their new league—but exempt themselves and let everyone else compete to play in their league.
This was sports at its worst. As I was researching this lesson, I looked through the list of owners of English Premier League teams and not a single one is British. Another interesting thing is that none of the German clubs wanted to be part of the Super League, and it’s probably not a coincidence that all German football clubs are owned by club members—fans, in other words—and are not controlled by a single company or individual.
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