A major shakeup of European football might be coming<\/p>\n
Eleven of Europe\u2019s top football teams are considering forming a Super League, casting doubt on the future of Europe\u2019s national leagues and the UEFA Championship.<\/p>\n
Hi everyone, welcome back to Plain English\u2014Monday edition for November 12, 2018. This is episode 102, so you can find the transcript online at PlainEnglish.com\/102. We have a lot of new listeners, so if you haven\u2019t seen the episode transcripts, I think you\u2019ll really like them. Not only does it have every word I say on the program, but it also has instant translations of about a hundred words every episode. We have translations from English to Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Italian, and Japanese. PlainEnglish.com\/102. Check it out.<\/p>\n
And a quick message on behalf of Audible. If you\u2019re interested in listening to an audiobook in English\u2014or even one in your own language\u2014then you\u2019ll want to go to PlainEnglish.com\/book<\/a> to see how you can get a free audiobook from the Internet\u2019s biggest audio bookstore\u2014Audible. If you sign up for a free trial, you\u2019ll get to keep one full audiobook forever, even if you don\u2019t become a paying subscriber. If you do want to subscribe, it\u2019s about $15 a month, and you get one audiobook included each month. It\u2019s great for those of you who have long commutes, and it\u2019s also good if you already know the story. You can listen in English and not worry about getting lost in the details. PlainEnglish.com\/book<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some of Europe\u2019s top football teams are secretly negotiating to create a European Super League, comprised of the best football clubs in Europe, according to a dramatic report published in Germany\u2019s Der Spiegel newspaper. The report was based on a leak from an inside source, known as John\u2014obviously not his real name. This John is the manager of the web site Football Leaks, which is like the Wikileaks of the footballing world.<\/p>\n If true, this could be a dramatic re-organization of the biggest football market in the world, and a big change to how some of the world\u2019s most valuable sports franchises play their games. According to the report\u2014and this is all based on an unauthorized leak at this point, so it\u2019s not for sure\u2014but according to the report, the new super league would consist of eleven of Europe\u2019s top football clubs, plus five \u201cinvited guests.\u201d The eleven founding clubs would not be subject to relegation\u2014the common practice in Europe by which a losing team is dropped from the top league. That would not be a feature of the new league, as the eleven founding teams would be guaranteed a spot for twenty years. The league would also invite five guest teams at the beginning; they would not have the same guarantees.<\/p>\n The leaked reports said that the league could be operational by 2021. It\u2019s not clear right now how this new Super League might fit into the fabric of the existing way football is played in Europe. Right now, all of Europe\u2019s biggest teams play in national leagues. For example, Manchester United plays in the English Premier League. Real Madrid plays in La Liga, the league in Spain. FC Bayern plays in the Bundesliga, German\u2019s national league, and so on. Each league has its season, in which the teams play mostly within their own countries. In addition, the best teams across all Europe play in a tournament called the UEFA Champions League tournament\u2014essentially the highest football prize in Europe.<\/p>\n But the result of this setup is that the very best teams don\u2019t play each other all that often. In La Liga, for example, there are two excellent teams\u2014Real Madrid and Barcelona. But the rest of the league is not as good. So the best two teams are spending most of the year playing comparatively worse teams, and only in the UEFA Champions League tournament do they get matched up against truly equal competition.<\/p>\n How would the new Super League fit into this format? It\u2019s not clear right now exactly what would happen. Would the new Super League replace the UEFA Champions League tournament? Would those teams just opt out of that tournament, leaving it for the less competitive teams in Europe? Would they stay in their country leagues, leave their country leagues entirely, or try to play a limited schedule within their own countries to concentrate on their Super League matchups? These are all open questions\u2014but one thing is for sure: there would have to be some big changes in European football if this happens.<\/p>\n Is this a good thing or not? Let me offer my truly neutral point of view\u2014and I mean neutral, since I don\u2019t follow soccer\u2014or, as I\u2019m calling it in this episode, football. The advantage to a European Super League would be that the very best clubs would play each other more often. That means the competition would be more even, and fans would see more competitive games, more evenly-matched games, where the world\u2019s very best stars compete against each other more frequently.<\/p>\n The downside to a Super League would be that individual country competitions may be diluted if the top teams play in them less frequently, or leave them entirely. Diluted means, they\u2019d be less strong. Watered-down. What would the English Premier League be if Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City all left the league, or played in fewer games? Remember this is all based on leaks, so we don\u2019t know what the teams want to do with respect to their individual leagues. But regardless, you have to imagine that the individual country leagues would lose some of their vitality if their best clubs\u2019 most important games were not within the league, but outside of it, in an exclusive club.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard for me to say whether I think this is a good idea or not. You have to imagine that this is driven by a desire for big, global television contracts for the proposed Super League, and it would come at the expense of the national leagues. More frequent head-to-head matchups of the continent\u2019s best clubs mean higher television ratings and more sellout games\u2014both of which would be good for football at the very highest level. The question now is, Is the world lacking for good football matchups as it is? Would it be worth it to risk damaging the individual country leagues just to squeeze out some more big marquee matchups? Remember, the more the big teams play each other, the less special each individual matchup would be.<\/p>\n The teams that are considering leaving, according to the leaks, are the Premier League teams I mentioned a second ago, plus Italy\u2019s AC Milan and Juventus, Spain\u2019s Real Madrid and Barcelona, Germany\u2019s Bayern Munich, and France\u2019s Paris St.-Jermain.<\/p>\n The leaked report in Der Spiegel is from this one individual, who says he is not a hacker. The German newspaper shared the information it reviewed with the Reuters news agency, London\u2019s Sunday Times, and Spain\u2019s El Mundo. Overall, 80 journalists from 15 news agencies reviewed the documents provided by the confidential source.<\/p>\n Like I said, I\u2019m not really a football fan, so I\u2019m not sure what to think about all this. I kind of think they have a pretty good thing going right now; it would be quite risky to change everything now. It might be a case where the best clubs with the highest-paid stars continue to get richer, while the other teams struggle to maintain their relevance. But let me know what you think\u2014especially if you read the Der Spiegel report or follow European football. My email address is jeff@plainenglish.com and you can also find us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> with the user name PlainEnglishPod.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to say hello to a few listeners. Elsa is listening from Taiwan and studying for the IELTS exam\u2014I bet you have lots of company in this audience. That\u2019s an important test and we wish you the best of luck. Leandro is a pilot in Brazil and he commutes an hour and a half to get to work in Sao Paulo\u2014ouch! Good thing he has some good English entertainment to keep him company on Mondays and Thursdays, right? He said he listens to a lot of podcasts, which is great to hear. Mario from Fortaleza, Brazil, recently finished his Ph.D. in water treatment and management. Rodrigo is a doctor from Sao Paulo, Paulina is in HR (human resources) in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes. Big hello and thanks to all of your for listening.<\/p>\n One more listener is probably by now in New Zealand\u2014wow! That would be Malgorzata from Warsaw, Poland. She wrote me a lovely note saying she listens all the time and just really likes the pace of the program, and repeats things out loud after I say them. That\u2019s a good way to gain some confidence with your speech. Malgorzata is going to New Zealand for work and she will be installing a big landscape exhibition there. So thank you for your kind note and good luck in New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some of Europe’s top football clubs, including Manchester United and Bayern Munich, are in talks to create a “Super League” that would feature more head-to-head matchups of the continent’s best teams, but which may put the existing structure of European football in jeopardy. Based on early reports, it was not clear if the clubs would consider leaving their national leagues or if the Super League would replace the UEFA Championship. Plus, learn the English phrase “at the expense of.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"lesson_category":[150],"lesson_number":[151],"terminology_tag":[],"content_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEuropean Super League may endanger current club format<\/h3>\n
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