by Reese Sieger
If you’re a soccer fan, there’s no way that you haven’t heard of the European Super League. But, if you haven’t heard about the brief two days of chaos, here’s the news! Throughout the world, there are many different soccer leagues that all consist of many different teams. Some of these teams are historically better than others, and there’s often the same two or three that are competing for the title every year. Because of this, twelve of Europe’s biggest clubs announced plans to break away from the established soccer order and form a Super League. These twelve clubs were as follows: six teams from the English Premier League (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham), three from the Spanish League, La Liga (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid), and three from the Seria A Italian League (AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Juventus). There were also other clubs who were invited to join but denied their invitations, including PSG (French team), Bayern Munich (German team), and Borussia Dortmund (German team).
The idea of the Super League was announced on April 12th and immediately caused many issues. Many soccer fans did not like the idea of this league because they believed that it would ruin the nature of the sport. With all the best teams from every league gone, nobody would watch anything other than the Super League, which would make all the other leagues irrelevant. Many fans were outraged as they claimed that the Super League was ruining soccer. Not only were the fans upset, but the players were too. As it was the owner’s choice to join the league, the players of the joining teams had no choice and they were upset about that. In fact, Jordan Henderson, the captain of Liverpool Football Club, called an emergency meeting between the captains of the Super League teams in order to come together and fight the idea of the Super League. Something like this has never been seen or done before. The idea of rival teams coming together to fight against a common enemy has been viewed as both beautiful and historical.
“We don’t like it and we don’t want it to happen. This is our collective position. Our commitment to this football club and its supporters is absolute and unconditional. You’ll never walk alone.” Henderson tweeted.
Due to all these protests, the six English Premier League teams pulled out of the Super League and it began to collapse. The other six clubs took longer to act, but after a few days, four other teams pulled out, leaving only Barcelona and Real Madrid committed to this crumbling idea. Many say that the European Super League was doomed from the start. While it seemed like a good idea initially, it never stood a chance. This is probably why this idea only lasted about 48 hours even though it took over 3 years of secret planning.
Since it only lasted a couple of days, it couldn’t have made that much of an impact right? Wrong. Although the Super League has crumbled, many fans are still mad at the teams who were planning on joining it while they have gained more respect for those who declined being involved. Alongside the fans, the players were upset that their owners would give up their loyalty to their fans just for a money grab. Additionally, what started as a way to maximize profits might have actually caused a loss in revenue, as many clubs are losing sponsorships due to the controversy surrounding them. Even though the Super League never ended up happening, it still influenced the sport of soccer greatly and it’ll just take time to see how this debacle affects the future of soccer.
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