A European Super League Fuelled By Fans
Although greedy club owners are to blame for the European Super League idea the supporters must also look at themselves because they provided the money that lined the owner's pockets
At least that’s what twelve club owners led the world of football fans to believe in April 2021.
However, once they publicized their official plans to form the league it sparked outrage from football fans across the world. And it wasn’t only the fans that were angry. Former players, current players, and managers also gave their opinion about how the notion of such an elite league was preposterous.
The twelve clubs involved were Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid from La Liga and AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus from Serie A. and they saw it as a way to guarantee their involvement in the biggest tier of European football completion annually. To them, they were the elite and they felt everyone would be forced to agree with them and shape a new European league around them.
But they were wrong.
Because even supporters of their clubs hated it and they used social media to voice their distaste. Many even went as far as saying that they’d never support their beloved teams again and that football was a people’s game and not all about money.
Yet football is about money.
After all, those teams are professional teams and the owners had to invest their money into their purchasing of the clubs. It was the owners that took the chance when they bought the clubs. And for many of them when they took over the reins and won things there the same fans were delighted to see doping so.
Take Manchester United as an example.
They are owned by the Glazers. They are American and own 6.7 million square feet of premium shopping center space in the US. They also own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the team is now worth more than $1.2 billion since they took them over in 1995. They purchased United for $1.4 billion back in 2006 and over the years increased the worth of their asset to over $3 billion.
And what of their noisy neighbors Manchester City?
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy prime minister of the UAE owns the club since 2008.
Since he took over the Manchester City Football Group’s valuation has gone up to $4.8 billion. He also owns Melbourne City FC, New York City FC, and a bit of China League Two club Sichuan Jiuniu FC. He owns almost a third of Richard Branson’s commercial space tourism company and a large percentage of the German automotive company Daimler AG and Barclays.
Not only that but he invests in energy and chairs a petroleum board too.
It’s safe to say he’s a businessman of huge proportions.
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara said that:
“No disrespect to Man City, but they were a nothing club until a billionaire owner came and bought them.”
And he’s right.
Because City was never in the reckoning to compete for the Premier League before the Sheikh took over and in the years he was the owner up until the Super League idea was publicized they were on the brink of winning their 5th Premier League title.
So, in their case money buys winning.
But it was also the case for Liverpool FC.
Because before Fenway Sports Group bought Liverpool in 2010 they had not won the Premier League Ever. Having been the most successful English team in history when the old Championship was in place Liverpool had a strong well of support all over the world. The owners knew what they were buying.
They were purchasing the history, and loyalty of many millions of fans scattered all around the world.
And in 2020 their investment paid off as they won the Premier League title 30 years after they won their last championship.
In all of these cases, the fans were delighted.
Because when Manchester United won the Champions League in 2008 by beating near neighbors Chelsea 6–5 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, there were no complaints leveled against the Glazers then.
When Manchester City’s Aguero scored deep in stoppage time to give Manchester City a 3–2 victory over Queens Park Rangers on the final day of the Premier League in 2012 the City supporters went wild.
Again no one complained against the owners that day either.
And the scenes that filled the streets of Liverpool when their namesake won the Premier League in 2020 showed that the fans were elated to be there despite it being in the middle of a pandemic when people should have been at home.
Don’t get me wrong football is about the people.
But people need to take responsibility for what they do too.
Because without all the millions of fans purchasing season tickets, traveling to away games, and buying jerseys the owners of these clubs would not have as much power. And with that power, they felt they could rule European football and be deemed as an elite team over others.
Football fans need to take back the power and be aware that although the beautiful game is theirs to play and follow it is also a big business that anyone can dominate if they have the funds to do so.
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