The Super League was doomed to fail from the beginning; however, what truly was the super league and why did it end quicker than it started?
The concept of the Super League (also known as European Super League or ESL) was that the 15 “founding teams” would be permanent members and 5 additional teams would compete through a qualifying process. The self-selected 20 teams would be split into pools of 10 teams. Then, the top 8 teams from each pool would go into a round robin where the top 3 teams would move to the quarter-finals and the 4th and 5th place teams would have a play off for the two other spots. In total, each season would feature 197 matches.
The reaction from the wider world was very negative and it was not well received at all by the international organisations and the public. The ESL was widely condemned by the UEFA, Premier League of England, Serie A of Italy and La Liga of Spain. The UEFA warned that any clubs that would be involved in the Super League would be banned from all domestic, European and world matches. Players from clubs who had joined the Super League would also not be allowed to represent their national team in international matches. The ESL was also negatively received by multiple different politicians and governments such as English Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron. The latter expressed support for the UEFA’s decisions stating “The french state will support all steps taken by the LFP, FFF, UEFA and FIFA to protect the integrity of federal competitions whether national or european” in an interview with Reuters. This was also poorly received by the fans. In a snap YouGov poll after the Super League’s announcement, it was found that 79% of British football fans opposed the Super League. 76% of fans of the British “Big 6” also did not support the League. Moreover, on the 20th April, over a thousand Chelsea football fans protested against the Super League in front of Stamford Bridge ahead of a Chelsea premier league game against Brighton & Hove Albion. The Chelsea fans had blocked both of the team buses; however it was soon relayed to the fans that Chelsea had stepped down from the Super League which resulted in a mass of celebrations from the fans.
Supporters from the “Big Six” called for the owners to divest their investments from their respective clubs. Executives from the “Big Six” that were involved with Premier League committees after CEO of the Premier League, Richard Masters, called on them to resign or be fired. Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, said that La Liga would not punish the Spanish clubs involved with the Super League but would leave it up to the UEFA. UEFA President, Aleksander Čeferin, said he would start welcoming the clubs back into the folds but was considering sanctions which included banning the teams from the next Champions League. The British government announced plans to make football more fan led with, what Boris Johnson called, a “root and branch investigation”. The investigation is also looking at how introducing a 50+1 (fan owned) rule could replace the current ownership model an replicate the one in Germany. Jeremy Corbyn, Former Leader of the Labour Party, and Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, have come out in support of the investigation. However, the government has come under criticism for such actions and was accused of leading a neo-liberalist agenda while attempting socialist reforms for football.
