I know that our media is largely made up of idiots, people who suffer with concepts such as basic comprehension, but the continuing flap about the “Super League” really does show them at their running worst. Tonight’s ludicrous tale is no exception.
Apparently, Celtic and the Ibrox club are in contention for invites. Even if this was not speculation about speculation about speculation I would still laugh. For what possible reason would the makers of such a competition even be considering us?
Look, there are Ibrox fans who might seduce themselves with this utter fantasy but we’re going to finish bottom of a Champions League group which is hardly loaded down with the giants of the game. We’re not panicking. There are signs of tangible progress. But we are so far away, right now, from being considered an elite club that it’s kind of heart-breaking.
There are two ways to look at it, and none of them do these stories the slightest good.
The first is that the Super League idea is a nonsense, as I’ve long argued that it is. Celtic is a member of UEFA. Celtic has no interest in not being a member of UEFA. Celtic is trusted and respected at the top table of UEFA. We are seen as a stable and steady influence, which is why when the new rules on FFP were being written we were at that table.
We are also a member of the European Clubs Association, and a member in high standing and one which has been at the table when changes to the European competitions have been made. We’ve got a very clear stand on this; ideas which fall outside of the UEFA rubric are of zero interest to our club, in part because we know that they are doomed.
No national association supports this. None will allow any club to be associated with it. If Juventus and Real Madrid and Barcelona want to pursue this idea they will find the world a cold, lonely place.
They are desperate to rope other clubs into this lunacy and Celtic will have no part of it.
The idea is dead. It is going nowhere. No-one at UEFA believes that this is anything other than a mad fantasy which will be dealt with harshly if it goes beyond mere talk.
The second way to look at it simple.
If the idea suddenly became credible and not just a pipedream, if it was something that UEFA would either allow or be powerless to stop, if the national associations could not prevent teams joining it, and thus the idea took on a more solid form I do not kid myself that we would be anywhere near the top table because the Super Clubs (and the clue is in the name of the competition) do not regard us as on their level.
Harsh, but true. We deal here in reality, with the world as it is and not as we would like it to be. The only way this would ever involve us is if it became a multi-tier competition which would eliminate domestic leagues at a stroke … the very reason UEFA will never permit such a thing in the first place.
There is no scenario – none – in which we will be involved in a breakaway competition. The chances of it are zero. Not doubtful, not debatable, not even risible or virtually non-existent.
Zero. Nada. Nil. Zilch. A cold day in Hell will happen first.
Yet the stories continue, with each more preposterous than the last.
I cannot believe that anyone takes this seriously, not even those who keep writing about it. That means that these stories aren’t just stupid, they are fundamentally dishonest as well.
James, the Super League is going to happen whether we want it to or not. If UEFA does nothing, the EPL will turn into the de facto Super League. Leading clubs from around Europe, and it’s not just the top clubs from Italy & Spain, see this and despair.
There’s two possible outcomes here: (1) nothing is done and EPL gobbles up all the broadcast money and becomes the de facto Super League, or (2) a Super League is formed under the purview of UEFA and effectively replaces the Champions League.
I have my doubts whether it will ever happen because it would be such a drastic change, but a continental divisional structure with promotion and relegation among several divisions may be the end game here with national division winners feeding into the lowest division in the same way the highland and lowland leagues feed into League 2 in Scotland.
Maybe sevco and their pet paper think that miss fox and her investors may be taken in by their bovine excrement and up the price of their share offer .
I agree Benjamin, it will happen. Its money driven. I have been saying for years. UEFA will develop Super Leagues with promotion and relegations.
Celtic will make it into a league but we will not be at the top table but we will earn more than what we get in the spfl.
Simple facts
There’s a EU court case taken by Barca, Madrid and Juve that will get a hearing in mid-December, which says UEFA is a monopoly and appeals to use European competition law to break it up.
Those clubs will be pressing for it to be sent to a higher court to examine the case and decide whether, in fact, UEFA is a monopoly that needs breaking up.
If that happens (and it’s a big if, but way beyond my knowledge to know whether it will or will not), then a Super League like Benjamin suggests could be an outcome in the future.
Expect the new proposals for structural change in European, inter-club football to be published before 15 December, 2022, the date of publication of the Opinion of the Advocate General (AG) of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the ‘European Super League’ (ESL) case.
See the new Twitter account of the company promoting reforms, ‘A22 Sports Management’: A22 Sports @A22Sports.
See especially the tweet by A22 Sports on 19 October (quoting the relevant article published in the ‘Financial Times’) and my own, 10-tweet reply to that tweet. I tweet from the account: Superleague of the European Union @EuroFootLeague.
Thanks ! Hail ! Hail ! Garry Patrick Cooke.