For God’s sake.
Another round of this? Another round of this discredited garbage?
Why? Why am I doing this?
Why am I having to go through this again?
Once again, the press is filled with more of this dredged up Super League fantasy.
Every time the PR company for these people puts out a press release a lot of folk in our media lose themselves in pants peeing excitement over it … and it has the substance of wind.
So they are sounding out as many as 80 clubs are they?
They can sound out 800 of them.
UEFA runs competitions for European football, under the aegis of FIFA and they are not going to allow any other body to set up something like this. The national leagues will fight it with everything they can muster, especially the EPL, even if clubs are allowed to continue playing domestic football, which is what these latest proposals apparently set out.
No-one writing about this today has even approached the subject logically. A minimum of 14 games a season. That’s less than what we played in Europe last season, but there is no room on the sporting calendar for those 14 games unless – and this is the crux of it – we withdraw from the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.
Domestic football might – just might – carry on as normal, although I wouldn’t put money on that, but European football certainly won’t. This means the end of UEFA’s three competitions and their entire system of rules and regulations like FFP.
If you think UEFA will allow that to happen, or that they should allow it to happen, you are wrong. It’s not just fanciful, it’s deeply immoral, it’s being proposed for suspect reasons by suspect people who aren’t even hiding what they are all about.
They don’t just want to disrupt football in Europe, they want to run it. And if you think that scenario benefits us in the long term you are kidding yourself on.
The idea is dead. Nothing will bring it back to life, and that’s the simple fact of it and it is tiresome having to write this stuff about a prospect that about as real as unicorns. The fascination with it amazes me. It is an idea which won’t leave people’s heads.
Celtic doesn’t support it. If we were sent an “invitation” I am quite sure it would be sent back the very same day with a no, and probably not a polite one. We have been actively involved in the setting up of financial fair play guidelines. We played a role in planning reforms to the UEFA club competitions. We, like nearly every club, are committed to UEFA.
The club is clear on this. Our position is unequivocal.
I cannot over-emphasise this; This. Will. Never. Happen.
Nothing remotely like it will happen, unless under UEFA’s banner.
It doesn’t matter how much those responsible hype it.
They want to dismantle the structure of continental football in Europe. It is a money and power grab. UEFA will protect itself by whatever means necessary, all the way to banning clubs.
The disingenuous bollocks that its PR department is trotting out today about the democratisation of the game and UEFA wielding the big stick does not for one moment hide that what they really want is the rules-based system at UEFA over-turned.
The only reason they’re talking to 80 clubs is in an appeal to greed and to use most of them as pawns.
Anyone falling for it is a mug.
To be frank, that will probably include some chairmen.
The head of La Liga has openly mocked the idea that this is about giving clubs back democracy.
He knows exactly what they are up to.
“The Super League is the wolf, who today disguises himself as a granny to try to fool European football,” he said on Twitter. “But HIS nose and HIS teeth are very big, four divisions in Europe? Of course the first for them, as in the 2019 reform. Governed by the clubs? Of course only the big ones.”
And the head of The Football Supporters Association was no less brutal. “The walking corpse that is the European Super League twitches again with all the self-awareness one associates with a zombie.”
This idea is as dead as Julius Caesar.
I do wish people would stop poking the corpse to see if it has signs of life.
It’s as dead as Rangers.
Take a deep breath James, and tell us how you really feel!
I think fans should be a lot more receptive to new ideas and new ways of running the sport both in Scotland as well as in Europe. FIFA, UEFA, and the SFA are corrupt to the core, and I doubt many Celtic fans would disagree with that assessment. If there’s a viable path to replacing any or all of those institutions and the competitions they run, we should at least be open to hearing the specifics before we shoot the messenger.
For my 2¢, the only reason 80 or more clubs have been contacted is because whoever is behind this wants as broad of a support base as possible when it’s finally revealed. Realistically that will mean staying within the confines of UEFA’s governance, and the “Super League” will simply be a transformation of the Champions League (and possibly the Europa / Conference Leagues as well). If this ever gets off the drawing board, it will have the support of a majority within the ECA. If that’s the correct read on this, many of the reasons Celtic should oppose a “Super League” will be taken off the table.
For my part, I hope it succeeds (depending on the details) and that Celtic is part of it. Right now the Super League already exists in the form of the EPL, and the status quo is not good for Celtic or Scottish football in general. If we want to change that power dynamic the EPL needs to be neutered, and the only viable way to do that is to pull the mega clubs out of the EPL entirely and put them into a pan-European league on a full time basis. Without Liverpool, Manchester City/United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Spurs, all those overseas broadcast deals collapse, and what remains of the EPL will look like a supercharged English Championship. The global broadcast and sponsorship deals will follow those 6 clubs wherever they go, and if that ends up being a UEFA backed competition that includes clubs from across Europe and has a dramatically different revenue distribution model, I think that would be a huge step in the right direction.
Such a proposal would effectively take Celtic, and probably Rangers, out of the SPFL and into a European league on a full time basis. I think there’s room for differing opinions on whether that’s good or bad, but it would accomplish two huge things: (1) Celtic & Rangers would never see a Scottish referee again, and (2) what remains of the SPFL would be a lot more competitive with new champions almost every year.
One other thought on this. One of the reasons I’m hopeful that the eventual proposal will be one that Celtic can get behind and support is because such a league will necessarily *NEED* broad based support from 50+ clubs if it is to get off the ground. Clubs not included in the proposal – the Brighton’s, Watford’s, Everton’s of the world as well as their Spanish, German, French, and Italian counterparts – will all be opposed to the proposal out of self-interest. The same applies to the national associations who will see their domestic leagues suffer, financially if nothing else, at the expense of the proposed Super League. In order to get this passed, it’s going to need either broad based support from a large number of clubs OR the backing of UEFA, if not both. And realistically club backing may be conditional on UEFA backing for a lot of these clubs, Celtic included.
So a huge battle looms if this is going to go anywhere; the European haves vs the have-nots with most of the participants of the current Champions and Europa leagues on one side, and national associations and non-European qualifying clubs on the other. And UEFA potentially playing the deciding role.
I’m hopeful that UEFA comes to their senses and concludes that a European Super League run under their supervision is better than an alternative which is one of a (1) a league not run under their supervision or (2) the status quo of an increasingly dominant English-centric Super League. The first alternative isn’t good for UEFA, and the second alternative is bad for everyone not in the EPL. There’s every reason to think UEFA will seriously consider serious reform proposals that have broad based backing (ideally from 50+ clubs if not the national associations) and aren’t a blatant and obvious money-grab from 10-15 clubs.
Lastly, the objections the Spanish FA is throwing up aren’t ultimately going to hold any merit in my opinion. Clubs that sign onto this aren’t going to do so if this is a project run by and for the benefit of a handful of clubs at the top of the pyramid. If it’s clear that they’re just being used as pawns, they’ll simply say no and this project dies then and there. They’re going to continue to want UEFA FFP & sustainability regulations enforced, and they’re also going to want an equitable and “fair” distribution of broadcast income that doesn’t see the top 10-15 clubs keep 80-90% of the income. The FFP & sustainability regulations are an easy concession as most of these clubs want to curb state backed clubs just as much as the rest of us do! And that’s to say nothing of the desire among some owners to actually make a profit from their clubs without the pressure of spending every last dime in a vain attempt to stay competitive. As for the revenue distribution, there’s room for negotiation on what that looks like, but that’s going to be the binding concession that the big clubs will have to make in order to get sufficient support across Europe to get this off the ground. Without that concession, clubs like Celtic, Dortmund, Ajax, etc will never get on board, and this project is dead on arrival. If this is a multi divisional setup, there will also need to be a promotion/relegation mechanism as well as a way for clubs to get promoted into the Super League structure from their national leagues. Just spitballing here, but maybe the original version of the UEFA Cup returns with only domestic winners gaining entry, and the 4 semi finalists from that competition gain entry into the Super League divisions?
We as fans should reserve judgement until we have concrete details. The original proposal for a Super League was an abomination and rightly killed. But it is possible to create a Super League where the outcome is preferable to the status quo – a status quo consisting of Celtic behind subjugated to SFA corruption every week while the EPL is the de facto Super League that relegates all other clubs and European leagues as a giant feeder system into the EPL. If such a proposal emerges, Celtic and its fans should get on board.
The proposals would actually take Celtic and SEVCO and not Rangers as they don’t exist out of The SPFL Benjiman !
Good comments from Benjamin, well thought out and sound reasoning, and I agree that we should not be too readily dismissive of the proposal until we know all the facts.
If the European league gets formed and there is big money to be earned Celtic will want some of it make no mistake football now is about money nothing else. When sky started that changed football for ever then the yanks came in Russians with dirty money Arabs oil money you have billions” spent on players there is not enough money for the big clubs they want billions of turnover so money is king .
Great post Benjamin, well thought thro.
A Super League under the control if UEFA will happen. It maybe a bit unfair to start with but with proper distribution of the monies, promotion and relegation then it will be a goer.
I think there will be more than 80 clubs making up the league systems.
I suppose the down side is, what happens to scottish football. One side of me says , its corrupt so I hope it dies. The other side says there needs to be a structure agreed by uefa to protect national leagues. There maybe a british league with what is left. There needs to be something.
With or without celtic, this will happn!
Football needs to change, nothing ever happens unless an idea is implemented, with the current governing bodies being Eufa Fifa, how can they continue with the list of corruption allegations against them.
I would like to see a wage & transfer cap on all players, use the surplus money on developing kids Football in your local community, also redevelop stadium’s & training facilities.
Football needs change but with rules put in place to prevent corruption.
Corruption will never be prevented anywhere, it is and always will be there from the dustmen, farmers and bus drivers, up through the bankers, sport, insurance companies, to the top politicians. It can maybe be contained, but you will never stop it.
There are so many reasons why Celtic should not rule out a Super League format under the auspices of Uefa, the main one being the release from playing in a corrupt league.
The SFA in Scotland through the appointment and continued employment of dishonest referees primarily to suit one team is a continuous sore that has run through Scottish football for over 100 years. In recent years it has become a lot worse, as the people within Sevco are looking for payback for what they wrongly perceive as unfair treatment of their old club and new club for their financial cheating.
As long as any changes come under the control of UEFA and FIFA, Celtic should support it all the way.
To escape from the control of the SFA and to broaden the riches of European football rather than it all going into the bloated small pool of English football should be what Celtic fans should support.
Benjamin your comments are spot on.