Following last week's havoc regarding the European Super League (ESL), this week I take a look at UEFA's and FIFA's role in how the clubs came to create such a league and how the actions which they threatened the clubs with could have affected European football.
Although for now the European Super League is on hold, one needs to understand how big of a threat it is to European football, hence why I'm writing such blogs. Protests are still ongoing, such as that of Friday's at the Emirates during the Arsenal vs Everton Premier League clash. These protests are not to stop the ESL, but they're against the owners of these clubs who put money over everything that the team stands for. UEFA's source of income
We are all aware about how UEFA distributes money to the clubs who are competing in a competition such as the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and many more. But from where does UEFA make money?
If we take a look at the UEFA Champions League, UEFA already secures a billion pounds in TV rights with BT Sports, and also a reported amount of $250 million a year with Bein Sports. Meanwhile this competition is strongly funded by sponsors, having eight big sponsors which secure a good pool of money. These include:
From this little summary, we can conclude that UEFA makes well over £2 billion when we consider: the £1 billion already made from BT Sports, £360 million from these eight sponsors if the deals cost in the ratio of £45 million at least, £180 million from the Bein Sports partnership and income from TV rights and sponsors of other competitions such as the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Women's Champions League, the UEFA Nations League and so on. How much do the ESL clubs earn from European competitions
Part of the money that UEFA earns, is shared between the clubs that participate in its competitions. Most of it, is given out as prize money, according to their success in the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League. Below, you can find how much clubs would hypothetically earn this season from European competition. The amounts were calculated using the figures from the 2019/20 season. No amount could be found for how much more a club would earn if they win the Champions League Group. The amounts should be taken as millions.
When looking at UEFA's financial reports for 2018/19, one can see UEFA's distribution of money by country. During that year, England was given the highest amount of money through club competitions and national competitions with the amount of €16.067 thousand.
Meanwhile the other four highest paid countries were as follows:
So what am I concluding from this?
Comparing how much UEFA earns from such competitions to how much the clubs earn from such competitions, it is understandable how these clubs would opt for a European Super League.
So what should UEFA and FIFA do? If they are not going to increase the share of money these clubs should earn. In my opinion, football needs to become a levelled field. FIFA had implemented the Financial Fair Play rule in order to try and control clubs and their spending. But that still didn't work. So instead, they should put a limit on all transfers which would start to help with the flow of money. €200 million transfers has become too much in football. It has become an industry with billions involved in it, and you cannot blame these clubs to invest their billions in order to record prudent financial accounts. Meanwhile, how can UEFA invest the money better and how can clubs helps? UEFA can also implement regulations regarding the huge amount of income that clubs have and set a ratio which would be the budget to their pool of money. That way big clubs can help to invest money in other areas of the pyramid of football of their countries, creating a more levelled field. Meanwhile, UEFA can also invest more of its money in other countries. Some sort of ratio should be calculated in order to help lower nations and clubs to earn more than bigger clubs. Reason being that rich clubs are just getting richer while small clubs are not earning enough money to build and develop their side. This way, it can help small teams to start reaching better levels of football, eventually creating more exciting football. Imagine if all teams could actually be competitive, making it even more unpredictable, and giving more chance to the teams around Europe to compete. Investing in countries such as Estonia, can also help the country's and the clubs' economy, especially after the impact of Covid-19. If you have a team such as Real Madrid travelling to face an Estonian team such as Paide, it'll attract more people to the stadium once fans can start attending again, because such a big side full of football stars like Real Madrid, is facing their team, and also enable Spanish fans to travel to Estonia, generating more tourism and more gate money for both teams. I'm not saying that as soon as UEFA start helping smaller footballing countries, teams from Estonia and Malta will start making it to the Champions and Europa League. But it will start making it possible for them, it will help to start building a better European structure.
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