This week, us football fans have all been preoccupied by the disgraceful news that 12 teams agreed to break away to a new private league which would have seen them earning about £3.5 billion, which would have been funded by private bank JP Morgan.
Today's blog will give you a round up of the events, let you know who were the people involved behind this greedy scheme and I will also personally express everything that is wrong with this league and how I feel that my club has betrayed and cannot bring myself to show my full support or any at all to Juventus. What is the European Super League?
12 teams including: Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, had plans to form a league of their own which would have been financed by JP Morgan.
Three more teams were set to join but clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain in France, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig in Germany, AS Roma and SSC Napoli in Italy, Sevilla in Spain and Porto in Portugal confirmed that they had no interest in being part of such a league. These 15 teams would have competed in the tournament each season without risk of relegation while five more teams would join them. The teams chosen would have been dependent on their performance throughout the season, similar to how teams are chosen for the current Champions League format. The teams would have been split into two groups of ten, and they would have faced each other in home and away legs. The top three teams from both groups would compete in a knock-out phase. As a 'welcome bonus' each founding team was set to earn £200 - £300 million, while summing up to billions each season. What did this league mean to non-founding clubs?
If this league was to go on as planned, teams such as Leicester, Atalanta, Borussia Monchengladbach, Villareal, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb and the list goes on and on, would not be able to compete in a fair European competition where they can face higher opposition, play more exciting football, make history while also earning a great deal of money which helps them in their development.
To put things clearer for you, if this sort of league was to had been implemented in the season of 2016/17, Leicester would not have qualified for it. Meanwhile teams such as Liverpool who finished eighth or Chelsea who finished 10th, would still had been able to play in this so called 'elite' league. But who are the actual people behind this league?Real Madrid President - Florentino Perez
Previously, Perez has spoke about the aims of this league, saying, "We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires."
Andrea Agnelli - Juventus Chairman
Joel Glazer - Co-owner of Manchester United
What footballing figures had to say about the ESL
Despite the fact that high figures in the footballing world were ready to take over with plans of their own, other key figures such as football players joined the fight along with the fans against these people of high positions.
On Sunday during Sky Sports Football Show, Gary Neville expressed his thoughts in a heart felt speech, which basically highlighted all that is wrong with this Super League, especially for English football.
Liverpool Supporters' Group: "Embarrassing. As fan representatives we are appalled and completely oppose this decision. Football is ours not theirs. Our football club is ours not theirs."
Manchester United Supporters' Trust: "A "Super League" based on a close shop of self-selected wealthy clubs goes against everything football and Manchester United should stand for." Chelsea Supporters' Trust: "Our supporters across the world have experienced the ultimate betrayal. This is unforgivable." Manchester City Supporters' Club: "These owners, irrespective of where they come from, seem to think Football belongs to them, it doesn't it belongs to us, the Supporters, irrespective of which team we support." Tottenham Supporters' Trust: "The current Board is prepared to risk the Club's reputation and its future in the opportunistic pursuit of greed." Arsenal Supporters' Trust: "This represents the death of everything that football should be about."
How organisations responded
"UEFA, the English Football Association and the Premier League, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and La Liga, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and Lega Serie A have learned that a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce their creation of a closed, so-called Super League.
"If this were to happen, we wish to reiterate that we - UEFA, the English FA, RFEF, FIGC, the Premier League, La Liga, Lega Serie A, but also FIFA and all our member associations - will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever. "We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit; it cannot be any other way. "As previously announced by FIFA and the six Confederations, the clubs concerned will be banned from playing any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams. "We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough."
How it went down
So far, we have seen what high profiles had to say about the Super League, but how did this saga come to an end in just two days?
Football is a game of the people, and all football fans united together to protest against this appalling plan. On Tuesday evening, Chelsea fans gathered around Stamford Bridge in London, blocking the entrance to the training grounds. A video circulating around social media showed former goalkeeper Petr Cech arguing with fans to let the bus go in and let people sort this out. Moments later, while people were still making their voices heard outside the stadium, it was announced that Chelsea were going to start filing documentation in order to exit the Super League.
It still doesn't mean that because the Super League is on hold, and because many clubs want out and now they are issuing apologies to fans, the fight is over. These people have tried to steal football from fans of every club basically, as this league would have affected the development of clubs in lower leagues too.
Many of these owners look at these football club solely as a business and forgot that these football clubs were founded by working class people for the love of the game. That is why fans are piling up in front of stadiums and training grounds to protest against these greedy owners who are ready to throw years of history away to fill up their pockets.
Tottenham fans took over the new billion pound Tottenham Hotspur Stadium yesterday calling for their owner to resign while today Manchester United fans managed to get into their club's training grounds in Carrington and blocked the entrances while protesting against the Glazer family ownership of the Manchester club.
My personal thoughts
For those who read this blog frequently, you know that I am a huge Juventus supporter. My dad brought me up supporting Italy, supporting Juventus and I had a great Italian influence especially in regards to football while growing up.
My dad taught me to always stand by my club, as he stood by his club when he saw them lose nine Champions League finals, while I only remember the ones of 2015 and 2017 since I was still very young when they reached the 2003 final. He stood by Juventus when they were relegated to Serie B because of the Calciopoli scandal which tarnished Italian football. That is why I believe that I should always stand by my club, no matter how bad things get, but now I do not feel that I can be happy about last night's 3-1 win over Parma. People tell me, what Agnelli did is wrong but Agnelli is not the club, so I should not hold it against the whole club. As a Juventus fan, I thank Agnelli for making Juventus one of the best sides in football but in my opinion the Agnelli family is Juventus. They hold the eldest sporting partnership in Italy with Juventus, since 1923. They basically built Juventus, so how can someone say that Agnelli isn't Juventus? And that is the reason why I feel betrayed by my club. It took one mistake, one giant mistake to make me feel like this. Juventus gave me an identity, made me feel part of a family, not only a black and white one but also a footballing one. I meet people who support clubs in the Championship, in League One and League Two and despite me being a supporter of a bigger club, we still feel like we both belong to something bigger together. And in my opinion, the people who created this league were taking all of this away. They were threatening to take the opportunity from smaller football clubs to have their own taste of glory in Europe. Thinking of it, it's not only about the money but about the embarrassment that these clubs had in Europe and in domestic competitions against lower clubs.
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