Skip to main content

The European Super League v2

Something potentially big happened on the fringes of the World Cup this week.  European Football Clubs, the (unhelpfully) renamed entity previously called the European Club Association, agreed to set up a joint venture with Fifa to run the Club World Cup. EFC has a similar arrangement in place with Uefa to market media rights for the three pan-European club competitions, a partnership that has already yielded significant increases in TV revenue.

The deal is likely to accelerate plans to expand the tournament from 32 teams to 48, perhaps as soon as 2029. Europe already sent 12 teams to last year’s Club World Cup, but with a cap of two teams per country. Assuming the increase is split on a pro-rata basis, Europeans would take up 18 spots in a bigger competition, and the per-country cap will surely be raised.

Last year’s CWC suffered from not having several of the biggest clubs in the world involved — Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester United and Liverpool. Raising the number of European participants will quickly solve that issue and help drum up more interest from broadcasters and sponsors.

We could soon end up in a situation where the 12 original European Super League participants, plus holdouts Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain are — in effect — guaranteed a slot. That could leave a few spaces still open for qualification; Uefa’s current rankings would point to the likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa or AS Roma perhaps sneaking in.

The financial rewards on offer at last year’s CWC were significant, at least for winners Chelsea, who took home more than £80mn in prize money. European clubs also received higher fees for playing than their counterparts from other continents. The split between participation fees and prize money could easily be rejigged to make sure everyone takes home a decent chunk, regardless of how well they perform.

It’s not hard to imagine a future where the biggest 15 or so clubs are all but guaranteed regular income from a new and growing pot of money. The EFC’s involvement leads to much higher income, and soon those same clubs ask for the competition to be held every two years instead of four.

That the EFC already has a deal with Uefa reduces the risk that it tramples on the Champions League. And of course PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, a vocal opponent of the Super League, is the head of the EFC and a member of Uefa’s executive committee.

But what it all adds up to is not a million miles away from the original vision of the European Super League — an elite group of top clubs with reliable, repeating income they don’t have to share with smaller domestic rivals.

The original Super League failed in large part because it was an attempted sharp, sudden shock to the system. Boiling the frog appears to be a much more effective tactic.

















Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion.  Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs.  An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...
Post a Comment
Read more

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more