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When the idea of a European Super League as closed season-long Champions League first entered the public’s conscience, it was roundly derided by fans of big and small clubs alike.
With only six winners of the Premier League since its inception in 1992, including Leicester’s one-off and a no longer relevant Blackburn, fans of the new ‘Big Six’ want to maintain the status quo, while those below were happy to keep the monopoly running to boast confirmation of ‘the best league in the world.’
The theory at least is that the biggest beneficiaries of the chart-topping Premier League income would flaunt the prosperity in European competition to promote the brand, with the trickle-down effect reinforcing England’s world-leading lower divisions, and that belief still stands for many, despite recent figures showing the opposite has come to fruition.
Now though, with Manchester City’s potential two-year ban from European football on the horizon throwing finances straight back into the spotlight, there’s questions to be asked if there needs to be a reconfiguration of beliefs, reinforced by some disturbing figures surrounding the future of EFL teams, with many more potential Burys on the horizon.
While it’s difficult to make a case for the defence of Manchester City’s outright flaunting of Financial Fair Play, it has thrown into question the true purpose of these rules, and their increasingly clear intention of keeping the big and historic teams at the top of the game.
Not only does this stop new sides entering the elite through investment like City and PSG, who were possibly the last through the gate, in reinforcing the big sides it also has a knock-on effect on those below, making up the leagues and lower divisions.
The Champions League is now the biggest thing in sport outside of the World Cup and Olympics, and the figures show as it’s income increases, the cut of the pie that those outside European competition gain is decreasing in size as the rich get richer.
The effect of this is shown best in leagues like Germany where Bayern Munich are on a run of seven consecutive titles, up from a previous record of three, while a mid-tier league like Croatia is dominated by Dinamo Zagreb, all the way down to the very bottom with Santa Coloma in Andorra.
A 2019/20 season that started with the collapse of Bury and Bolton is now seeing Manchester City in very serious trouble, coupled with new investigations into PSG today. The candidates for a Super League are seeing both those above and below in financial terms slowly get picked off.
Which leads to the ultimate question; should we be more open to the idea of them having a competition of their own?
The ever increasing pre-season International Champions Cup has given us a glimpse into big teams being forced together, while the FIFA Club World Cup has drawn up expansive plans for what is seen by many as a Super League dry-run.
This season’s Champions League has experienced similar effects, with every club in the last 16 from UEFA’s ‘big five leagues,’ an arbitrary concept that exists just to further their success while decapitating leagues in Portugal and the Netherlands.
And while we both marvel and despair over what this could mean for the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Juventus, maybe the time should come to theorise over the benefits for those outside.
Across the EFL we have enthralling title battles in full flow, and with the added benefit of country and continent wide salary caps, could we even experience a utopia that fans of American sports enjoy?
Throughout professional sport in North America, supporters of any side can see their team rise to the top through intelligence rather than finances. Could the same be possible for a world outside of a Super League? Where fans of any small team could see their side compete at the top through scouting, coaching and a thriving youth set-up?
We’re a long way from knowing what the picture will ultimately look like as speculation begins, but this season feels like a turning point as Bury and Manchester City have shown- the system is broken.
For many Football League teams the financial numbers under the current structure are disturbingly unstable and increasingly impossible to sustain, meaning more Burys and Boltons are guaranteed. The bleak EFL summer of 2019 may be just the beginning.
And while it’s easy to paint the future of football as a capitalist dystopia run by the elite, for those of us outside the bubble, we might well just be better off without them.
