Football Culture and the European Super League

“I hardly watched the Brighton game.”

Nizaar Kinsella, Goal’s Chelsea FC correspondent, is recalling the evening he spent at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, April 20, 2021.

After wading through the supporter protests that delayed kick-off by 15 minutes, much of the focus for the 90 minutes that followed was on developments surrounding the apparent collapse of the newly formed European Super League, rather than the Blues’ 0-0 draw with the Seagulls

It was still less than 48 hours old but, by the time the final whistle was blown, it seemed a virtual certainty that it wasn’t going to last much longer – at least in its original guise.

It was quite the few days – or hours. It still, technically, isn’t over at time of writing, either.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus continue to cling to the idea. UEFA, having already given the nine other clubs involved a slap on the wrists in the financial sense, look set to punish that trio more heavily.

Those other clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Atlético Madrid – were all met with emphatic, virtually universal, disapproval upon the now notorious announcement at 11.30pm BST on Sunday, April 18.

12 clubs – apparently soon to be 15 – forming a breakaway competition of 20 which they would never have to qualify for. A franchise, in many ways. A guarantee. No jeopardy. Plenty of quality, potentially, but virtually zero rarity value.

“It was a revolutionary act,” says Nizaar.

“There were going to be huge winners and huge losers from the situation as well, so it was extremely controversial and, yeah, I think the people involved in it were a little bit surprised about how unpopular that was and how wedded people are to the current structures of European football and traditions as well.

“Keep in mind, football’s an over 100-year-old game and structures have changed over time but, broadly, it’s always been about qualifying for things and stuff like that – that’s been the principle and taking that principle out of it was highly controversial. So, yeah, I think that – as an experience – it felt big, felt really big.

“I think everyone involved in it was just totally focused on it and it also meant that, potentially, the season that we had going on meant less.

“I mean everything that people talked about was the Super League and not the match content. Not what Patrick Bamford did against Liverpool, not what Chelsea did against Brighton. It was just all about the Super League.”

Meaning. That felt like a big part of it.

Not only was this a potential turning of the back on so many of the game’s root values – and much of the game itself – it also made supporters, players and coaches alike question what they were actually playing for.

Whole clubs and teams had fingers pointed at them when, by all accounts, there had been approximately zero consultation with them. Club structures began to be dissected. Who had gone for it? Who had been cold-shouldered?

Every such question simply intensified as the weight of displeasure and protest grew.

Daniel Moxon has a good insight into both the Liverpool and Norwich City fanbases in his roles as a reporter for the Eastern Daily Press, Norwich Evening News and Wymondham and Attleborough Mercury, as well as editor of The Kopite website, and he recalls how the response did largely distinguish between the mindsets of supporters and their clubs’ hierarchies or owners.

“Fanbases of all clubs reacted in pretty much the same way, I think,” he says.

“There was a worry that fans of the clubs involved would be lumped in with the clubs themselves and be on the receiving end of a lot of the criticism, but from the very start it was recognised across the footballing world that the fans of the so-called 'big six' were just as incensed by it all.

“I don't know a single Liverpool fan who wasn't embarrassed and didn't feel like the owners had betrayed everything our club is supposed to stand for. And in Norwich the reaction was similarly universal.

“If there was any difference between the fans of the clubs involved and those who support other sides, it was that the Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man United and Tottenham fans had the shame and feeling of betrayal mixed in with the general outrage felt by everyone.”

Jay Pearson – a Liverpool fan and host of The Kopite podcast – was uplifted by the response.

“I thought it was great. It’s very rare that football unites EVERY fan base. But this certainly did. For once, everyone was on the same page and against this action,” he says.

“It was great to see fans from all clubs rallying to save the game we love and put a stop to it all. Some social media campaigns and protests were a little over-the-top and some quite ridiculous, but overall, it was a quick turnaround to shut it all down.”

There have since been widespread calls for the implementation of reforms throughout football. UEFA’s newly structured ‘Swiss Model’ Champions League – due to come in from 2024 – is far from universally liked, for instance, with the guaranteed 10 games for each of the 36 competing clubs seen as a show of more disregard towards player welfare.

The possibility of qualification through UEFA coefficient points also represents another potential move towards additional elitism and certain clubs having a virtual guarantee of being at Europe’s top table.

There is, too, a desire for increased fan influence on boards in England. Potentially through Germany’s ‘50+1 model’, where fans have a majority of the voting rights.

This specific approach may be difficult to implement in England, however. As Ronan Murphy, who covers the Bundesliga for Goal, explains.

“It’s the fact that it has been in Germany for so long. That’s part and parcel of how football works in Germany. It’s how clubs are run, it’s how clubs are owned in Germany.

“Whereas, in England, you have states and oil barons and billionaires and businessmen kind of owning the clubs and it’s all about money and it’s very money-driven.”

A more nuanced approach appears likely.

“Chelsea have set a bit of a precedent, haven't they, by announcing last week that there will be a degree of supporter representation at certain board meetings, so I think that creates a certain standard for the other clubs to have to match up to,” says Adam Crafton, who reported on the Super League developments extensively for The Athletic.

It remains difficult to judge just how much of a shift there will be in the footballing landscape as a result of events surrounding the Super League – but there are already some.

What remains striking is the general shockwaves.

It represented a wakeup call, of sorts. For the collective power the game possesses, the significant imperfections that remain – even without a Super League – and just how much room there is for progression.