Archive for April 20, 2021
Back to normal – a short-lived slogan
In the FA Cup semi-final 4,000 supporters were allowed back into the stands at Wembley. But this “back to normal” was very short-lived because only one day later the plan of twelve clubs to found the European Super League turned European football upside down (from The Telegraph).
Six English clubs together with Real, Barcelona, Atlético, Juventus, Inter and Milan declared that they had founded a new competition in European football called European Super League. The new league would play in midweek and its members would pull out of next season’s European Cups. As an immediate consequence, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City were in danger of being thrown out of the Champions League and Europa League semi-finals on Monday night as football authorities, fans and the Government declared war on the European Super League.
The four remaining English clubs in Europe were warned they could be expelled from their respective competitions as soon as Friday, while the likes of Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford were facing a ban from playing at this summer’s European Championship.
Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur were also rendered footballing outcasts, along with Real Madrid, Barcelona and the rest of the “Dirty Dozen” clubs behind a plot that has sparked arguably the biggest outcry in the history of the game.
The backlash against the largely-closed competition has intensified as:
- The Government vowed to do “whatever it takes” to stop the Super League, which was also denounced by the Duke of Cambridge.
- The Premier League called a meeting of its remaining 14 clubs that could see action taken against the so-called ‘Big Six’.
- Bruno Fernandes became the first player from a Super League club to cast doubt on it while Mesut Ozil and Ander Herrera spoke out against it.
- United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward was branded a “snake” by the president of Uefa, who described the rebel tournament as “a spit in the face of all football lovers”.
- Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Porto refused to sign up for it and the Champions League reforms were passed by Uefa.
- A YouGov poll found 79 per cent of football fans opposed a Super League and just 14 per cent supported it.
- The Super League began legal action to prevent the competition being killed off before it began.
That action failed to stop unprecedented steps being taken to do just that, including to ban what Ceferin dubbed the “Dirty Dozen” from the Champions League and Europa League – potentially even from the rest of this season’s competitions.
“My opinion is that as soon as possible they have to be banned from all our competitions and the players from all our competitions,” he said.
West Ham United also expressed vehement opposition to the proposal for a Super League after consulting with the club’s Independent Supporters’ Commitee.
UPDATE: “Power to the people” – the Super League seems to be off before it has started.
The move of six Premier League clubs to join the “cartel” of 12 European clubs has been unanimously condemned by the FA, the rest of PL clubs and especially by the fans! Manchester City and Chelsea were the first to pull out of the ESL on Tuesday, and later in the evening it was announced that all the Super League clubs were about to disband the Super League.
It also emerged that Andrea Agnelli had resigned at Juventus and that Ed Woodward would resign from his role as executive vice chairman of Manchester Utd. This man of confidence of the Glazer family, who was very much in favour of the ESL, will be gone and so is the idea of a Super League.
This could be a “watershed moment”in football. Coming together and fighting against the “big six” and the “cartel – that achieved victory within one day. This could be the beginning of smaller clubs and the real fans winning back power from the big money clubs, and football could change for the better maybe.
Tonight the football fans have won a battle – but how are they going to win the war? (talkSPORT)
The seismic but ultimately farcical attempt to launch a super league will be remembered as a pivotal moment in the sport’s history. The moment when many in football, having seen the wealthiest clubs consolidate more power and wealth over years, finally said ‘enough’ and fought back. But the game is not yet over, and future battles lie ahead (BBC).
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