When it comes to the European Super League’s failed launch in April 2021, there is one version of the story that has become most popular among the many who opposed it – that the competition was announced on Sunday evening, was instantly met with fury by fans, journalists, players, managers, football federations and politicians, and within 48 hours had totally collapsed, such was its unpopularity. But that is not wholly accurate.
Yes, the announcement was quickly met with protests by fans and was condemned by UEFA and FIFA, who had previously warned that players could be disqualified from playing in the World Cup if they took part in a breakaway competition like the Super League. And yes, all six English clubs quickly performed a u-turn and withdrew from the project, Milan, Inter and Atletico Madrid all followed them, while Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, who had just stepped down as the chairman of the European Club Association as one of the ring leaders of the Super League, swiftly admitted defeat, telling Reuters on Wednesday: “I don’t think that project is still up and running.”
But the idea that the Super League was dead and buried from that day forward is wrong, with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus all staying loyal the project. Five months later in September, Barça president Joan Laporta declared “the project is alive” and “UEFA cannot stop it”, while UEFA warned that the Super League was still “an ongoing existential threat to the foundations and future of European football.”
Fast forward to July 2022, and a two-day hearing took place at the European Court of Justice, as the company that helped launch the Super League sought to address whether UEFA and FIFA had broken the law by threatening to expel the 12 original Super League clubs from their competitions, and whether a breakaway competition would be protected from such threats in the future. And while an answer won’t be heard until December, Matt Slater recently wrote in the Athletic, “the arguments heard in the Luxembourg-based court suggest the European Super League, or something similar, will be back at some point.”
This also comes during a transfer window in which the English Premier League’s spending power has come into even greater focus, with newly-promoted Nottingham Forest (€141.1M) racking up a higher net spend than Bayern Munich (41.6), Borussia Dortmund (29.6), Milan (26.2), Inter (24.5) and Atletico Madrid (15.2) combined (137.1), and with Marseille and Barcelona the only non-English clubs to rank in the top ten highest net spenders in Europe at the time of writing.1
In August, Adriano Galliani, a former Milan director who is now the general director of Serie A newcomers Monza, suggested that a new super league should be formed that excludes the English clubs due to the Premier League’s superior financial might.
But could the Super League actually return? Would UEFA be unable to stop it? And if so, could the English clubs actually be left out? On today’s EFD Explained, we’re going to take a look.
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