At the ECA, the composition of the board has dramatically altered since the 12 Super League clubs quit their positions on the ECA and UEFA after announcing their plans. As such, they have also removed their clout and influence. Those who remain on the ECA board are keen for the extra guaranteed group-stage places to be given to more champions of domestic leagues, particularly those in Scotland, Turkey and the Netherlands.
A source close to the ECA said: “We now have a different board. It is not a punishment to the six English clubs — it is more whether it was right to start off. Those two spots are the real controversial part of the 2024 reforms.
“They change the way you qualify — basically, you do not need to qualify for the tournament. It is unpalatable that Arsenal could come eighth and go straight into the group stage of the Champions League. It makes no sense. It’s never going to be acceptable to us to have English teams getting places despite underperforming in their domestic league. There will be discussions over amendments and the composition of the ECA board is now such that the big clubs are not there, so the perceived smaller could run them over.”
The English clubs become a little more vulnerable as Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, the two major clubs who refused to elope with the Super League, are now senior statesmen at the ECA and they do not require the coefficient places as they almost always finish top of their domestic leagues.
Intriguingly, however, separate sources countered that the coefficient places may yet be protected by UEFA, as the increased likelihood of an extra English team or two in the competition is perceived to add value to the competition when selling broadcast rights and seeking sponsorship
A well-placed source added: “These places are most important to the English clubs — and UEFA. This is the thing being missed. Those spots are a significant value driver to a new Champions League. The revenues from UEFA club competitions… when they grow, the distribution to European football as a whole grows significantly. UEFA’s desire to grow the value of the Champions League, which these four spots are very important for, is unabated.”
Where do the Dirty Dozen go next?
For those betrayed by the 12 clubs, there is a sense that the threat has passed. For decades, the menace of a Super League has hovered over UEFA and domestic leagues as the sword of Damocles with the potential to disrupt the status quo. Now, however, the 12 have blown their great escape.
“The key thing was always leverage,” explains one executive close to the situation. “And leverage always remains more powerful when the thing remains a spectre, when it remains a ghost. When the ghost becomes an actual thing, it must work. It becomes binary: success or failure. And they failed.”
There are aspects of the proposals that are still to be ruled out. For example, the Super League proposals also included a suggestion that a women’s equivalent of the competition would be launched.
The Athletic understands several clubs remain keen on this idea, as they argue there would not be the same level of history to disrupt, while domestic women’s leagues are even more dramatically stratified than they have become in the men’s game.
Barcelona’s women’s team, for example, have won all 25 domestic league games this season, conceding only five goals and have a goal difference of plus-122. In the French league, PSG are ahead of Lyon by a single point but both sides have only dropped points in one league game each this season.
The Athletic has been told several investors are continuing to explore possibilities to enhance the women’s game, particularly amid a perceived dissatisfaction around the television deals secured for the women’s Champions League and the schedule of the fixtures. This is more contentious for English clubs, who were impressed by the Football Association’s recent domestic WSL deal.
For the men’s game, the Super League clubs are now reassessing their objectives.
The Premier League is serving up doses of humble pie. They asked Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck to step down from the league’s audit and remuneration committee while Venkatesham, the Arsenal chief executive, and his Manchester City counterpart Ferran Soriano were ordered to resign from the club strategic advisory group. Manchester United executive vice-chairman Woodward and Tom Werner, the Liverpool chairman, are to leave the broadcast advisory group.
The Italian FA (FIGC), meanwhile, has amended article 16 of its licensing and registration regulations for clubs. This seeks to discourage teams from joining a Super League-style equivalent in the future. Signing up for private leagues not recognised by FIFA, UEFA and the FIGC would result in the club forfeiting their affiliation to, in this case, Serie A.
Dr Andrea Cattaneo, an EU and Sports Law lecturer, expects the conversation to move towards greater cost controls within football, with a broader discussion about the earnings of players and commissions paid to agents.
He says: “We are moving towards a discussion about the regulatory instrument of cost-control measures. Financial Fair Play has been successful to a certain extent, looking at the balance between cost and revenues, but it will be relaxed due to the effects of the pandemic. In the battle between stakeholders, some clubs are now trying to reduce the cost they sustain against players and agents. Agents might be the next goal; to remove the power of agents and cost of agent’s commission. Barcelona, Madrid and Juventus appear to be clinging on to the Super League, perhaps so that it is an idea that remains in the mind of people, and so some arguments may be accepted more easily over time.”
Kat Pijetlovic, who wrote the book EU Sports Law and Breakaway Leagues in Football, argues that there is a means by which the clubs could develop a Super League but she says that it must be approved by UEFA, while she also points to articles in the Treaties of the European Union that could be used to block leagues which restrict access to a closed shop of founder members.
“To have been a serious project, the Super League should have applied for approval from UEFA under article 49 of UEFA’s own statutes,” she tells The Athletic. “Instead, the Super League ignored the need for prior approval and just went and set up the competition, where the format does not only appear to be in breach of the law but also in breach of regulatory rules.”
The 12 clubs, it should be said, insisted the Super League was built on firm legal foundations.
Pijetlovic counters: “I have researched this for years. I have written a book on this. I spoke to a lawyer at a German club today and we cannot figure out why they thought it would work. They just tried to force it through. They may have been testing the waters. Definitely, they could not have thought this would work. This was flawed, because it was not in accordance with competition law. It was flawed in a regulatory sense, it was flawed in its marketing, it was flawed its PR and it was flawed in its communication with any stakeholder. It looked as though they had decided to do it in the space of one hour. It did not seem to be a serious project.
“In the format it was proposed, the Super League will never work in Europe. They miscalculated something massively. There is a way to set up an alternative league and that is to apply to UEFA for approval. This throws the ball to UEFA’s side of the court, so UEFA then has to come up with proportionate, transparent, non-discriminatory conditions for access to the market. Then they are in the game.
“The law would have supported UEFA. It is because UEFA is the governing body, mandated not only to make money but also to protect the game. They are mandated to finance the structure of European football, including a responsibility to grassroots and infrastructure. These are public interests that cannot be left in the hands of private entities that are strictly commercially orientated.
“In article 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, there is also a statement about the openness of competition, so promotion and relegation must be in place. It is even in the law that promotion and relegation is part of those things that must be protected. So if there was a future Super League, it would look rather different to the one proposed.”
