Super League: The War for Football

Let’s not pretend the idea isn’t appealing: A league with the best clubs from Europe, the best players constantly facing each other, banging fixtures every week. I’ve created plenty such tournaments on FIFA. But the idea is best left in the virtual world on a Playstation. In reality, such a construct would have wide-ranging consequences on football, further accumulating wealth with a few big clubs, leaving smaller teams struggling for financial survival.

There’s one thing this documentary makes abundantly clear: Not one of the men running football at the highest levels is in it for the love of the game but out of pure self interest.

Andrea Agnelli puts in succinctly:

It’s a business proposal. We’re not in it because we’re emotionally involved. We’re involved because we believe we can improve the system.

The driving forces behind the league, Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, Joan Laporta of FC Barcelona, and Florentino Pérez of Real Madrid, they all lead football clubs, which struggle financially, so obviously they favour a guaranteed yearly income.

Gianni Infantino tells people what they want to hear. He wants more influence on club football but more importably he wants to stay in the top position in FIFA. He needs the support from UEFA members so he’s against the league. Nasser Al-Khelaifi saw an opportunity to widen his influence across European football by aligning with Čeferin and becoming chairman of the European Club Association (ECA). Aleksander Čeferin was against super league to save his position. If there was a way to extract more money from the fans without upsetting them he’ll support it. His half-hearted approach towards financial fair play in European football says it all. If he was serious about protecting small clubs, he’d have to confront his new ally Nasser Al-Khelaifi and put screws on how much PSG can spend.

And Boris Johnson found a welcome distraction from the political pressure he faced at the time after repeatedly making bad decisions.

The documentary series gives room to different views and opinions, moreover it show football is in very bad hands. Super League may not have happened this time, but it may well happen in five or ten years.