Mercifully, the curtain was brought down on football’s ‘Packer Circus’ in much less than 48 hours. Credit to Chelsea fans who took their protest to the Bridge and unnerved the club owner. Credit to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for threatening the proposed European Super League with a “legislative bomb”. Credit to the British royalty for lending assistance to the commoners’ fight. Credit to Gary Neville, whose place-down of the breakaway league on mainstream media was Churchill-esque. Together, all of them ensured that football escaped to victory.
The proposed Super League went against the two fundamental fundamentals of the sport, fair-play and fair competitors. It was a by-item of avarice.
Uber-wealthy owners of six self-styled English super clubs and some of their continental counterparts showed comprehensive disregard for the fans and more importantly, what football stood for.
The world’s most well known sport is a celebration of the collective. For the owners of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, nevertheless, bank-balance was all that mattered.
Last Sunday, only a couple of hours just before the clubs had announced the creation of the breakaway league, Burnley, placed 17th in the Premier League table, gave United a mighty scare. Only in the dying moments, did United safe 3 points via a third objective. Before that, Arsenal required a 96th minute equaliser to take a point against relegation-threatened Fulham. The Premier League’s broadcast rights worth of £9.2 billion is down to this competitors. It’s the toughest league in the world which is why fans spend hefty subscription costs to watch the matches on tv and world-wide-web. The ‘wretched-six’ didn’t want this competitors for getting richer than the rest.
Spurs haven’t won the league considering the fact that 1961. Arsenal haven’t won it considering the fact that 2004. Currently they are placed sixth and ninth respectively in the league table. They do not have a single European Cup to show for. ‘Silly money’ and ‘kamikaze spending’ haven’t but taken City to the European football summit. They had the temerity to bypass Ajax, the club of Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels, with 4 European Cups in their trophy cabinet. The also-rans and nouveau riche regarded themselves European elite. Laughable.
Leicester City are placed third in the Premier League table and West Ham United could effectively have a best-4 finish this term ahead of Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. Leicester City winning the league in 2015-16 from getting 5,000-1 underdogs was one of the most emotionally rewarding stories that football could present. Fair competitors permitted them to overcome the odds. But the ‘greedy-six’ became uneasy. They closed ranks to assure that such upsets didn’t come about once again. The proposed closed-shop league trickled down from their feudal mindset.
The Premier League condemned the concept of the Super League. “The Premier League condemns any proposal that attacks the principles of open competition and sporting merit which are at the heart of the domestic and European football pyramid,” it stated in a strongly-worded statement.
Too late. The Premier League permitted capitalists, oligarchs and petrodollars to take manage of an English neighborhood sport males who have been only interested in funds and cared a damn about football. The complete factor came back to haunt the English football set-up. Greedy owners demanded their pound of flesh.
United legend Gary Neville erupted on Sky Sports in his condemnation of the Super League. “They’re breaking away to a competition they can’t be relegated from? It’s an absolute disgrace. We have to wrestle back power in this country from the clubs at the top of this league – and that includes my club. It’s pure greed, they’re impostors,” he stated. He showed the honesty to publicly speak about getting “complicit” for not raising his voice when the Glazers’ takeover of United occurred in 2005. The Glazers’ takeover has drained more than £1 billion out of the club.
In reality, the much less stated about United and Liverpool the greater. A level playing field permitted United to rise like a phoenix from the Munich wreckage. Fair competitors permitted them to bounce back immediately after they have been relegated from the old very first division in 1974. Mind, railway workers of Lancashire founded the club as Newton Heath.
As for Liverpool, a club that claims to represent the Merseyside working class, their rise from a second division outfit to six European Cups occurred for the reason that a fair technique permitted their forward march.
These owners have been dismissive of the football pyramid. They didn’t want promotion and relegation. They despised a best-4 scrap. There was a sense of entitlement, as if they had a god-offered appropriate to sit at the higher table for the getting club football’s most significant income generators.
Don’t study also significantly into their mea culpas. They had no other alternative immediately after a heavy defeat. It would be vital not to decrease the guard. As Neville stated, the “scavengers” require “booting out” of the game. United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward’s impending departure is a fantastic starting. He has normally been the Glazers’ go-to man.
Actually, the sextet’s – the ‘dirty dozen’ in Europe to be precise – plans weren’t effectively believed-via and prisoners of their hubris, they underestimated fan-energy and undermined their footballers and managers. So along with the supporters and authorities, a huge vote of thanks to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and his City counterpart Pep Guardiola for speaking out against a project that was devised by their employers. A massive round of applause for United captain Harry Maguire and his teammate Luke Shaw for confronting Woodward and then voicing their protest on social media. Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson played a stellar part to unite the footballers cutting across club colours. Harry Kane, the England captain, have been you on a vacation?
The Super League is now dead and hopefully buried, and each sane thoughts is celebrating its downfall. And perhaps, the BCCI, also, shall take note. It may possibly sound a small far-fetched at the moment, but the Indian board that owns one of the richest leagues in the world, must never ever cede manage of its house to ‘outsiders’.