Super League backers are howling at the moon – the game moved on years ago

The court ruling does little to change reality that the fatal knockout blow has already been delivered in the other direction

While it was trumpeted as seismic, as the day “football is free”, and a “Bosman moment” the long-awaiting ruling by the European Court of Justice over the Super League project actually feels like the emptiest of pyrrhic victories.
In football there is never any place for assumption or taking things on face value – never under-estimate the deviousness of clubs, after all – but it all looks like it is just too late for the architects of a breakaway European Super League.
Uefa and Fifa have been given a bit of a bloody nose by the court, guilty of misusing their monopolistic powers, but it barely even hurt. The fatal knockout blow has already been delivered in the other direction.
It sounds dramatic that the court, the highest in the EU, found Uefa and Fifa’s rules were “unlawful” but it appears to be more of a procedural issue even if there is a legitimate argument as to how those bodies exploit their dominant positions in the sport.
Crucially, and it has been overlooked by the ESL’s dwindling bunch of supporters, any breakaway would still need to receive authorisation from Uefa. In fact, it can be argued the court’s ruling protects the powers of football’s current governing bodies. They can organise their competitions and are right – according to the court – to protect sporting merit.
There is no way back and, if there is, it is not because of this judgment and it will take a much more threatening intervention – a mountain of cash from Saudi Arabia as with LIV golf – to make a difference.
Uefa has updated its rules since the ham-fisted launch of the ESL two years ago and revamped and expanded the Champions League to try and keep the clubs sweet and offer even more cash.
The Premier League has introduced a new Owners’ Charter to include a 30-point deduction for any club trying to breakaway and Fifa is hugely growing the Club World Cup to a money-spinning 32-team tournament from 2025. There is no room; there is no need; there is no appetite for anything else.
In addition, in England, there is planned government legislation, through the office of the regulator, which will “stop clubs from joining any similar breakaway competitions in the future”.
We have also had statements – led by Manchester United – that are pretty unequivocal. They remain committed to Uefa and the Premier League and while Liverpool – another one of the six English rebels – have not said anything publicly but gave an assurance in 2021 to the Supporters Trust that it would have the final say on any possibility of joining a breakaway league. So that is the end of that, surely?
The view from the other Premier League clubs? Nothing has changed. They are not interested. And if there are no Premier League clubs then there is no Super League. Given Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan and others, such as Atletico Madrid who previously backed it – and the European Club Association (ECA), which represents nearly 500 clubs – have ruled it out then it looks like it is over.
“In short, the world of football moved on from the Super League years ago,” the ECA said in its statement and that is a damning assessment.
Of course the ruling does not prevent new proposals being put forward – and that happened through A22, the backers of the original ESL – which may be more palatable than their first plan (well at least it contains some form or relegation and promotion) but it still looks like people howling at the moon.
After all, who is supporting it? Barcelona and Real Madrid, granted two of the biggest clubs in the world, but who after that? “I hope they start a fantastic competition as soon as possible with two clubs,” Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said witheringly. And unless there is the most extraordinary putsch taking place behind his back that would break the sport then that is the way it is at present. The rebels may go the Spanish courts and keep arguing but what is the point?
This is also without considering the reaction of the fans. The ESL has tried to curry favour with its claim that all games will be free to watch – how does that work without being bankrolled by a state such as the Saudis? – which is pretty wild. After all, the value for such a competition is usually tied up in the media rights.
The fan reaction last time put the fear of God into the Premier League clubs and it will be more passionate this time if there is even the slightest interest shown. The clubs would be mad to countenance it while they have got what they wanted out of Uefa – reforms to the Champions League and its other competitions with more teams, more games, more money and a fairer distribution of the cash, which kick in next season.
“We’ve won the right to compete,” declared A22’s chief executive Bernd Reichart. Even if that is true the question is: who is going to compete? It would take the most stunning and shameless of betrayals from virtually every club to make it even the remotest of possibilities.