DOSSIER Súper Lliga de futbol
(>>>notícies per ordre cronològic<<<)
SUPER OWN-GOAL
ELITE CLUBS, HASTY RETREAT: It took barely 48 hours — and enormous outrage across Europe — for elite professional football teams to ditch their plans for a Super League that critics said would have ended the sport as we know it, and perhaps even robbed the EU of its cultural heritage.
FLEEING THE PITCH: The seemingly ill-conceived plan began to unravel on Tuesday night with word Chelsea and Manchester City were pulling out of the project. Within minutes came confirmation that all six English clubs had withdrawn, followed by reports that Inter Milan would also quit, leaving the Super League all but defunct. The Super League now appears to be going back to the drawing board.
NO REMINDERS NEEDED, JUST FURY: In a statement posted on its web site, Arsenal said: “The last few days have shown us yet again the depth of feeling our supporters around the world have for this great club and the game we love. We needed no reminding of this but the response from supporters in recent days has given us time for further reflection and deep thought.” POLITICO’s Ali Walker has more on the story here. And the Guardian has this timeline of the Super League’s not-so-super demise.
NOW READ THIS: Emilio Casalicchio has a must-read on why U.K. PM Boris Johnson, who missed the first five government coordination meetings about the emerging coronavirus pandemic, jumped so quickly on the crisis in European football.
SUPER BIDE. Rebondissement nocturne dans le psychodrame de la Super Ligue européenne, qui semble s’effondrer alors que les six clubs anglais — la moitié des clubs fondateurs, donc — se sont retirés du projet. Ils ont été immédiatement félicités par Boris Johnson et Aleksander Čeferin, le président de l’UEFA. D’après le journaliste italien de Sky Sports Fabrizio Romano, le projet est même suspendu. Mon collègue Ali Walker vous raconte le retournement de situation qui met en péril la viabilité de la Super Ligue (en anglais). Côté français, les dirigeants du PSG ont hier exprimé leur soutien à l’UEFA, et ceux de l’OM plus explicitement leur opposition à la Super Ligue.
Cépamoi. Alors que les spéculateurs commençaient à voir planner l’ombre des géants de la tech derrière le projet de Super Ligue, Amazon a pris les rumeurs suffisamment au sérieux pour sortir du bois et jurer ses grands dieux que l’entreprise de Jeff Bezos n’avait rien à voir avec toute cette sombre affaire.
21-IV-21, politico.eu
What Else Is Happening
- Multibillion-dollar plans for a European Super League of top soccer clubs collapsed after the six English clubs, half of the league’s members, withdrew from the project. The Italian club Inter Milan pulled out as well, and a top official of the league later confirmed that the entire project had been suspended.
21-IV-21, nytimes
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20 abril 2021
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0. La Superlliga es juga, i molt, a la política. Llegeix+
1. La Superlliga del Barça és un negoci formidable. Llegeix+
2. Així serà el nou format de la Superlliga europea. Llegeix+
3. Futbol sediciós i colpista. Iu Forn. Llegeix+
20-IV-21, ara.cat
The Super League, explained
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Whether you’re a lifelong soccer fan or an outsider who doesn’t know your Manchesters from your Madrids, we have answers to your pressing questions. |
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First things first: What is a Super League? |
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The concept has been around for decades as something between an aspiration and a threat: a continental competition that incorporates all of the most famous names from Europe’s domestic leagues every year into an event all their own. |
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Who gets to play in it? |
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So far, there are 12 founding members: the teams that have been the driving force behind the project — Real Madrid, Manchester United, Liverpool and Juventus — along with Barcelona and Atlético Madrid from Spain, Inter Milan and A.C. Milan from Italy, and Britain’s Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal. |
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They expect to be joined soon by three more permanent members, along with a rotating cast of five more teams. The 20 teams will be split into two divisions of 10 teams. |
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Unlike the Champions League, whose roster is set each year based on clubs’ performance in their domestic leagues, the Super League will have permanent members who face no risk of missing out on either the matches or the profits. |
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Will the Super League teams still play in their current domestic leagues? |
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That is absolutely their plan. It may not be the leagues’ plan. |
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Is this about money? |
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Yes. According to their own estimates, each founding member stands to gain around $400 million — before broadcast rights and commercial income, which could push the number into the billions. |
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Why is this happening now? |
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The easy answer is that the pandemic has cost all of Europe’s clubs — including, and to some extent particularly, the wealthy elite — hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. The Super League is designed, to some extent, to offset that. |
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Can anyone stop it? |
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That remains to be seen. UEFA, soccer’s governing body in Europe, has vowed to use any measure available to stop the “cynical” breakaway. It is possible that FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, might step in and bar the players from representing their countries at the World Cup. |
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What happens now? |
As things stand, nothing is off the table — but a long, unseemly legal quarrel seems unavoidable.
20-IV-21, nytimes
HOT POLITICAL FOOTBALL: Ali Walker, David Herszenhorn and Emilio Casalicchio have an essential tick-tock that explains how and why the plan for a European Super League plan imploded. “The swift, shocking demise of the Super League was the result of astonishingly poor planning and organization by business titans who normally leave nothing to chance, and reflected a terrible misreading of public sentiment,” they report. But ultimately, “it was the backlash from political leaders, stoked by fan mobilization, that scuppered the Super League for good.” A must-read.
More on this saga on this week’s EU Confidential podcast, and in Paul Dallison’s Declassified column.
23-IV-21,, politico.eu
Inside the Super League’s downfall: For 48 hours, soccer stood on the brink.
23-IV-21, nytimes
Por Elda Cantú
Senior News Editor, Latin America
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La revolución de los millonarios duró 48 horas. |
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Fue una ruptura que causó furor e indignación de Barcelona a Bangkok, pasando por Buenos Aires: doce clubes de fútbol de la élite europea anunciaron el domingo que crearían un nuevo torneo cerrado y que, para quedarse con una mayor tajada del negocio, se distanciaban de uno de los eventos estelares del deporte global, la Liga de Campeones. |
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Los equipos que más dinero ganan —esos que gastan 24 millones de euros mensuales en los salarios de solo seis jugadores— decían que querían sanear sus finanzas y recuperarse, entre otras cosas, de la crisis de estadios vacíos por el coronavirus. |
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El asunto —un entramado de reuniones secretas, intrigas y traiciones— no se resolvería en una cancha. Funcionarios y ejecutivos del deporte, indignados, denunciaron la ambición desmedida de los clubes separatistas. |
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El lunes hinchas furiosos salieron a la calle. Boris Johnson, haciendo gala de su instinto de político populista, amenazó con emplear todos los medios necesarios para impedir la insurrección deportiva. El príncipe Guillermo dijo que sería una pena dañar “el deporte que amamos”. |
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Detrás de la ruptura había la promesa inicial de 4000 millones de dólares para los equipos fundadores de la nueva Superliga europea, un equipo de abogados listos para pelear en las cortes de todo el continente y Florentino Pérez, presidente del Real Madrid y arquitecto de esa improbable rebelión de estrellas y ejecutivos deportivos. |
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Para el martes casi nadie los respaldaba: “Habían perdido a la familia real”, observó nuestro columnista de fútbol, Rory Smith, “Habían perdido incluso a las marcas de relojes de lujo y, sin los relojes de lujo, ya no tenían otra cosa que perder más que a sí mismos”. |
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Uno a uno, los millonarios rebeldes se distanciaron del proyecto. Solo un equipo, el Arsenal, anunció que se retiraba con lo que parecía ser un poco de vergüenza: “Cometimos un error y pedimos disculpas por él”. |
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El deporte rey sin duda necesita una transformación, opina David Jiménez, pero una “que devuelva la cordura económica y las esencias a un deporte transformado en una industria sin alma”. |
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Si conoces a alguien que se exaspera o bosteza ante la mención del fútbol, esta crónica sobre el dramático nacimiento de la Superliga europea es un buen modo de despertar su curiosidad. |
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Tariq Panja lideró la cobertura del Times y ha estado revelando detalles desconocidos sobre los documentos y reportando las luchas intestinas de la Superliga europea. Lo contacté para que nos contara sobre los entretelones del auge y la veloz caída de esta revolución. |
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¿Qué va a pasar ahora con los equipos rebeldes? |
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Los que han vuelto al rebaño serán bienvenidos sin sanción, al menos por parte de la UEFA [el organismo que regula el fútbol europeo]. Está por verse si sus ligas nacionales toman medidas adicionales. |
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Algo fascinante, imagino detrás de cámaras, es el drama y la traición… |
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Sí. La principal relación que se ha destruido es entre Aleksander Ceferin, presidente de la UEFA, y Andrea Agnelli, presidente de la Juventus. Se habían hecho muy amigos en los últimos años, al grado que Ceferin aceptó ser padrino del hijo menor de Agnelli en 2018. Agnelli y la Juventus se unieron a la Superliga un día después de que él le había dicho a Ceferin que estaba comprometido completamente con la Liga de Campeones. Ceferin dijo que no volvería a hablar con Agnelli jamás. |
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Es un escándalo. Eran compadres… |
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Es como la mafia. |
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¿Piensas en esta historia como quien reporta sobre el bajo mundo? |
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Ciertamente se sentía así, con tantas intrigas y engaños. |
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Muchos hinchas dijeron que esto iba contra el espíritu deportivo. ¿No es un poco ingenuo pensar así? |
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No lo es en el contexto del fútbol europeo. De muchos modos es como quitarle una parte del tejido cultural al continente y tirarlo al basurero. |
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Esa parte del tejido social de reunirte en un bar con tus amigos, llevar a tu nieto al estadio, la relación local entre las ciudades y los clubes… |
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Eso es. Y también la idea de que incluso los clubes más pequeños pueden algún día escalar hasta la cima. |
Génesis y fracaso de una rebelión |
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Llamadas telefónicas frenéticas, reuniones secretas y amenazas de alto riesgo: esta es la historia tras bambalinas de cómo nació una superliga europea de fútbol multimillonaria y, dos días después, colapsó.
23-IV-21, nytimes
Football vs. Vaccines in the battle of the PR nightmares
Welcome to Declassified, a weekly column looking at the lighter side of politics.
The Football War between El Salvador and Honduras. The boat being stuck in the Suez Canal. The Mexican presidency of Pedro Lascuráin. That time I tried to make Anthony Bourdain’s recipe for cassoulet. All of these things lasted longer than the European Super League.
After launching as Sunday turned into Monday, by the time Tuesday turned into Wednesday it was all over after the self-professed Big Six English clubs announced they were pulling out (that’s five actual big clubs and Tottenham Hotspur, who have had less European success than POLITICO’s five-a-side team — fact!).
Even Boris Johnson, a man who knows as much about football as he does about fidelity and using a comb, was quick to denounce the plans, promising to “drop a legislative bomb” to stop it from happening.
He didn’t need to. In a statement, the Super League said: “Given the current circumstances, we shall reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project.” Now we all know what that means: At some point when everyone’s celebrating the end of lockdown or on holiday or maybe even just drunk, an announcement will be made for the “Super European League” that will be exactly the same but with softer marketing, maybe a picture of a kitten or a smiling child or the Dalai Lama.
As unmitigated PR disasters go, it was almost admirable. Was the whole thing the brainchild of European Council President Charles “This seat? Don’t mind if I do” Michel?
However, spare a thought for those at the sharp end of the abuse heaped upon the Super League, such as Theresa May’s former Downing Street Director of Communications Katie Perrior and former broadcast journalist Jo Tanner, who, as London Playbook revealed, had signed up to do communications for the breakaway league. Rumors that they’re taking less toxic jobs such as PR for Bashar al-Assad were unconfirmed at the time of going to press.
24-IV-21, politico.eu