THE END OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME? - THE EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE EXPLAINED

Football is Dead
[viz. by Varun Sangwan]

Yesterday, the footballing world was shaken to its core by the announcement of a European Super League, potentially disrupting the existing European competitions, i.e., UEFA Champion's League and The Europa League. Gone will be the days when any team could dream of playing in the European competitions as an attempt to challenge the status quo about the big teams in their respective leagues. Teams who have done well recently - the likes of West Ham, Leicester, Real Sociedad, Atalanta, and so on, who rose above expectations to challenge the top tier teams in their divisions will probably find their herculean efforts to have been in vain because the owners of the so-called big clubs have decided that football is just supposed to make money and shouldn't mean anything to the fans.

WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE?

What is the European Super League?
[via GiveMeSport]

The European Super League is an initiative lead by the biggest teams in world football (actually Europe), including the likes of the big six of the Premier League, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, etc., in an attempt to monopolize revenue streams across European football. The main idea behind it is that the top teams in Europe break away and start their own competition to challenge their equals every week. The reason stated is that the Champions League is becoming too predictable, and the competition will be more exciting to watch and thus will generate more revenue.

So Far, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan have signed on as the founding members of the league.

THE FORMAT

"A Disgrace To Football"
[via Sky Sports]

It is supposed to be started as a 20 team tournament with 15 founding members who will be immune to relegation and be guaranteed a place in the competition for the next 20 years. The other five teams will be chosen based on merit and can be relegated from the league. The entire competition will be divided into 10 teams, each where each team will play the other nine home and away. The top three teams from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals, along with a playoff for the following two best teams in each group. 

HOW THIS COULD POTENTIALLY RUIN FOOTBALL AS WE KNOW IT?

The President of Doom
Oh and don't forget that Joel Glazer is the Vice-Chairman
[via Juniper Sports]

Football is often referred to as "the beautiful game" because of its unpredictability and its ability to get communities united. When the game started, it was all supposed to be for the joy of playing and watching a sport that people loved. It all changed when football began to commercialize, and suddenly, football clubs were now more than just teams who played a sport that people liked to watch. They were now revenue streams, and the players became icons because of it. The club owners became rich because of the sport's interest, and clubs slowly started shifting towards becoming business enterprises. 

This was the controlled limit that was fair to everyone - the fans loved it, players got bigger paychecks, created more jobs, and the owners made money while doing it. Never did this touch on the grassroots of football which was that everyone has a chance to succeed. Be it Blackburn Rovers or Leicester City who shockingly won the Premier League by bamboozling the said to be big six Premier League clubs or clubs like Atalanta or Leipzig who continued to defy the odds and keep rising even if they were not as financially robust as the big clubs. Football has always been about the underdog who could punch above their weight and grow to be great while not being so financially prosperous as their opponents. 

However, the European Super League aims to change that. Even if you defy the odds and play as you have never played before, you still will not compete against the best, and if you are not a rich club, you get nothing. It will drive down to the point of almost - "why should we even bother?" when the result is you get nothing. The European Super League will destroy all domestic leagues as we know, all while putting cash in the hands of a few Oligarchs who can't even begin to understand what football is and why people love it.

Florentino Perez - the first chairman of The European Super League, was quoted saying - "We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans, and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires." However, this is a decision that is being made without the consent of the fans, who majorly will tell you that it is a horrible idea.

THE DEVIL'S DEN STAND

Football is and always should be everyone's game!
Let no one take that away from you!
[Pls sign the Petition in this link]

The Devil's Den strongly objects against the actions taken by the big clubs to change football as we know it by attacking it at its very core about what makes it so exciting. Football is all about the little guy who can grow to be great based on merit and not on history. Football is supposed to be fair - where you get the rewards if you do well and not because you used to once upon a time. We (The Chief Editors of the Devil's Den - Varun Sangwan and Hitanshu Samantray) are firmly against the participation of Manchester United and all other clubs who have chosen to be a part of the dismantling of the football culture. The Glazers have caused many problems for the club but being party to the destruction of the game for the sole purpose of "greed" and lining their pockets is supposed to top the lot. They use the fans' loyalty against them because they know that any decision will have little impact. After all, the people love the club more than they hate them. 

If this proposal is to go out, it will mark the beginning of the end of the beautiful game. This will take away from the fans what they love about the sport and damage the European history clubs have. Was it all for nothing - The Munich Air Disaster, The historic treble win, The dream of Sir Matt Busby that United will be a European Giant? This is a direct attack on the history of the club and what it means to be a supporter and should not be allowed to move forward. We stand with the English FA and UEFA and hope that they will take drastic steps to prevent the end of the beautiful game.