Europe: Fighting the Americanization of soccer
Europe’s richest soccer clubs have failed in their attempt to form a cartel, said Jonathan Liew in The Guardian (U.K.), and we can all “rejoice and revel in this triumph of popular will over the cold hand of Big Commerce.” The planned European Super League was the antithesis of the meritocratic system that each year elevates the best-performing domestic teams into the continent-wide Champions League. A closed competition featuring a “dirty dozen” of Europe’s wealthiest teams—including Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid, and AC Milan—the Super League would have attracted a massive global viewership and made gobs of money for the teams’ billionaire owners. But the midweek tournament would have eaten into teams’ domestic schedules and deprived smaller clubs of crucial revenue, so governments and fans across Europe reacted with fury. Thousands gathered outside Chelsea’s stadium, waving signs reading “Created by the poor, stolen by the rich” and “Are three yachts not enough, Roman?”—a reference to the West London team’s owner, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Just two days after it was announced, the league collapsed. To avoid any future breakaway attempt, the greedy teams must be punished, with “eye-watering fines” or even suspensions.
Having teams compete in a closed league is the norm in American sports, said The Economist (U.K.). For Europeans, the idea is “heresy.” Here, domestic teams must win their way into the top leagues and tournaments and then must prove they deserve to remain there. While U.S. football franchises stay in the NFL forever, scrappy English or Spanish soccer clubs can rise up from lower leagues and star teams can fall from premier leagues if they have a bad season. European soccer rewards excellence, and it is fiercely local. Liverpool’s main rival, for example, “is not Manchester but Everton, whose stadium is a mile from its own.” Local supporters knew that the Super League was designed not for them but “for millions of foreign fans, in Asia and America, who care less about such details.” The Super League didn’t take into account “history, tradition, love,” said Stefano Agresti in CalcioMercato.com (Italy). How much enthusiasm could Juventus fans muster if their team played one week against Arsenal and the next against Barcelona? “Where is the rivalry, where is the story?”
The scheme died this time, but the “NFLization” of European soccer is surely coming, said Oliver Fritsch in Die Zeit (Germany). Some teams have simply “outgrown the competition in their home leagues.” Juventus, for example, has topped Italy’s Serie A league nine years in a row; Paris Saint-Germain has won France’s Ligue 1 title seven times in eight years, and Bayern Munich is aiming for its ninth German championship. Money is always going to distort the game, said The Observer (U.K.). Fans want “oligarch or oil sheikh” owners willing to spend lavishly on the best players— Juventus pays star striker Cristiano Ronaldo at least $60 million a year—and “when that doesn’t work, to spend some more.” Even without the Super League, the playing field will never be level.