Real Madrid president Florentino Perez concocted a supposedly groundbreaking plan to “save football”. In reality, he and the heads of 11 other elite clubs came up with a barely-cogent plan, an amateurish logo, and no concerted PR response against an easily predictable backlash from both football’s governing bodies and the vast majority of hardcore supporters.
So now, the Premier League’s “big six” has reportedly pulled out of this purported European Super League entirely, and so will both Milan-based clubs. Fabrizio Romano reports that the league has been paused in order to, in the official words of the fantasy league, “reshape the project”. And it’s left us wondering, “Uh, what exactly is the project?”
But from a Real Madrid perspective, it leaves us with even more questions, because this very club’s president was the Chairman of this project. So here are three big questions I have now that it seems like the Super League has collapsed. At least for now.
How ‘dead’ is the European Super League?
And that brings me to the first question, which is either the most immediate or the most distant. Is it all really and truly over?
Perez appeared on El Chiringuito on Monday night and made some wild claims. He apparently lied about PSG, Dortmund, and Bayern being offered places in the league. But the most important thing he said may have been a threat – that the signed-on clubs were legally bound to stick around. Now, at least eight clubs are reportedly looking to move out, leaving potentially only the La Liga trio and Juventus on board.
Can Perez really sue them all? Will he try? And if he can’t, will he try to replace the departed clubs with desperate lower-tier clubs? Would any investors want to pump money to help an ambitious, mid-level side make the step up to a Super League? I’m not sure there’s a point.
Streaming services like DAZN and Amazon quickly denied any interest in the European Super League, making it look like a farce business-wise. And now, more than half of the clubs are out.
But would Perez – or someone else, perhaps even Andrea Agnelli – try to remake the Super League with far more detail in the future? Would these failings galvanize a more competent group of billionaires to try something more ambitious and fleshed-out in the future? The truth is, we don’t know, and it feels like we are headed into new territory.