Speaking on the BBC TV programme Inside Sport last night, Celtic manager Gordon Strachan made clear his belief that in the not-too-distant future the Champions League would be replaced by a form of European Super League.
In reply to the oft-repeated suggestion that Celtic and Rangers might one day join the Premier League in order to benefit from playing sterner opposition, Strachan said:
"I think in years to come there will be a European league with 54 or 60 clubs. That's the way everybody will get round it.
"There will be a new structure, a new body" he went on. "The powers that be, the businessmen coming into football now, will say 'forget FIFA, forget UEFA - we're so powerful, we'll have three leagues with the best 60 clubs'.
"And you know what? Preposterous and unthinkable though it might seem at the moment, I personally think it'll happen too. By my reckoning, I'll see it towards the end of my lifetime, which in real terms means 'by 2050.'"
Anyway, we here at Some People Are On The Pitch like a bit of prophesying so we thought we'd put our thinking caps on and try and work out what a European Super League would look like based loosely on the best that the continent has to offer right now.
Though this was anything but a scientific experiment, we were quick to realise that there are any number of ways you could calculate such a metaphoric notion. How many clubs would you allow per country? At the moment, the most you'll find is four, so that's the maximum figure we adopted for our own means.
Yet could this figure rise higher? Knowing the way big business and high finance gets involved in football these days, I for one wouldn't be surprised if a European Super League might end up featuring anything up to eight big clubs from places such as England, Germany, Italy and Spain.
And what of the smaller clubs and the countries they derive from? How many places would they be allowed in a system featuring three leagues of twenty clubs? Again, the cynic in me can see the lesser lights on the continent barely getting a look in.
Luckily for us in our fair-minded, level-headed fantasy world, we can put that straight though. What we've therefore done in our allegorical list is allowed at least one club to take part from most, although not all, the main countries in Europe.
So here it is then - your first glimpse at a future world where, according to Gordon Strachan, FIFA and UEFA would look on helplessly as an independent body took over the running of European football's biggest competition. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the European Super League (sponsored by Some People Are On The Pitch...)
League 1
Arsenal (ENG)
Barcelona (SPA)
Bayern Munich (GER)
Benfica (POR)
Bremen (GER)
Chelsea (ENG)
Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
Internazionale (ITA)
Lazio (ITA)
Liverpool (ENG)
Lyon (FRA)
Man. United (ENG)
Milan (ITA)
Porto (POR)
Real Madrid (SPA)
Roma (ITA)
Schalke (GER)
Sevilla (SPA)
Stuttgart (GER)
Valencia (SPA)
League 2
Ajax (NED)
Anderlecht (BEL)
AZ (NED)
Besiktas (TUR)
Bordeaux (FRA)
Celtic (SCO)
Club Brugge (BEL)
CSKA Moskva (RUS)
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
Fenerbahce (TUR)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Marseille (FRA)
Olympiacos (GRE)
Panathinaikos (GRE)
PSV (NED)
Slavia Prague (CZE)
Sparta Prague (CZE)
Sporting (POR)
Steaua (ROM)
Zenit (RUS)
League 3
AaB (DEN)
AIK Solna (SWE)
Anorthosis (CYP)
Basel (SWZ)
Brann (NOR)
Copenhagen (DEN)
CSKA Sofia (BUL)
Drogheda (IRE)
Groningen (SWE)
Hajduk Split (CRO)
Hapoel Tel Aviv (ISR)
Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR)
Rangers (SCO)
Ried (AUT)
Rosenborg (NOR)
Salzburg (AUT)
Shakhtar (UKR)
Spartak Moscow (RUS)
Tampere (FIN)
Zurich (SWZ)
A reminder then that this is just a bit of fun - if we've put a team in the wrong league, don't get shirty with us! It's just our spin on how a European Super League might look.
That said, given the lists above, who would you put in which league and who do you think might win or be relegated in each case? Let us know what your imagination's telling you, or if you have an opinion about whether a European Super League is even viable, tell us that too. We look forward to hearing your thoughts...
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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13 comments:
Maybe, but way more teams from England, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Shit, 10-15 of the Premiership and Spanish and Italian sides are Top 60 European sides. Sure, having fun, no problem. But, if some sort of SuperLeague comes into play, I would expect changes to add a, say, Man City or Dortmund (money, club size, talent as well) over Club X from Estonia and Club Y from Israel.
Kent
I'm probably going to get stick for this, but I think it would be a positive move. Right now, in any top flight team, there are only 3 or 4 clubs with even an outside chance of winning the title. It gets old really fast. It would make the entire league more competitive, rather than just (in England for example) the Top 4 competing against each other, the 5-6 teams competing for UEFA Cup slots, and the relegation battle at the bottom.
There are a lot of games right now (Arsenal vs. Derby is an extreme example, but the notion holds true even for other games) where the game is so one sided its not even interesting to watch, and one team puts 10 men behind the ball and tries to go for a nil-nil draw. A league where every game is relatively evenly matched would be far more interesting. Imagine seeing Man Utd/Barca, Liverpool/Roma, Real Madrid/Inter every weekend. We kind of get this already in the Champions League, but many games are either meaningless (Arsenal/Sevilla in two weeks) or tepid affairs because both teams are terrified of being knocked out in the latter stages.
I'm sure the Super League would start to become stratified eventually (as most European leagues are now), but with a new league you could impart new regulations (similar to the NFL) to keep things more 'balanced', but that's a whole other discussion.
I'm surprised that you would include 4 german clubs in the top flight and not one dutch club. Surely PSV and/or Ajax would belong over Leverkusen and possibly Kiev. Both clubs historically and recently have been more successful in europe than any german club outside of bayern. Other than I think it's a fantastic league and I would watch each weekend.
Agree with you chris b, for sure Ajax needs to get to league 1. They have won more European prices than the following teams in league one..
Arsenal (ENG)
Barcelona (SPA)
Bayer Leverkusen (GER)
Benfica (POR)
Bremen (GER)
Chelsea (ENG)
Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
Internazionale (ITA)
Lazio (ITA)
Lyon (FRA)
Man. United (ENG)
Porto (POR)
Roma (ITA)
Schalke (GER)
Sevilla (SPA)
Stuttgart (GER)
Valencia (SPA)
Only liverpool, real madrid and Milan have won more..and Bayern Munchen is missing on the list of league 1..
Hmmm, a Super League without Bayern Munich but with Bayer Leverkusen. Why not. :-)
I agree many neutral fans (most fans outside the country) do not really care about the small teams and would love a league like this so that they can watch these kind of games on TV week in week out. Also this would really make the actual leagues very interesting. just imagine the premier league without the top 4 or 5 teams...it would be absolutely superb. The problems that might show up would be like the cost of travelling for the fans...travelling for an average 5-8 games a season is one thing but travelling close to 20-25 times to different places over europe would be just too much...Hopefully this would bring cost of flying even further down! Also much of the emotions of games like derby games would be completely lost..fans in liverpool for instance would love their team to play against everton rather than bayer leverkusen. It probably would take out the rich traditions of club soccer.
The future according to Gordon Strachan would probably involve, strikers aswingers, centre backs as full backs and talented playmakers being asked todefend in a ridgid 442 formation.....but i agree wie his assessment of thefuture of the game- there will be a post on lord of the wing about theChamps League and UEFA Cup soon, real soon but studying for job interviewon Friday, no time at the mo, glad in this boring international week, aweek i'm not interested in at all that the interview is in..... To your post...... You call the leagues right, as in the CL at the mo, there is a higher orderand a middle order. The middle order are UEFA cup standard teams and ithink "league two" would be a competitive league cause the majority ofteams in that league are competing for 2nd or 3rd spot in the CL. Leaguethree i think you would find the Shakter and Spartak would walk as they areability wise league two teams and r*ngers would be relegated to theintertoto league, which is below the blue square premiership... For a decent look at who would compete a quick look at who was asked tojoin the G14. This selection was based on appeal and money but that listcontains the teams that would be invited to compete. Will need to get build up kudos wie MrsG though..imaging going to europeevery second week for an away game....D.I.V.O.R.C.E in the post methinks...
feck..post when wonky in cyberspace....
matt -
Your point about the lower leagues becoming more interesting as well is a good one. If the lower teams suddenly had the opportunity to win the league, it'd be alot more interesting to watch.
continuation:
... alot more interesting to watch for both neutrals AND die-hard fans.
This raises a lot of questions.
1. How much is it going to cost? Legal fees for breaking away and setting up a new structure? Players wages/transfer fees going up? Travel costs for clubs? OK the TV stations will be climbing all over each other to get the rights, but will the fans want to pay out for some of the matches?
2. If the clubs break away from their current leagues, how will the players stand when it comes to transfers outside of the new structure? Likewise will clubs be accepted back into their domestic leagues if it doesn't work out for them?
3. What about domestic cup competitions? Would the breakaway clubs be allowed to take part?
4. Would any of the breakaway clubs be allowed into Euro cup competitions?
5. If you take the big 4 out of the premiership, what have the likes of Blackburn Rovers got to aim for? If they win it, will there still be a CL to enter? Or would they expect to get promoted into this super league?
6. Is it realistic to find 60 clubs good enough to fill 3 leagues and keep it competitive? Or is that just a political statement to keep the smaller countries happy?
7. Would the likes of the FA, Uefa, Fifa, have the bottle to turn around to the leaving clubs and say "That's it. You have burned your bridges"? And to the players "Goodbye, your international careers are over"?
8. How many of the remaining clubs in this country would survive, if most of the revenue went into this super league?
I liked the idea at first, but then would I want to travel to see my club play in Moscow in the middle of winter? How soon would I start to pine for the excitement of the good old local derby?
I am now thinking that this could be a disaster for football, not just here but all over Europe. An our international squad needs more players not less available.
Is that the Juventus who aren't playing in Europe this season?
I did say this was a Super League "based loosely on the best that the continent has to offer RIGHT NOW", hence their ommission.
By way of an apology, Bayern Munich should have been on the list instead of Leverkusen. A momentary lapse of reason on my part there - I'll amend the original article now to reflect that.
More feedback on your comments soon!
What's to stop all the big clubs that you have dismissed from starting a seperate and competing leauge
England: from Spurs, City, Newcastle Everton, West Ham, Villa
Spain: from Atletico, Espanyol, Bilbao, Villareal
German: from BVB, Hamburg, Leverkusen, Hertha
Italy: Who would want them but from Fiorentina, Juve, Genoa, Napoli
Sporting from Portugal
Celtic and Rangers
The big three in the Netherlands
l'OM, Bordeaux and PSG
The big guns in Greece and Turkey
Why wouldn't any of these other teams (especially since some are G14) just break away from this superleague and form a competing league that would do just as well? No need to be in some #2 division because a bunch of rich clubs ganged up on you. Just start your own.
Everyone things a Super League would be all powerful, but it would be only as powerful as its constituents and I could see three or four competing leagues popping up to challenge it.
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