European Super League

A New Approach?

For many years now, the idea has been floated of a “European Super League” of football. It was the concept that drove the evolution of the European Cup into the modern Champions League, but it is an idea that has never gone away. Cryptic remarks from people with senior connections at Barcelona, Real, Milan and some of the biggest English clubs every few years make it clear that a break-away competition is still very much on the agenda for some of the continent’s major players.

And it’s the “break-away” aspect that seems to most disturb the supporters of these clubs. Suggestions have included a permanent roster of clubs with no promotion or relegation, a competition totally divorced from the domestic game. This, let’s be frank, is a fantasy, and an unworkable one. It seems incredible that revenues from a Super League could be much higher than they are from the Champions League already, and the major English, Spanish, Italian and German clubs still make more money from competing in their domestic championships than they do on their sojourns into Europe. And the fans don’t want to be removed from their domestic leagues, either. The traditional rivalries of club football rarely extend across national boundaries. Liverpool have had a series of high-profile games against Milan, but they don’t compare to the passionate, day-to-day rivalry with Everton. Travelling around the country on awaydays is a big part of the football experience for thousands of fans, and while trips abroad are always welcome, the prospect of nineteen away days across the continent is beyond the financial means of the ordinary fan. The third major obstacle is the disconnection between domestic form and European qualification. As things stand, a great club with a great manager can rise up the divisions and, in theory, go on to lift the biggest trophy in club football. Without that aspiration, the domestic leagues just become dead-end competitions, breeding grounds to be scouted by the elite minority. The status of the Premier League would be less than that currently enjoyed by the Championship. There is, at least, promotion from the Championship into the Premier League and that drives on the clubs in that competition.

So is there an answer? Or are we to stick with the current compromise format, a Champions League which is not a league and contains many who are not Champions? The idea behind the CL was to increase the guaranteed number of games for teams involved. Now, it seems, a lot of teams still feel there aren’t enough, but the fixture congestion they already experience means it is very difficult to expand the completion in its current form. The Europa League, an attempt to give the old UEFA Cup some of the sparkle and glamour of the senior competition, has resulted in a bloated mess of a competition where teams play an endless round of group matches after which nearly all of them qualify only to be knocked out in the next round by Champions League drop-outs. Most team managers view the thing simply as a distraction from their domestic targets.

There is, however, a solution. And that solution is to make European football into its own pyramid with promotion and relegation.

First, you need to reduce the domestic fixture list. Every top flight league should consist of no more than sixteen teams. Then we create our new Super League pyramid. Any club which has been in its home nation’s top division for two or more seasons can apply.

Our pyramid has three tiers.

In the top division, the “true” Super League, sixteen teams compete, home and away, for the title of Champions of Europe. The bottom four of these are relegated to tier 2. The teams in 11^th and 12 positions go into the play-off pool.

In tier 2, we have four divisions of 16 teams each. Teams from the same domestic league should be kept apart if possible. The winners of each league get promoted to the Super League. Two runners up from each league go into the play-off pool along with the 11^th and 12^th placed teams from the top division. From this pool, 2 teams are promoted or reinstated in the top division. The bottom four clubs in each division are relegated.

In tier 3, we have up to sixteen divisions of up to sixteen teams. Teams from the same domestic league are kept apart. The winners of each division are promoted.

The exact size of tier 3 will depend on the number of applications to compete. There should always be a multiple of four divisions for promotion/relegation purposes. There should be a minimum of 12 teams in each division. Divisions should not vary in size by more than 2 teams.

Any team relegated from their domestic top-flight will be dropped out of the pyramid, and replaced from below.

This structure allows for up to 336 European Clubs to take part, but all of them are playing for the chance to win promotion to the Super League itself. In fact, there is no other way in, even by winning a domestic championship.

It is a huge competition, but it is fair, and no team is, in principle, more than two good seasons away from the top table. The competition is never a distraction but a vital, vibrant competition, running in parallel with the domestic season. It provides teams from smaller leagues with regular ongoing competition.