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Originally Posted by Slava
I will have to check that out. I'm pretty convinced that to compete over the longer term you have to have owners who are willing and able to spend like that though.
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This is sort of the issue though.
As flawed as the concept of the Super League was, it did put a big spotlight on an important element within the game, and that was that the current model is unsustainable, so you do have to give some credit to the Super Leaguers for thinking outside of that box.
The huge influx of cash is skewing any semblance of the natural workings of the economics of the game and is drawing everything towards the top.
One of the big talking points between UEFA and the SL was that it would screw over all of the smaller teams in Europe.
Well...hate to break it to UEFA, but you dont need the Super League for that, its already happening, its been happening for well over a decade now, the Pandemic just shone a giant spotlight on it.
How does anyone compete with teams that dont need any fundamental sources of revenue? You cant.
Ultimately, watching that series the thing that really stuck out to me was that we're supposed to be viewing UEFA here as the 'besieged castle' fighting for the honour of the game against the Barbarians at the Gate.
When really, that might be the roles that each of these parties seem to have assigned themselves, but thats not the ultimate reality of the situation.
The Super Leaguers made a few salient points.
1. The current model is broken and unsustainable. (It is)
2. They need more Revenue and certainty/parity (they dont and they do)
The current model of football is broken and it is unsustainable, they are right about that. You dont need to look any further than The City Group. They are establishing a footballing empire that spans the Globe. They've got teams around Europe, in MLS and in Australia and they're just expanding because they are John Hammond and InGen...'Spare No Expense.' Because to them the money literally shoots up out of the ground so they're using it to acquire assets.
But nobody else can compete with someone that has literally free access to unlimited money and no checks or balances or limitations of any kind as to how they spend it.
It would be like playing Monopoly where you start with $1000 and your opponent gets all the rest of the money in the box and has a printer behind him. You're going to lose. So....why play?
The fact that the current model is unsustainable as it stands right now is pretty obvious.
They need more Revenue.
They dont.
I'm not going to delve into the economic fallacies surrounding unlimited and constant growth, but there is lots and lots of money there and while we're banging on 'Board Game Tropes' its essentially just 'Hungry Hungry Hippos' and everyone is just trying to get as much as they can of whats there.
The Super Leaguers just wanted more balls in the game and fewer players. Not rocket science.
But thats essentially just taking a game thats broken and playing it somewhere else, eventually you're just going to run right back into the same problems.
They need Certainty and Parity.
This is essentially what it all boils down to and its not a secret. I'd wager that anyone that frequents this thread would be considered 'More than an Average Fan' With some company excepted...of course.
We all know about 'English Premiums, Big Club Premiums, etc.'
They're negotiating against smaller teams who desperately need that money and know that the team they're selling to have it.
But then you get outliers, thats the Oligarchs, the Petro-States and essentially any team owned by someone or a group that has resources beyond that of anyone else.
Its like dropping a boulder into a pond. The ripples hit everything. It completely destroys anything resembling a sound or natural economic balance. It skews everything, and some teams and organizations can roll with those waves but....
Okay...lets get this out of the way...one of the primary talking points of the SL was that the big teams wanted all the money for themselves and it would screw over the little teams in Europe.
Well...guess what having Petro-State ownership does within the constraints of the current model? Its pretty much the same thing.
They price the smaller teams entirely out of the market and relegates them to perpetual minnows because those clubs are never, ever, ever going to ever acquire anything even remotely resembling similar resources.
Right now we're seeing massive European Clubs with huge brands and enormous fanbases and impressive financial resources who cant even get a whiff of being anywhere close to those Petro-State clubs, let alone mid-table clubs in France/Germany/Italy/England/Spain. They're not even in the same conversation.
Which is why a lot of Clubs are looking at sales.
This is turning into a Wall O' Text, so I'll try and quickly wrap up with the last couple points.
The American owners are easy, they're used to everyone being on a relatively similar financial playing field so they're all for something that brings in some parity, also, they like to hedge their risk. Thats why American Sports have a Salary Cap of some kind and no relegation.
They hedge. They limit their upside, but they mitigate their risk. So they get to make nice, steady profits.
European Football conversely is like the wild, wild, West. You can make HUGE profits...but you can also lose it all.
My conclusion? Europe needs to level the playing field. I'm not advocating for a Salary Cap, but there has to be real limits on spending to keep inflationary Transfer Fees and wages under control so that they can drag the huge clubs at the top and tiny teams at the bottom more towards a happy medium in the middle.
FFP is a joke. PSG and City have both been caught red-handed and released with a gentle finger wag.
There has to a real, thought-out, rational economic structure that all teams have to adhere to, cannot circumvent and has actual, serious consequences if defied.
Do not touch Relegation/Promotion. It is a core fundamental element of the structure of the system.
But if these things arent addressed and the status quo just keeps on keeping on then really...the Super League already exists.
Those major Clubs already have UEFA dancing like a marionette. Whats the difference? Crap by any other name, would it smell as malodorous?
