They are killing soccer
The European Super League, brands, and ambition for money are going to kill the best sport in the world.
It seems that the big brands and the big teams have agreed over the last 20
years to kill soccer. They have agreed to get rid of history, to put aside
traditions, to forget that soccer was born in the working-class
neighborhoods… and now the rich want to hijack it.
THE HISTORY
Let’s start with something as easy as traditions and history, and how brands want to forget it all.
Let’s go back a little bit, not too much when history was still respected and colors were important. It is 2011 and Boca Juniors, River Plate’s eternal rival, is going to have Coca-Cola advertising in its stadium. For soccer fans, the colors of these two teams are iconic, we know the basic mold of the jersey and we can even name at least 3 historical players of each one. Now comes the important part: how could Boca, in all the immensity it represents, let Coca-Cola, in its gigantic international strength, put River’s colors in its stadium? “No! You can’t. The colors and history are respected. Colors and history are respected, and I don’t care who you are, those colors won’t go in my stadium”, is what I imagine the directors said to the Coca-Cola board. Nothing, the brand had to put its colors in black and white because Boca is Boca (and also River is River).
But now, in the last few years, we have witnessed how Nike, Adidas, Puma, Umbro, Lotto, and all the medium and big brands have gotten rid of the colors of the teams and rivals and created uniforms that respond more to fashion than to the true identity of each team.
Let’s take Liverpool’s jersey for this season as an example. I’m not going to get into the details of the main kit, because it’s the away one that shows how they are killing history. It has nothing, it has no identity, it’s not Liverpool. You can take the crest off and put any other team’s crest on top of it, like Real Madrid's, whose third shirt is exactly the same but in black. That's how bad the present of soccer is.
Or the third Manchester City jersey. Somebody, please, explain this to me. I need Puma to come and tell me where they got this idea from and why it represents City. It’s fashion, it’s stopped being soccer.
And let’s not forget the whole black jerseys with outlined details in the team’s main color. Repeated a thousand times, and the history of the teams has been forgotten.
THE EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE
Now that we review the history, let’s go to the European Super League. It is the best worst idea.
Don’t get me wrong. The Super League has very good ideas, such as everything being transparent about how much each person involved in the game earns, referees having a microphone to justify each play live to fans, and most importantly: wanting to generate more.
The latter is the most important and the strongest reason why they want to create this parallel league. According to Lenders Magazine, the NBA generates 7 billion euros with its 150 million fans, while soccer, with 1.6 billion fans worldwide, generates just 1.5 billion euros. Something is definitely not being handled well. Or, as well, there may be values that are not being openly reported.
But at what long-term cost are we going to hand over soccer to those 12 clubs that want to monopolize and hijack soccer?
20 clubs are the ones that would participate in this competition. 20. They would enter through a ranking, through a classification, in which only 5–8 places could be disputed because the first 12 are already taken by the founders.
They talk about competitiveness, that they do not want to play “bad quality” matches, as Florentino Perez said, and they despise the rivals who earned the right to compete as equals against them. Goodbye to surprises. Goodbye to those ‘David’ teams that put the ‘Goliaths’ against the ropes.
There is already a huge gap between the elite teams versus the rest. How are the other teams that do not benefit from what the Super League offers going to be able to compete against them? How are they going to compete against those super budgets where Real Madrid, Barça, or United have the luxury of leaving a player who costs the same as Elche on the bench?
Do those 12 really think that by always playing among the same players they are going to make the “product” more attractive?
They are killing soccer.
They are killing soccer and they don’t realize it, because their pockets are so full that it blocks their ears and doesn’t let them see. And they want more.
Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atleti, Juventus, Milan, and Inter Milan forget where soccer is born. Soccer, in almost every country, and in almost every classic European team, is born in working-class neighborhoods, on fishermen’s docks, near mines…it is born, in truth, from the most humble, alienated, and forgotten parts of the cities.
Soccer has always been played in the mud, in the street, even with a bottle as a ball, because that is how democratic soccer is. Or was. And that is what made it, until today, the most beautiful sport in the world. The sport that everyone wants to play, the one that excites those who play the Champions League every year as well as those who go for the first time, and the one that makes you give all your savings to rescue your “Sunday league” team.
In Europe, the stadium has become a place for soccer tourists a long time ago, those who can pay the highest prices to be close to the pitch. While the fans are kept higher and higher in the stands, farther and farther away, until they stay at home. Or, as FedePraml explained it best on Twitter, “The progress of soccer is this. Modern stadiums, with VIP facilities, without spirit or personality. That’s the plan. The COVID on top of that propitiated that the annoying factor, the fan, doesn’t even step on the pitch anymore”.
This path of destroying soccer, of turning it into a fashion, and accessible to an elite (both to enjoy the game and to play the matches) was started by the brands wanting to erase history, monotonizing the teams so that we are unable to recognize the clothing of one versus the other. And the final blow is being given by the Super League, which will gradually eliminate the smaller teams.
