it was such a scintillating week of soccer that it literally caused the crew’s scoreboard to burst into flames.
Spain, long the kings of European club and international soccer, was humbled over the course of two nights in Germany. The shock waves of the thorough beatings received by Barcelona and Real Madrid are still reverberating a week later as we head into the return ties in Spain. Meanwhile, the Premier League saw not only a champion named, but also two sides doomed to relegation. The race for the top four in England also remains interesting, with Spurs and Arsenal seemingly trying to trip out of each others’ way nail down the last slot. The Columbus Crew’s scoreboard caught on fire shortly before its team did in a 3 goal victory over DC United for the Black and Gold. And the biggest news? I scored a hat trick in my coed indoor match midweek. Earth-shattering stuff, right?
So with all of the madness that went down last week, it would have been easy to miss an interesting story or two along the way. As we edge our way towards yet another week guaranteed to be full of even more twists and turns, have a read through some of the best content I gleaned from the web over the last week that might have gone under the radar.
Some players are just destined for the headlines. How they find themselves there though, is often very different.
there are definitely two sides to the coin with luis suárez.
Many of those regularly in the headlines earned that right on merit, their amazing displays on the pitch rewarded with plaudits and front page cameos. You know the types: Messi, Ronaldo, van Persie, Pirlo, etc. Then there are those who frequently feature in headlines for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes it’s for the things they say, while others it’s for repeated infractions on the field, and still others it’s because they seem to gravitate towards all forms of trouble. These are your Bartons, Bendtners and your Bellamys… and that’s just the B’s.
But as you might expect, there is a small sliver of each of population of headline grabbers that overlaps with the other: the ones whose craziness off the pitch is only overshadowed by the crazy feats they pull on it. They’re just as likely to make waves for having a public meltdown as they are for bagging a game winning goal. King Eric Cantona the crazy paved the way for other brilliant yet mad players like Zlatan Ibrahimović, Mario Balotelli and Luis Suárez. All great footballers, but all possess a fatal flaw that makes each team they’re with question keeping them around.
Take Suárez for example: he’s currently sitting top of the Premier League scorer’s table with 22 tallies in 29 matches. He accounts for 39% of Liverpool’s total scoring output this season, and has at times single-handedly kept the Reds in the fight for a European place. The Uruguayan also has a rare knack for not only scoring goals, but creating them too. There’s no better player in England — maybe the world — at getting to the goal line, turning the corner on the defender and laying off a ball for onrushing teammates. Suárez has also seen international success, leading La Celeste to the Copa América title last year with four goals. Fans of the diminutive striker often lavish praise on his work ethic, passion and desire on the pitch.
But despite his brilliance, it’s that passion on the pitch that just seems to keep him in a constant state of trouble. Wherever he goes, trouble follows.
Though a 19-year-old Suárez quickly found his shooting boots after moving to Europe to play with Groningen — netting four times in one five game stretch — he also managed to earn three yellows and a red… in that same five game stretch. When Ajax came calling after that season, and Groningen rejected their initial offer, Suárez took his club to court to push through the move. Once he finally forced his way to the Dutch powerhouse, though quickly becoming a club legend thanks to an impressive 111 goals in 159 appearances, he then decided it was a good idea to bite an opposing player. A seven match ban ensued.
an arrogant action flies in the face of apology, and illustrates a lack of class.
He moved on to Liverpool during that suspension for a hefty £22.8 million. A price befitting for a rising world-class talent. A quiet six months followed, but in his first full season on Mereyside, Luis found himself in trouble once again. The first incident involved a perceived racial slur aimed at Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, earning an eight game ban. The next time they squared off against one another, he refused to shake the Frenchman’s hand, sparking even greater controversy. Then there was that time he flipped the Fulham faithful the bird when exiting at Craven Cottage. This season? Predictably little different. He’s admitted to diving in a match against Stoke, confirming many’s suspicions of his propensity to simulate. And more recently, a sucker punch while playing for Uruguay and an intentionally punched goal to knock non-league Mansfield Town out of the FA Cup round out his latest sins.
But all the while, in spite of all the turbulence, he’s poured in the goals. And for that, the Liverpool fans love him.
Now there was one headline I left out of that list of sins, and it’s one that many of his supporters point to as a defense for all of his indiscretions. The scene: the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals in Johannesburg. Uruguay and Ghana were in the dying moments of added time. A shot headed by Stephen Appiah, clearly headed for goal, was punched clear by none other than one Luis Suárez. Assomoah Gyan missed the ensuing penalty, and the Uruguayans advanced to the semifinals on penalties. Suárez had sacrificed himself for the chance that his team might advance, and it worked. Millions labeled him a cheat. Though most of us would have wanted to do the same had we been in his shoes, but wouldn’t have because we lacked the fortitude to do so.
considering how he’s played, you can understand why liverpool fans are so quick to defend suárez.
You see, if you ask Suárez’s biggest fans, Luis suffers from little more than the occasional rush of blood to the head. In moments of excitement, his passion and desire and drive to win is so intense that he’ll do whatever it takes to strive for victory. That example from the World Cup illustrates that point perfectly, and I can see honor in that. It’s a gut, instinctual reaction to do what you can to win.
But it’s when they apply that same logic to events such as his handball goal against Mansfield, I start to wonder if they’re just looking at Luis through rose-tinted lenses. He made the choice to poke in that ball with his hand. That’s a lot less instinctual, and lot more decision. Same goes for the punch to Chile’s Gonzalo Chara; that was far from an “instinctual” reaction. And while he was certainly provoked, that doesn’t excuse his decision get even. You look at that, and the laundry list of other infractions he’s got on his rap sheet, you get the feeling that his “instinctive actions” are actually more accurately described as an inability to control his reactions.
Look, I’m not disputing Suárez’s ability. On his day, when he’s got his head tied on tight, he puts on a show that few players are capable of replicating. In fact, there’s little doubting that a lot of his genius comes from his unpredictability. And I get why Liverpool supporters would want to defend him, considering all he’s done for the Anfield outfit.
But don’t try to feed me this bull that he’s a scapegoat or a media target. He can be a good footballer, but still be a shit human being. He built the reputation he carries. That’s the price you pay when you draw so much attention to yourself. The more headlines you make, the more cameras they point at you. And when you have a fatal flaw that makes headlines like Luis Suárez, all of the cameras are already pointed at you anyway.
January: the month where a million writers, bloggers, newspapers and websites get more eyeballs on their works than any other.
the under-utilized sturridge might be gifted a move to liverpool, but the effect of his move will ripple far beyond the premier league.
Thanks to its winter transfer window, and the plethora of the rumors of potential player moves that come with it, January is a writer’s best friend. Pick up the scent of a rumor without a credible source, spin it however you like, publish, and then sit back and let it run. It’s no secret that fans, desperate for a turn in fortunes or a continuation of success, will read anything that gives them hope. Knowing that gives publishers the impetus to pump out as much rubbish each January as your average American couch potato produces in a year.
But as the case is with many rumors, there’s often a little truth in each supposition. It might not be anything too concrete. However, that doesn’t mean that a club didn’t make an inquiry, an agent didn’t talk to potential suitors, or a player isn’t slightly unsettled.
So when I read rumors of Chelsea’s Daniel Sturridge potentially moving to Liverpool in a few weeks’ time, I knew I should take it with a massive grain of salt. After all, Sturridge represents exactly one half of Chelsea’s strike force. And though the £50 million Fernando Torres’ impotence isn’t as bad as advertised, the club selling of their only other option up front seems an incredibly risky move. Not even trigger-happy Roman Abramovich would pull off that kind of move without some kind of back up plan.
And it’s that backup plan which I find to be the most fascinating aspect of the January transfer window: the domino effect a single transfer can have on the rest of the professional game’s clubs across the world.
Let’s assume for a second that Liverpool do end up buying Sturridge from Chelsea, leaving the Blues short-changed and necessitating the purchase of another forward. Conveniently, Chelsea have been consistently linked to Radamel Falcao, the Colombian scoring machine currently pouring in the goals for Atlético Madrid. But just as Chelsea would be left shorthanded after Sturridge’s departure, Atlético would also need to fill Falcao’s sizable shoes if he’s shipped out. But where would Los Rojiblancos turn?
The rumor mill keeps on churning, hypothesizing that Atlético would look to buy names like Manchester United’s Chicharito, Napoli’s Edison Cavani, or even Liverpool’s Luis Suárez. Whether there’s any truth in any of those rumors is a bit beyond my reach. But at the same time, if any of those moves did come to fruition, the dominoes would begin to fall all over again.
falcao is likely to end up chelsea even without sturridge’s departure, but that mean’s his current side will need to replace him, too.
In the case of Napoli, Cavani has long seemed destined for a move abroad. But the Uruguayan’s departure would mean the Neapolitans‘ would be left with only two recognized strikers in their squad. Manchester United could stomach Chicharito’s departure, but you would have to imagine that Sir Alex wouldn’t be happy to rely on just Danny Wellbeck, an untested Ángelo Henríquez, and an unfancied Federico Macheda to back up his dynamic duo. And Liverpool, where this entire domino effect started, would again be down to two strikers if they let Luis depart for pastures anew. Meaning they would again be fored to dip into the transfer market or be faced with the same issue that’s troubled them in the first half of this season.
And regardless of which guy ends up replacing whatever player eventually leaves any club, the dominos will keep up on falling all the way down the line. A perfect representation of the butterfly effect, if I’ve ever seen one.
Of course, all of this is dependent upon what player moves where. And it’s quite possible that none of the above will hold true. But rest assured, players will move this January, and the media will spin out more rumors than any of us could ever take in. Just don’t go placing your hopes on any of them until you see a new player holding your team’s shirt and smiling wide for the cameras. Otherwise, your sanity will likely be the last domino to fall.
It’s time for the young 2012-2013 season’s first international break, and contrary to my normal reactions, I’m actually pretty excited for this one. The last few international breaks have featured the USMNT squaring off in friendlies against opponents preparing for other tournaments, meaning they’ve all been devoid of any of the passion and desire that makes an international fixture entertaining. This time, however, the Yanks are actually playing two meaningful, relevant World Cup Qualifying matches.
if you’re heading to c-bus for the 9/11 world cup qualifier against jamaica… be on the lookout for WSOTP!
My excitement is likely also buoyed by the fact that I’m actually heading to one of those relevant matches, the second qualifier against Jamaica in Columbus on 9/11. I’m planning on prowling the Crew Stadium parking lot prior to kickoff to take pictures of the tailgating fans. So if you see me walking around with my wife in the new striped US kit, feel free to stop me and say hello… you might just end up with your face on the blog!
Anyway, here are some links to keep you entertained in the mean time.
As you might have been able to tell, things have been hectic around WSOTP Central of late. Between two trips to New York for real world work, a family vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, and out-of-town weddings, it’s at least felt like a struggle to find the time for the blog. Which is odd, because I’ve actually done a lot for it lately.
i know it’s only preseason, but gylfi is already looking like one hell of a signing for spurs.
And believe it or not, there’s still more exciting stuff on the way. So hang in there a little bit longer for some of that delectable original content that keeps you coming back for more… or something like that. These links should get you your fix in the mean time…
it’s alright fabrice, some dust blew into my eyes just prior kickoff too.
With the European season winding down, high drama is in overtime with all of the various plot lines around the world of football starting to reach their conclusions. The title race, the war for the Champions League places and the relegation scrap are all reaching fever pitch entering the last two weeks of the season in the Premier League. Montpellier, just a few matches away from claiming their first ever Ligue 1 title, spectacularly lost their cool and will now be without captain Younes Belhanda for the rest of campaign through suspension. Real Madrid even bagged their first La Liga title in four years, prompting celebrations in the Spanish capital that thousands of toddlers around Spain had never seen before.
That’s not even including all of the transfer speculation heating up… lucky you, I’m not going to even broach that subject today. Instead, I provide you these ten links in less than 100 words to get your weekend off to a roaring start.
there's been no word yet on whether cristiano will have to cover up his oily thighs when visiting madrid's new island resort in the UAE.
We’ve finally made it to the half century mark for my TWOL series. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure if I should be celebrating that milestone, seeing as how the series exists simply because I’m a blogger who is too lazy to write his own original content all the time.
Admittedly, I’ve been a bit stretched lately due to an increased workload in my real world job, and moonlighting as a guest blogger on some other sites. But that’s no reason to ignore this space, so my deepest apologies if you’re feeling neglected. I do have some pretty interesting original content in the pipeline for you… though the ten links below will have to suffice as I continue to fine tune the new posts for the limelight.
ancient greek pottery on a soccer blog? i bet you want to read on now.
Let’s play a quick game of word association: what is the first thing you think of when you see the word “Ajax”?
(Take a minute to think about it, but don’t you dare Google it.)
Since you can’t really answer me in this space — though you’re free to in the comments if you really like — I’ll take a few stabs at what I assume popped into your head:
And depending on how nerdy you are, AJAX, a series of user-facing web development methods.
All of those, of course, are correct answers, so kudos to you if you were able to name at least one of them. However, there’s actually a fourth meaning to the word of which few people are aware… unless they happen to be well versed in Greek mythology.
The name shared by distinguished soccer clubs around the world can actually be traced back to a like-named character in Homer’s Iliad and several other epic poems about the Trojan War. This mythological Greek hero Ajax was generally described as a bad ass, being a “man of great stature” that possessed tremendous strength and even greater intelligence. You know, your typical “double threat” kind of Greek hero. And as cousin to the even more famous Achilles, and grandson of the almighty Zeus, it’s hardly surprising to learn that Ajax was also the only mortal in the Iliad that did not receive help from the gods throughout the war.
i doubt that the mythical greek legend ajax would have battled the trojans in a fog like this.
So what does any of this have to do with football, aside from the seemingly random sharing of name by some clubs and a mythological character? Hang with me a little bit longer; I promise I’m getting there.
One of the largest roles Ajax played in the Iliad came following the death of Patroclus, the “best friend” of his cousin Achilles. As if killing Patroclus wasn’t enough, the protagonist Hector thought it best to further piss off the grandsons of Zeus by threatening to desecrate Patroclus’ body by feeding it to the dogs. An understandably miffed Ajax wanted none of that, and thus took it upon himself to retrieve Patroclus’ body. Unfortunately, the battlefield he had to cross in the process was blanketed in a thick fog. Knowing that battle in such conditions would be fruitless, Ajax prayed to his immortal grandfather, asking that the fog be lifted so he and his men could fight in the light to “whatever end awaited them.” Zeus, touched by such passion, lifted the fog allowing Ajax to slaughter twenty-six Trojan opponents on his path to victory and glory.
So the soccer connection, right?
While Greek Ajax’s greatest victory in the Iliad is directly reliant upon the lifting of the fog, I find it highly ironic that one of the greatest victories of all time for the famous Amsterdam football club was the direct result of the fog not lifting. Though in this circumstance, Ajax were doing battle with the mighty Reds of Liverpool instead of the mighty Trojans.
To really understand why this foggy football match is so important that I’d lead it in with 500 words about Greek mythology, it’s important to place the match in its historical context.
At the time of the match in 1966, Ajax weren’t the European juggernaut that their name is (sometimes mistakenly) associated with today. While their European Cup qualifying Eredivisie title in 1965/66 was their Dutch-leading 11th title, it was their first in over a half decade. The trophy was a surprise though, as only a year before, they had just escaped relegation.
ajax rode the wave that was a young cruyff to a title in 1965, setting the stage for an epic european matchup with liverpool the next season.
The club’s return to form coincided with — and likely rode the coattails of — the burgeoning career of one of football’s most celebrated talents: Johan Cruyff. In that title-winning season, the 20-year-old Cruyff established himself as a regular first team player for Ajax and lead the team with an impressive 23 goals in 25 appearances. De Amsterdammers hoped that between Cruyff and the side’s return to their trophy-winning ways, they could finally carry their historical dominance in Holland into their international endeavors, too.
Ajax’s first step back into European waters the following season was a tricky first-round draw against Turkish giants Beşiktaş. To everyone’s chagrin, they showed signs of meeting the club’s raised expectations by dispatching of the Turks with a solid 2-0 win in Amsterdam, followed by a gutsy 2-1 win away in Istanbul. However, their reward for showing well in the first round was a draw they’d hardly hoped for… Liverpool.
Under the guidance of the legendary Bill Shankly, the Reds were also at the beginning of a historic era at Anfield. Only two years earlier, they’d advanced to the semifinals of the European Cup, and had also just won their second English First Division title in three seasons. With famous players like the mountainous Ron Yeats, the clever winger Ian Callaghan and Scottish striker Ian St. John, Liverpool were a formidable and favored opponent.
Luckily, the first leg of the tie was scheduled at Amsterdam’s Olympisch Stadion for December 7th, 1966. Used in lieu of Ajax’s own cramped de Meer Stadion for matches drawing larger crowds, the Olympic stadium is situated on very low ground (shocking in Amsterdam, right?) and very close to the large lake in de Oeverlanden park. This unique geography made the stadium highly susceptible to the foggy conditions that are frequent in the marshy Dutch capital. And on this particular day, those conditions enveloped the stadium to spectacular effect.
tracking ajax's ghost-like shapes through the fog must have been a pain in the ass.
Though local meteorologists predicted the fog would clear by the start of the match, as is normally the case with such “professionals”, they were dead wrong. Taking this into consideration, Ajax manager Rinus Michels had a stroke of brilliance. Instead of wearing their normal white with red stripe kit, Michels’ team trotted out into the mist wearing a surprisingly camouflaged all-white strip. With the dense fog blanketing the pitch, his players effectively became invisible to their English opponents.
The gamble to ditch their traditional kits had a near-instant positive effect. Just three minutes into the so-called de Mistwedstrijd — or the “Fog Match” in English – Ajax pulled ahead of the visitors by way of a Cees de Wolf goal. Clearly confused by the fog, Liverpool’s defense shipped three more goals before the half. By the final whistle, Ajax had netted a fifth and won the match by a decisive 5-1 score line.
Buoyed by the epic win at home, Ajax traveled to Anfield a week later and managed to take the lead twice through two magical efforts by a surging Cruyff. The match ended a 2-2 draw, sending the Dutch through to the quarterfinals. However, the dream run ended when they were knocked off by Czech side Dukla Praha.
Though the draw in Liverpool was impressive in its own right, the match’s importance would never hold as much weight as the first-leg in the fog. For the first time in their club’s history, Ajax felt like they were truly a “big club”, and they would look back at that victory as the first stepping stone to becoming the preeminent European side of the 1970′s.
Cruyff’s confidence ballooned after their success against Liverpool, and he lead the club to a second straight Eredivisie title by bagging a league-high 33 goals. Within two seasons of the Fog Match, Ajax had clawed their way all the way to the European Cup final. And just two year’s later, they were lifting their first of three straight European Cups, completing a meteoric rise that is unrivaled in the competition’s history.
If the fog had cleared for the Ajax of Amsterdam just as it had for the Ajax of Greece, it’s quite possible that the club would have never gained the momentum necessary to get them over the hump to European glory. Cruyff himself claimed it to be pivotal in their growth, even going so far as to say it was the greatest match in which he ever took part.
would the world have known about "total football" without the fog match?
But just as with any great story, de Mistwedstrijd had its twists and curiosities. There were worries before and throughout the game that it would be called off due to the weather. Just moments before half-time in the match, winger Sjaak Swart thought he heard the whistle and walked off the pitch and down the tunnel. It wasn’t until an Ajax board member caught him that he realized his folly and ran back on the pitch, only to provide the assist on the 4th goal seconds after stepping back out. So incised by the decision to play a match where the “referee couldn’t even see the pitch”, a normally calm Shankly even reportedly claimed “Ajax would need stretchers” after the return leg in Liverpool.
But the most glaring of the oddities has to be a short tangent story about the game’s opening goal scorer, Cees de Wolf. With his manager facing an injury crisis up top in the lead up to the game, the 21-year-old de Wolf was plucked from the reserves and sent straight to the starting XI for his first appearance ever in a full professional match. Though his early goal in the historic match earned him a start in their next match against ADO Den Haag, an extremely poor performance showed he had been punching well above his weight class in the previous outing. Without the fog, his weaknesses were no longer concealed, and Cees never made another appearance for Ajax. Just as his career began, it slowly faded back into the fog… including a short stint with the Dallas Tornado.
All being said, de Mistwedstrijd is a fascinating match and an important milestone in the development of the sport. The rise of Ajax to the status of a European superpower was critical in the widespread adoption of the tactical theory of totaalvoetbal — or ”total football”. And though Cruyff and his celebrated Dutch side of the 1970′s also popularized the technique, Ajax were the true flag bearers of the movement in much the same way that Barcelona are currently championing tiki-taka. As stated above, if they hadn’t so emphatically demolished Liverpool that night in the fog, maybe the dream of “total football” would have died with that European campaign.
The fog served AFC Ajax well, and in small part, you know their club because of it. Who knows, perhaps if their Greek namesake hadn’t asked Zeus to disperse the fog before he did battle, his story would have been one of the first to come to mind when you heard his famous name too.
this is part IX in the “wrong side XI” series, where i’ll be selecting my very own starting eleven, assuming of course that i could choose any player from any team in the world. you can read the rules i’ll be following to make my team selection, and what formation i’ll be squeezing them into, on the first post in the series.
this collection of mighty mites will do battle for the honor of my starting offensive midfield spot.
Off all the positional choices for the wrong side XI series that I compiled since the beginning of the summer, my offensive mid selection has probably fluctuated more than any of the others. Of the five “lucky” men that managed to make this shortlist, all of them have occupied the top spot at least once or twice since I began work on this project. So as you might have guessed, making my final selection has been very, very difficult.
Complicating the issue is that all five of these players has been in phenomenal form over the last 18 months. They’re often one of the first names on their respective club’s teamsheets each match day, and are by far some of the most visible players on the field during those matches. Each is the central creative force for their club, and their play often dictates the fate of the outcome of the matches in which they take part.
Part of me wishes I could just pick them all. Hell, if I were to abandon the game plan I lined out in the first post in this series, and instead replaced it with a system akin to Barcelona’s interchangeable top four, I almost could have.
Unfortunately for no one but me, that’s not how I want to run my imaginary team. so we’ll have to narrow this down to just one midfield wizard… follow my thought process after the jump.
There is a war going on, and it’s battlefield is professional football.
if i were uefa's michel platini, i'd be very worried about the complaints from my biggest clubs.
Now, before you get all worked up about me calling a soccer problem a “war,” I know that any issue occurring in the game isn’t exactly comparable to any of the “real wars” that are currently plaguing the planet — Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan or even Mexico’s drug war, for example. It’s completely fair to say that any conflict brewing within a sport is effectively a first world problem. I don’t mean any disrespect, so why don’t you go ahead and put down that pitchfork.
But for all intensive purposes, I’m calling it a “war” because there is an enormous battle getting ready to take place over the future of the professional sport we all love and obsess over. Just like the Great Schism of 1054 that broke apart the Catholic Church, this impending war will shake the very foundations of professional soccer if not resolved.
I wrote a month ago about class warfare in the game, and the damage that financial inequality has done to it. The cascading pyramid system of European football has created a system where the powerful become more powerfulon the backs of the little guys (shades of real life, perhaps?). That’s why it takes a club like Manchester City to spend it’s way into powerful elite.
This system has also given increasing amounts of power to the clubs with respect to the international game, and rightfully so. After all, the national teams only pay a fraction of the costs in developing international caliber players, the majority of which is paid by the many clubs across the globe. But in the end, the national teams reap rewards from all of that investment by the clubs without as much at risk if a player get’s injured. At the very least, this is why I think it’s fair that clubs should be compensated by FIFA in those situations.
But as the club game has grown in popularity, the race to capitalize and profit on the club game has caused the clubs to continuously push for more and more concessions from the international game and the governing bodies.
And frankly, their demands are ever increasing and completely troubling.
when a former major executive at a major club makes major accusations, i have major concerns.
Former Manchester City CEO Garry Cook was one of the first to publicly claim that the idea of a breakaway European Super League was being discussed back in 2008. But he wasn’t the last either. As recently as last month, former Real Madrid Sporting Director Jorge Valdano claimed that Real and Barça will eventually have to move on from La Liga because the competition isn’t strong enough for them.
Let’s focus less on the fact that both Cook and Valdano are publicly-shamed, formerly high ranking members of their clubs’ hierarchies, and focus more on the fact that they were both very high ranking officials at their former clubs. These guys were the ones sitting in on and directing the shady backroom deals that everyone knows suspects happen at the world’s biggest clubs.
The fact that both of these departed executives, coming from two vastly different countries with very different sporting cultures, have declared that their clubs were at least kicking around the idea of breaking away from their existing domestic leagues… isn’t that extremely worrying to anyone else?!?!
Throwing fuel on the fire is the speculated work of former Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon. Unlike Cook and Valdano, Kenyon is very well respected within the game’s management circles, and apparently he is alreadyworking on a plan to help clubs break away when they want to do it. Though he has yet to publicly back up said claims, I can’t imagine Peter working on a project that was merely a pipe dream.
The idea of a break away “European Super League”, akin to the major sports leagues on this side of the pond, has long been a dream of the major clubs. The best playing the best, week in and week out, is — no matter how you put it — a mouthwatering idea.
But with clubs once again apparently threatening their imminent withdrawal, would a EuroLeague really be the right move for professional football?
The positives, at first at least, seem to heavily tilt the scales in favor of this breakaway league.
For the fans, it would easily be a mouthwatering opportunity to truly see a European champion crowned in the same way a normal national league system would crown a champion: through a weekly league table. The current Champions League format almost promotes conservative/boring tactics as clubs look to minimize the risk of conceding away goals while waiting for the other teams to make a mistake. Replacing the knockout rounds with a league table would allow teams to focus on putting in solid performances across an entire season instead of just trying to go on a good run towards the end of the competition.
The clubs would surely rake in a mountain of cash through a revised competition. By breaking away and drawing up their own rules, they would suddenly have the ability to take a significantly larger chunk of the profits than the current set-ups allow.
Playing off the potential increase in revenues is that money’s ability to possibly save some “super” clubs that are currently on shaky financial ground. Proud, illustrious clubs hampered by leagues they’ve outgrown (The Old Firm, Ajax, FC Copenhagen, etc.) could potentially return to their former glory by using the higher revenue provided by a Euro League to strengthen and balance their books. Some of these clubs, notably Rangers in Scotland, are already looking to break away from their existing leagues just to survive, and would surely jump if a bigger opportunity showed itself.
Players the world over, just as they do today with the Champions League, would undoubtedly strive to compete in this one competition to rule them all. Just like with James Milner, guys would leave behind starting spots at slightly less prestigious clubs just to ride the pine at clubs competing in the world’s penultimate league. The wages are sure to be higher for those that are able to make the jump, thus increasing the desire of players to make it to that level. And just like their employers, some are even calling for the league themselves.
But to be honest, all of those seem like such short term improvements. A look at the other side of the coin reveals some startling issues that would arrise from a breakaway European super league:
The little clubs that aren’t lucky enough to make the cut for the new league would eventually become second-rate, feeder squads to the EuroLeague clubs. The amount of financial discrepancies between the leagues would no-doubt cause the best players from the rest be cherry-picked by the elite sides. Not that this doesn’t already happen to an extent, but with no chance of ever being promoted to the big time, what other purpose could a small club serve? Welcome to the minor leagues of Europe!
How would the fans of the small clubs feel about supporting a club that could never possibly reach the big time? The appeal of the super league and it’s clubs would surely dilute the interest in smaller clubs and their competitions.
While the creation of a breakaway league would probably save some clubs on poor financial footing, the power vacuum left by their departure from smaller leagues will likely lead to the quick demise of many clubs and competitions. Think of leagues like the Scottish Premier League: without Rangers and/or Celtic to draw in TV viewers, would the SPL and all of its clubs actually be able to survive?
The potential ripple effect from a mass withdrawal of major clubs from European competitions could be devastating and far reaching. Stress on could.
The European Cup has long stood as UEFA’s answer to the clubs’ calls for a super league, though it’s never quite been the competition the clubs have desired. In fact, the threat of clubs breaking away from the traditional structure has essentially mandated UEFA to revamp the competition numerous times just to keep them appeased.The original rebranding of the tournament to the Champions League – a change that drastically increased the revenues generated for participating clubs — is one such example of this. And it’s good thing that they did, as the exit of the old continent’s major clubs from the domestic and international leagues which UEFA sanctions would have surely been a fatal blow to the organization.
if you think that JWH wouldn't breakaway from the premier league to maximize his investment return, you're only kidding yourself.
Unfortunately for UEFA, the reorganized Champions League is already growing stale. The group stage is generally considered a bore, with the top teams even fielding weakened sides because the competition is often poor. There are already calls to revamp the competition to keep fans and clubs interested, once again creating leverage for the clubs to break away.
Of course, this all hinges on whether or not the owners of said clubs have the stones to make this kind of move. Considering the fallout and subsequent backing away from the purported desire of some Premier League foreign owners wanting to end the relegation/promotion system, as well as having clubs sell their own international television rights, I’m guessing that their stones aren’t quite as big as some fear.
But the failure of those initiatives doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about this one.
Look, I’m not sitting here saying I have a solution to this threat, and I’m not sure of anyone that does yet. Without a doubt, tackling the issue of financial inequality between the clubs is a good first step. Though as intimately tied to the solution as that financial inequality is, fixing that problem is another completely different mountain to scale itself.
I am, however, saying that I’m really worried about the prospect of a breakaway league. And if it happens, I can’t help but worry more whether Tottenham will actually be included in it.
