With the allocation of four Champions League spots to English Premiership Clubs, it is perhaps not a surprise to see the gradual emergence of the “top four”, as seen facing off together on Sky Sports Super Sunday yesterday. With the rest of the league largely forgotten most of England (and perhaps the world if TV statistics are to be believed) spent the afternoon watching Chelsea grind out a result against sorry Liverpool and Arsenal surprising an inform Manchester United.

English football is witnessing the formation of its own G-4. The party may be gate crashed from occasionally, not so long ago by Leeds United, Newcastle United and Everton yet these challenges were not sustained and future forays by teams such as Tottenham, Blackburn and Bolton are also likely to become One Season Wonders. Quite simply (we’ll call them the G-4) now have the financial strength to muscle all other teams out of the reckoning. The 04/05 Champions League saw 430million euros spread between the 32 group participants alone the winners Liverpool raking in 30million euros. Finish fifth and you may as well be last when it comes to significant financial benefits from UEFA.

Ok, this last statement may not be somewhat of an exaggeration and should a Russian millionaire take a fancy to a particular football club then the G-4 may be in for a shake-up. The possible take over of West Ham United by MSI for example one to watch out for. Yet I can’t help feeling that the polarisation of the English top flight is inevitable. On a regular jaunt around London Town I often believe I should be seeing a plethora of local club teams represented. Crystal Palace, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Charlton, Queens Park Ranges are all conspicuous by their absence instead replaced by Chelsea, Arsenal and even Liverpool and Manchester United. My two young cousins from Swindon Town, about 5-6 years of age, support Liverpool or Chelsea. How can the County Ground hope to capture the imagination of the local children such as them? Certainly not with Rocky the Robin.

Football is no longer about local representation and even in the lower leagues a club is rarely made up of lads from the surrounding area. It matters not that you support Arsenal but live in Swindon any more especially when the team is made up entirely of foreign players.

Why bother then with a domestic league. If Liverpool beat Arsenal it does not suggest scousers are any better at football than cockneys. It’s basically a victory for Spain over France. The G-14 should just get on with creating the European Super League that they have been itching for. Two divisions with promotion and relegation between the top teams on the continent leaving the rest of us to get on with the job of being passionate about a team with a realistic chance of success, or failure.

So what are the implications?

The Fans: First and foremost consideration should be the supporters and it can be argued that travelling Europe for away games would become a costly affair that alienates the true fan. Yeah right. The cost of a season ticket to one of the G-4 alienated their core support years ago and with the rise of low cost airlines such as EasyJet and Ryan Air a flight to Milan is as cheap as the train fair from London to Leeds. The football will also be worth the trip. A Chelsea supporting friend of mine last season bemoaned how boring it was now that they were always winning. A European league should spice up the competition somewhat and put paid to such predictability. It is possible however seasonal trips to the Nou Camp and San Siro are likely to diminish the occasion for supporters and players alike as it would become just another game. In addition will the prospect of a tie between Milan and Barcelona be such a mouth watering prospect if played every year? Given that the Real Madrid verses Barcelona still attracts a great appeal I suspect this will not be the case.

The Clubs: Managers are always complaining that they play too many games. With the Premier League now reduced to 16 that will no longer be the case! A fresh start will allow the domestic league organisers to put into practice the lessons learned from the mistake that was the Premier League. Prize money for example can be more evenly distributed so as to reduce the financial implications of not being in the top division and a greater control of TV Rights allocated to the governing body.

However what would be the governing factor to decide who becomes part the new Super League and will teams be able to enter once the competition has started? The 18 teams of the G-14 plus invite is the most likely (if unfair) solution.

The Players: May be the only ones not happy at the creation of the Super League. Except of course those who are able to play in it. For them the chance of playing the best in the world on a weekly basis and a salary with which can be bought any London mansion. For those not in the league salaries will become proportionate to a players actual worth as clubs make cuts due to reduced TV revenues. They may even have to get on with the business of being a professional football player rather than a diver/cheat/wannabe filmstar/fledgling author of bestselling dramas.

TV: Sky will obviously pay big money to televise the Super League and will immediately forget about the domestic leagues leading to fans actually having to leave the pub and walk down to the ground to watch their team play. Perhaps Sky could schedule the games to a time that is convenient for viewers to watch, say on Saturday nights when the BBC and ITV compete for the worst reality Pop Idol show between them.

Will it happen? Why not? Although any moves for its creation will be on a clearly be for financial not footballing reasons this will not necessarily be a bad thing. The G-14 have already discussed the possibility of setting up a Golden Competition a number of times ever since the Italians were unhappy with the Champions League in 1998. At this time UEFA simply enlarged the competition but they can not continue to do this. They further degrade other competitions in the processes. Those teams selected for the League can carry on with the business of generating large revenues, oh and playing some of the best football on offer of course. For the rest the task is to take football back to the ?good old days? when the FA Cup actually meant something and your team had a realistic chance of winning the League.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under European Football News. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.