I hate to make my first contribution to this website to be a criticism of someone who has taken the time to write an interesting and fully comprehensive analysis of an important and debatable subject regarding the football world. I mean, I have absolutely no fear of writing debatable comments and bringing up contentious issues, yet I don?t want to start out by making enemies. Despite this I feel that I have to strongly disagree with Kieran Haines? (19/09/2006) piece on the prospects of a European Super League. I read the report with interest, yet also with dismay at the thought that anyone would seriously advocate the formation of such a league. I actually read the column hoping that at the end Mr. Haines would remark that all the above was tongue-in-cheek and that a European Super League would be a terrible idea, but alas this anecdote was never to come.

I?m not disagreeing for arguments sake. Firstly I believe that competitive balance is key to a successful sport, hence a Chelsea fan feeling bored with the winning snowball that Chelsea continue to enjoy and the rest of us continue to endure. But the answer is not for the top teams to break away and thus creating a level playing field (excuse the pun) as this is just a short-term fix. When the chosen select are ?promoted? to their own European-wide league then within a few years the remaining Premiership clubs will continue to earn more than the football league and the bigger existing English Premiership clubs such as Newcastle, Everton, Bolton and Portsmouth would be the Premiership elite (not bringing up this debate but likely Celtic and Rangers would join the English League if a European Super League were to be formed), which no offence to those clubs, but that just seems plain wrong right? And those in power at those select Premiership clubs, monsieur?s Sheppard, Gartside, Gaydamak et al would demand a larger slice of the Premiership financial cake which would mean that these teams can breakaway from the non-select echelon of the Premiership which would put us back to square one. So surely that?s not the solution to the league-within-a-league format which the Premiership currently runs.

And what about the FA Cup? Surely the likely breakaway teams would want to be part of the FA Cup? Yet if they are playing the likes of Barca, AC and Marseille every week, and a European-wide sponsorship level of income, then these teams would be even more stellar in comparison to lower level teams than they are even now! Warranting the question, should these teams be allowed to enter the FA Cup if they were to Breakaway from the English League Pyramid? Surely to keep the magic of the FA Cup then the answer should be yes?. I mean no?.. oh I don?t know actually! Not having the most prestiged and highest quality teams from the country competing in the FA Cup would be a travesty, but so would a situation where the same few teams win the competition year on year, as is the reputation of the Cup tarnished if the teams play weakened teams, it?s a true dilemma which is contentious now but would escalate if the European League were to be formed.

The whole idea is inconvenient to everyone; players would be jetlagged and tired as they would be continually travelling from country to country. Haines? claims fans would not have to pay more to go to matches due to low cost airlines. This is completely incorrect: ticket prices would soar due to the greed led G-14 running the roost and lets not forget the inconvenience of fans in terms of travelling increasing distances to the dark and dingy corners of Europe, as surely the top clubs from Turkey, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Russia etc would be involved too in some way, otherwise these countries footballing development would be stubbed with no prospect of competing at the highest level, at least now clubs form these countries can play mainland Europe?s elite in the Champions League and UEFA Cup (which is of course a whole other kettle of fish).

I hope I?m not in the minority, but I believe G-14 are the scourge of football. Existing purely to challenge FIFA and UEFA?s authority, ok so both foundations are flawed but at least they do try to do what is best for the game at all levels, whilst G-14 look after only their own and are almost purely financially oriented. I also believe that Lennart Johansson has done a good job at UEFA, but listening to Michel Platini?s views on G-14 and the greed currently exposing the skim of football, I hope Platini becomes president so that the prospect of a European Super League will be put to rest forever and G-14 extinguished from the game, or at the very least their power curbed so that the good of the game can be protected.

Maybe then businessmen, money and greed can be trounced from the top and fans, fairplay and tradition can return to the forefront of how the game is run.

And no, my views on this are not tongue-in-cheek!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 11:15 am and is filed under European Football News. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.