So even if you not into football, soccer, whatever you want to call it, you’ve certainly heard something about the Super League. But what in the world is it? Was it? Is it still happening? Why is everyone so angry? To make some sense of it here’s a basic rundown of what the hell happened with the European Super League.
The Super League was intended to be 20 of the ‘best’ football clubs in a tournament made for TV. Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, right? Yeah, I guess. Except that what the Super League defined as the ‘best’ clubs were those with the most money and the biggest fanbases.
Last week, 12 of the richest teams in Europe announced they’d be joining the invite-only competition. Now this is in stark contrast to how football tournaments work right now. The current pyramid system sees teams rewarded with higher levels of competition, more prize money etc. by their performance on the field. If your team played well enough for a consistent amount of time, your team could go from one of the lower leagues all the way up to something like the English Premier League (different for each country etc.). To get into the Super League, the requirements are a little different: you have to have money.
It was no longer a meritocracy and things like television and foreign-owned clubs are being blamed for this short-sighted and greedy plan.