European Super League wins court of justice ruling - and outlines its plans

Two years ago the European Super League rocked the football world, before imploding days later, amid a fierce backlash.
(Subscribe: bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)
Now it is back. The European Union's top court has ruled that football governing bodies UEFA and FIFA broke competition law by blocking the breakaway project.
That prompted the group behind the Super League to immediately unveil revamped proposals for a new competition, involving 64 men's teams and 32 women's clubs.
-----------------------
Follow us:
Facebook - / channel4news
Twitter - / channel4news
TikTok - / c4news
Instagram - / channel4news

[@Nikolay061]

Simple explanation: Club shareholders want to eliminate the risk of falling behind and damaging profits, so they insulate themselves in a 'Super' league that guarantees revenue. The cost: football and fans

[@Dan.Maxim1]

Correct, but there is more to this as Real and Barca don’t really struggle to qualify for champions league. UEFA generates a revenue of 4 to 6 billion euros a year and big clubs feel that UEFA makes this much money on the backs of the big clubs therefore they feel they deserve a much bigger share of the revenue because hey are the ones who attract most viewers and invest the most money. UEFA is scared and had already changed the structure of their European competitions to guarantee more game time for big clubs which is terrible for smaller clubs as now if someone gets knocked out of champions league they go and continue competing in Europa league.

[@originalunoriginal4055]

With time, societal norms and how civilisation functions and operates change and adapt in accordance with the demands and standards of infrastructures that are significantly dominant in being influential. In other words, Football as a sport will not have the same structure as it did in the start of the 1990s up until 2030 and beyond. The orthodox and conservative relationships football clubs have with fans in present day, will no longer be sustainable for the former. In terms of maximizing revenue, marketing the football club as a brand and so on. Football needs to adapt to the changes that are happening in the functionality of the society we will come to know in the future. For example, in the English football league, the biggest consumer market for clubs is the "Father and son" segment that make up the majority source of revenue for clubs. For many people, football is like a family orientated thing. But as time goes on, the structure of households in the UK is changing. Meaning, the young people of today don't have the same close relationships with their parents, as previous generations did. So, football clubs are losing business from this consumer market segment. So what do football clubs do? They need to reach out to new consumer market segments in order to generate revenue.

[@teza1383]

Nope. The super league has been reformed. It’s a tourney now with relegation & promotion based on national league performance. Let’s be honest 99% of football fans would rather watch Liverpool vs Madrid on a semi regular basis than Burnley vs Luton.

[@azimisyauqieabdulwahab9401]

This is disgusting, it's not about football games, it's about politics football games

[@mell91349]

Imagine taking moral lessons from Ceferin and premier league 😂

[@Ethiopianpiano]

Ironic

[@darkhorse505]

I love the fans. They certainly make the game what it is. But make not mistake. The idea of football is completely wrapped in capitalism and greed has always been like this. Now with this super league, it’s just not hiding it. It gives away the illusion of it.

[@JoeLisle]

We don’t want the super league

[@AlwiRando]

Football need to get rid of corrupt Uefa 🤮

[@user-sl8xb6hj9k]

Imagine football without VAR, UEFA and FIFA involvement. The guest talks about the football pyramid being disrupted. Mate, with the amount of money floating about in football now the pyramid only involves those with huge wealth. That is ultimately the failing of UEFA and FIFA allowing that to happen.

[@pedrorequio5515]

The magic is like that amateur German club that has now eliminated Bayern Munich and Frankfurt in the German cup. The bigger clubs want even more, last year Tiraspol defeated Real Madrid in the CL, Tiraspol is not a huge club, its from a City in a separatist region of Moldova some kilometers from Odessa. In that system most likely Real and they would have never played together. Footbal brings us closer and the merit system is a reflection of the values of the people of Europe, Footbal works like Society should, and it does and is not perfect.

[@RealUlrichLeland]

This is simply not true, smaller clubs that weren't invited to the super league get unexpectedly good results all the time and big ones fail. It's only been a few years since the super league proposal and now Chelsea has been languishing in 10th for two seasons, Man U is out of European football for this year and probably next year and Villa, Brighton and Newcastle are all playing in the top flight of football. Yes the top flight of football is very biased towards the richest clubs, but the solution is not to give those clubs an even bigger advantage by making it impossible for them to be relegated.

[@originalunoriginal4055]

I don't get it. Why can't they just make it into another club level continental tournament. Like the UCL and Club world cup? Why do they need to abandon or terminate the current league systems in place? The Super League can be like a every 3 years competition tournament competition. Like the World cup or the European championship tournament. Or perhaps the clubs that want to make this proposal happen, can introduce a new team that only participate in the ESL. 🤷🤷🤷🤔🤔🤔

[@carlettienne2596]

This guy did an awful job at arguing against the super league, you guys n3ed a better guest

[@roipuyazo]

Maybe there are not many rational arguments to be against it. Have you seen new Champions League? Outrageous.

[@kolaade1275]

Absolutely! He has no idea of what he’s talking about. I don’t think he understands the new proposal

[@teza1383]

I’m all for it. I don’t understand why clubs can’t decide to play each other on a semi regular basis with money involved. The super league does not replace the national league. At most it devalues the champions/europa league. Sure depending on the prize money teams could decide to field a second string, but that would allow ‘lesser’ teams to win the national league & gain promotion to the ESL. The new format now guarantees that the biggest clubs play each other. It’s pretty much a glorified friendly every now & then.

[@Joey-ct8bm]

A good revenue stream for clubs who have the richest people on earth owning those clubs. Like they need it.

[@jeffshaw526]

The fans spoke last time, we don't want it. It won't happen.

[@AAA-sx5ej]

When talking about the "Pyramid " which means giving free money to smaller clubs while fans of big clubs have to pay a foot and a limb just to watch their clubs play elite football. How fair is that? Just ask Liverpool, man u, arsenal and Tottenham how much they pay for their season tickets compared to fans for the likes of Swansea and Blackpool

[@hamonryechinaski180]

The new Champions League rules are ridiculous. UEFA and FIFA are as corrupt as any organisation. They take millions for doing very little. As for the 'Pyramid' I don't think a super League affects Blackburn, Carlisle or Portsmouth. It DEFINITELY doesn't affect the Premier League and it being the primary competition of MC, LFC etc. Champions League being replaced by a super league is fine by me. The new rules for next season make it a f**kin joke. This sort of expert seems to be pointless scare and lighting hair on fire talk without addressing core problem, UEFA are f*&kin useless and want to constantly expand international games because thats their primary money source. We don't need more internationals, players don't, clubs don't. UEFA exposed itself during the Qatar world cup bid and the corruption that uncovered. Inability to sanction City for its blatant rule breaking....what is UEFA good for? Another sh*** euro cup for teams finishing 10th? That clubs use a B team for?

[@capello85]

Superleague has changed the format massively and is based now on merit in the domestic leagues

[@hsjhj92]

This was terribly done

[@Fergy909]

The cost of being a fan was on point with no real argument against it

[@teza1383]

The worst thing is the monopoly which affects us consumers. Every year or so I need to check which league is on which subscription service. As someone that watches la liga & the prem I spend almost £50/month on football. Breaking up the monopoly will naturally bring the cost of entry to watch or see football down.

[@rorysmith2415]

We need Scottish clubs in the ESL. I think the big Scottish clubs like Glasgow Celtic, St Johnstone, Glasgow Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Inverness CT, Motherwell, Falkirk, Hearts, Dundee, and Dundee United should join the European Super League.

[@jordancasey3051]

Can barely win games in UEFA competitions what makes you think the ESL will be any different 😮😂

[@rorysmith2415]

​@@jordancasey3051It is obvious. If Scottish clubs had more money, they could win more games.

[@jordancasey3051]

@@rorysmith2415 you make a good point tbf

[@rorysmith2415]

​@jordancasey3051 thanks.

[@jordancasey3051]

@@rorysmith2415 your welcome

[@Malfoy1594]

Stop watching then!

[@nuru0nuru]

As a British expat living in the States, I can confirm that removing the possibility of promotion/relegation is just dreadful for a sport. If you support a mediocre professional sports team here in the US, there is essentially nothing to get excited about all season long. Remove the threat of relegation, and it's just teams near the bottom of the table going through the motions for no apparent reason. Having moved here from a country with a functioning league system, it's just so tough to care about professional US teams. No jeopardy, no fun.

[@Krytern]

Why don't you call yourself an immigrant instead of expat? Never understood why some call themself an expat while people from other places are called immigrants.

[@nuru0nuru]

@@Krytern I'll answer your question assuming it's asked in good faith. I use both terms fairly interchangeably, but will tend to favour "expat" when addressing a British audience. And Channel 4 News is, of course, a show from the UK.

[@jimrogers2390]

35 pounds a month to watch the premier league that is way too much particularly during the cost of living crisis. The game is just getting too expensive to watch and it should be accessible to everybody not just those who can afford pay tv subscription.

[@YA-hm5zy]

A super league without city, newcastle, psg and chelsea hopefully. I support that.

[@randisallah]

There is already a European Super League, where 90% of the best players play or want to play. It's called the Premier League, the other big teams around the world are just getting all pissy because, in theory, a team can get promoted to "The Prem". And then because of the money in our league, go over to one of the Milan clubs or one of the other big teams in Italy, France (except PSG), Germany (except Bayern) or Spain (except Real Madrid or Barcelona) and get the best play in that league. And if Juve or Barca are looking at the same player, they can't compete financially. So they have a whine and a moan about it.

[@OfficialCasaMusic]

Spurs will definitely jump at this opportunity..scummy. aston villa shouod take there spot. Chelsea are like 10th also so wtf are these clubs going to justify it too. 😂😂😂

[@kemalkemal456]

England is loosen here. The best league in the world. The world don't care that much about other league. English is super league. protect your culture England.

[@sunnypedaal]

Great news The corrupt gang of fifa bobos make you 🤮

[@INFINITY-oe4is]

We already have a "Super League" it's called The Champions League!

[@eugdee7293]

Roll on the Super League. We need to take the power away from the people who are ruining football like UEFA, FIFA and the Premier League. Listening to this guy defend the amount of money that fans need to spend on three different platforms to view the Premier league is a joke. And for all that money we don’t even get every match. The premier league is anti supporters and always has been.