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The European Super League is one of the craziest phenomena to occur in the history of soccer. What could’ve been never even got the chance, but it’s still exciting to picture the possibility of the formation of a super league filled with 12 of the best European soccer teams in the world.
After its dissolution within 48 hours of being created and announced, the European Super League fizzled out due to several reasons. Let’s break down what happened on that wild weekend in Spring 2021.
The semantics surrounding this particular league creation have already been in question since the start of 2021. Players from the best teams primarily around Europe were already competing in their domestic league plus the prestigious UEFA Champions League, meaning they were essentially taking two leagues at the same time, one domestic and one elite (you have to qualify for UCL). Adding in another highly competitive league in addition to their already crammed international schedules didn’t seem like the greatest idea, but much to the League’s preference, they assumed revenue would be through the roof.
Originally, 12 of the best teams from a mixture of the Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga and English Premier League were coerced into signing into a 12-team breakaway league. What this meant for the well-being of the other pro leagues, no one knew. You could assume each respective league would be at a loss due to some of their most popular teams getting a lighter schedule. The teams included in this proposition were La Liga’s Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid; Serie A’s Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan; and the English Premier League’s Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal. All in all, the overhead goal was to establish a multi-national high-quality long-term soccer league with 12 of the best teams across Europe, although ultimately, it didn’t work out this way.
Within less than 48 hours, the European Super League collapsed as it not only received backlash from numerous fans but UEFA and FIFA took action. Inherently, both UEFA (European soccer body) and FIFA (global soccer body) have rules giving them the right to block clubs from joining breakaway leagues, resulting in penalizing the players for their choice. As a result, 9 of the 12 original teams pulled out, including all six of the Premier League teams, leaving just Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus in the competition.
Eventually, all teams would rapidly pull out, and not a single game would be played as the league dissolved instantaneously as the teams exited, striking a major conflict between A22 Sports Management (Super League owners) and FIFA/UEFA, claiming that the soccer organizations had abused its authority under European competition law. The FIFA European court ruling determined this as an “encouraging step towards preserving the existing dynamic and democratic governance structure of the European football pyramid.” So, in the end, the rise and fall of the European Super League was so quick that it’s almost possible to forget it ever existed.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.