Madrid, April 20: After decades of trying and throwing enough cash at the problem to fund a space program, Americans still stink at soccer.
But nobody plays smash-and-grab better than we do. So it’s hardly coincidence that plans for a 20-team European Super League, a discussion that went nowhere for years, were finally made public now that a growing number of US owners hold the reins to some of the most legendary clubs over there.
The guys behind the Super League are betting only suckers still care about the group’s statement on Sunday, “the Super League will deliver excitement and drama never before seen in football.”
Please. This scheme is not about staging grand competitions — soccer already provides those in abundance — it’s a cash grab. It’s about cost-certainty, sharing anticipated sky-high TV revenue, and essentially being guaranteed to turn a profit.
It would adopt the “closed-league” model that governs and enriches all the major pro sports in North America, including Major League Soccer; that is, once you’re in the club, no matter how lousy your team might be in any given season or seasons, no need to sweat getting dropped or “relegated” to a lower league. The spot is yours forever.
Of the dozen current teams already signed up for the Super League, four are owned by Americans: English Premier League giants Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal; and Italy’s Serie A club AC Milan.
The Yanks now hold major stakes in one-fifth of the 60 teams playing top-flight soccer in the United Kingdom, Italy and France, according to data from KPMG Football Benchmark.
The reason for the accelerating U.S. involvement is simple: NFL, NBA, MLB and even NHL and MLS teams are comparatively very expensive already and boast boom-time valuations. The Super League is attractive precisely because owners of those teams are looking at a very lucrative skyscraper.
According to the group’s announcement, founding clubs will divide a $4 billion-plus (about 3.5 billion euros) startup fund — roughly USD 400 million per team — backed by debt-financing from JP Morgan Chase.
The proposed Super League is not about saving anything more than the fat-cat owners’ already outsized slice of a pie that was more than a century in the making. (AP)
