Remember the Super League? You know, the 12-club power play that was going to revolutionize European football and instead ended within 48 hours amid fan protests, political outrage and public apologies from owners such as Liverpool’s John W. Henry?
The three clubs that never officially pulled out — Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona — have of course taken their battle to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and at some point in 2023, we’ll have a final verdict to go with the preliminary opinion that was issued in December. While we wait for the decision on whether clubs can organise their own European competitions without prior approval from UEFA or whether the threat of UEFA sanctions violates EU competition law, others have been busy on their behalf. Specifically, a company called A22 Sports Management that, according to its rather spartan website, was formed to assist in the creation of a European Super League.
If last time around the Super League used the stick approach — you’ll recall Real Madrid president Florentino Perez effectively presenting it as a done deal and Andrea Agnelli, at the time president of both Juventus and the European Club Association (ECA) as well as a UEFA executive committee member, ghosting UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin — this time around, it’s all about the carrot.
A22 Sports is all about “dialogue” — a “European Football Dialogue” as it calls it (its caps, not mine) — and as such, it has spoken to “nearly 50 European clubs and stakeholders” and the “vast majority” of them agree that the foundation of European football is under threat and it is time for a change. Based off that feedback, it developed 10 principles that should guide a European football league.
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It’s worth noting we don’t know who those “nearly 50 European clubs and stakeholders” are: heck, they could be akin to George Santos’ career at Goldman Sachs. Nor do we know why, if they were so close to 50, they stopped…
