Midway through Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with struggling Fulham last week, news began to break about the European Super League (ESL). Financed by American bank JP Morgan, the new league waS set to take over from the Champions League as the continent’s premier club competition.
Chelsea are one of the six English clubs – since nicknamed the ‘Greedy Six’ – which agreed to sign up to the new league. In this article we look at what following through with the decision would mean for the club in the short, medium and long-term.
The Short Term
The statement of intent made by the 12 founding members of the ESL late last week has been described as the start of a ‘nuclear war’ in some quarters.
FIFA, UEFA and the Premier League have been quick to pour scorn on the plans and have already threatened to sanction the club’s involved in the ESL’s inception heavily.
Chelsea were one of the club’s set to lose out in a big way if governing bodies and league’s come down heavily on breakaway clubs. Amongst that were sanctions being touted is potential expulsion from this season’s Champions League.
Taking the football experts at OLBG’s opinions into consideration, the Blues stand a good chance of winning their first Champions League since 2012 after scraping throught to the semi-finals despite a loss in the second leg against Porto in the last eight meeting. The club’s decision to sign up to the ESL could have put these ambitions into serious jeopardy.
In addition to that, the possibility of points deductions in the Premier League have been suggested with a number of owners, including Everton’s Farhad Moshiri calling for punitive measures. There is no guarantee that still will not happen, as the other 14 Premier League have yet to decide what measures are to be taken.
Chelsea and the rest of the ‘Greedy Six’ could be sanctioned with points deductions in this season’s Premier League
One more short-term concern for the club would have been the possibility that their players may be barred from partaking in this summer’s European Championships. This would leave players like Timo Werner, Mason Mount and Olivier Giroud watching from afar as their international teammate’s battle it out for European dominance.
The Medium Term
The general consensus amongst football fans is that there are few, if any positives to be taken from the ESL. Depending on your priorities though, Chelsea would begin to reap the rewards of the ESL in the medium term.
Per season, Chelsea will rake in around $400 million from their inclusion in the ESL, which will give them a substantial edge over non-ESL clubs. However, as a club with no net debt in June 2020 and an owner worth $16 billion it’s not like Chelsea are strapped for cash.
In Roman Abramovich’s first 10 years in charge of Chelsea, the club spent a reported £2 billion on transfers and salaries. Since then, the club have continued to spend heavily in their pursuit of domestic and European glory.
Whilst the extra money made from the ESL will ease some of the financial burden on Roman Abramovich, it is hard to argue that it is needed at the club that has had no inhibitions about heavily spending in recent history.
The Long Term
If the ESL is indeed did go ahead, in the medium to long term Chelsea will most probably find themselves playing solely in that competition. By then the Premier League who are run by their members, will more than likely have expelled them from the league.
🗣️ "We now have a civil war in football"@SkyKaveh runs through just why the European Super League has become an option pic.twitter.com/s7xyAlUVzB
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) April 19, 2021
This will mean that year on year, Chelsea would be locked in competition with an unchanged line up of European teams that are just as wealthy as them.
This may make the league exciting and competitive, but in seasons when the Blues are not fighting at the top of the table they will be consigned to mediocrity.
In short, there is a very real possibility that Chelsea could at times, become the ‘Burnley’ or ‘Crystal Palace’ of the European Super League. Pundits on podcasts could be posing the questions like, “Real Madrid may be running away with the league and playing pretty football, but can they do it on a wet and windy night at Stamford Bridge?”
And what of the fans? The fervent supporters that were cheering the team on when they were bobbing about in mid-table long before Roman Abramovich arrived? Will they be content to turn up week in week out and support a mid-table team?
Of course, all of this is hypothetical but rather than being something from a dystopian future, this scenario could quickly become a reality for fans of Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs et al.
Then there is the question of how much fans will be protected in the long-term. The formation of the ESL has nothing to do with match-going fans, it is being created for the benefit of armchair supporters around the globe.
When the initial interest in the league wains as is natural, what is to stop the decision makers from moving games from London to New York? Or from Manchester to Melbourne? The ESL, a league which appears to prioritise money over principles would surely have no qualms about selling out loyal supporters in favour of lucrative globe-trotting schedules.
In Summary
If you have read this article and found it to be lacking in positives for the ESL, you are correct, but do not think that this is because of bias against the ESL. The absence of positives is down to the absence of positives in the proposals and the very real prospect of this potential new league destroying the fabric of football.
If this league had been created two decades ago there would conceivably be no place in it for Chelsea or Tottenham. Their places would be taken by Leeds United and Newcastle United, two decades prior to that Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town would have been part of the proposals.
The point being, we love football because of its competitiveness, because teams like Chelsea who haven’t won a league title in half a century can rise to the top of European football. Because Leicester City and Manchester City who were in League One not too long ago, can win the Premier League.
The ESL, a closed shop that assigns membership on hubris rather than meritocracy will not be allowed to go ahead. In a game that has become increasingly dominated by money, we have been reminded how easily we can allow the true spirit of football slip away from us.
