For several years now, there has been a concrete attempt to launch a European Super League. The founders – Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Juventus – failed, but discussions are reportedly still ongoing with the support of A22 Sport Management. This Saturday, Mundo Deportivo discussed a possible agreement with UEFA to achieve a Champions League in a new format.
A more accessible competition?
The Super League has now presented a definitive peace proposal to UEFA, with two key points: a free global platform for broadcasting matches on television and a format replicating the current Champions League, with a modification to make it more spectacular.
A format closer to the current one, but very different.
“The proposal consists of dividing the 36 clubs in the current Champions League into two groups that will meet in the knockout phase. The qualification system for the competition would be the same as today, via the national leagues, but the 36 qualified teams would then be divided into two groups. And herein lies the big change: the top 18 in the UEFA rankings would play the eight matches of the first phase.
And the clubs ranked 19th to 36th would play eight more (more balanced) matches, drawn randomly, as is currently the case. At the end of this first phase, the eight best teams from groups 1 to 18 would advance to the round of 16, as is currently the case. Another 16 teams from groups 1 to 2 would play the round of 32, as is currently the case.
Note that this is a free platform, but it would include ads and therefore require a subscription to avoid being disturbed during the match. This system is already well-developed on several platforms. We’d have to see the price, compared to current broadcasters, to get an idea. It’s worth noting, however, that everyone could have access to the match.
As for the format, it promises more “big games” while giving smaller qualified clubs a chance. This isn’t uninteresting, except that these clubs also want to qualify for the Champions League in order to face the bigger clubs. They often win, except that there are also surprises every season. In any case, we know that the primary motivation for the Super League is to generate more revenue for Europe’s elite.
We remain cautious anyway; this isn’t an official announcement. The agreement is far from certain, and neither is this famous new format. Especially since the current one seems to be very attractive. Not to mention that there has been talk in other media outlets in recent days of FC Barcelona withdrawing from this famous Super League project in order to get closer to UEFA.
