It’s a concept that has slowly been discussed over the years, with many European club presidents and coaches suggesting that UEFA should allow the best clubs to partake in a Europe-wide Super League.
For the casual football fan who isn’t familiar with a Super League, it would essentially be a new league which comprises of the champion European clubs.
It would have a traditional round robin league structure, in which the clubs play each other home and away.
The biggest difference between this format and the current Champions League is that a Super League would have the standard league and ladder format, whereas the Champions League acts more like a cup system, in which teams start off in group stages and then progress to elimination rounds.
The idea has been floated here and there in the European football community, with some saying that UEFA would never allow it, and others suggesting that it’s inevitable.
It is a very interesting concept to think about, especially since it would involve the current powerhouse clubs in Europe.
While the Champions League is an exciting competition, one could argue that a traditional league is a more accurate indication of who the true European champion would be, as they would not lose the title based on the result of only one match, or a penalty shoot out gone wrong.
A Super League would have both its pros and cons.
The biggest pro by far is that it would create the greatest and most powerful league in the world, with football of the absolute highest quality on a weekly basis. It would easily surpass the reach and revenue of the EPL.
The biggest cons are that these teams would most likely be required to leave their domestic competitions, and that there would be an enormous gap between each country’s league and the new Super League.
But on the other hand, perhaps without the big four or the big five in the EPL it would give clubs such as Everton and Tottenham their best shot at the title yet.
The same can applied to La Liga without Real and Barcelona, or the Bundesliga without Bayern Munich.
Obviously these leagues are bound to lose revenue if the big teams broke away, but there’s no reason why they can not continue and regain their strength.
What does everyone else think? Is it a terrible idea, or a fantastic one?
Personally I think following a league where each and every team is among the elite on earth would provide entertainment that would dwarf any other competition we’ve ever seen.
After all, it’s no secret that the European leagues have a handful of teams who always win anyway, so why not pit them all against each other to determine who is the ultimate and true champion?
These big clubs have already caused such a rift between themselves and the ‘lesser’ teams, so a Super League would give the strongest clubs a chance to play the best regularly, and it would give the lesser clubs a more realistic shot at winning the domestic title.
Max
Guest
Relegate the worst from each country and promote the champion
NUGUET
Guest
CREATION UN SUPERLIGUE CE SERAIT UNE BONNE CHOSE ALORS POURQUOI CONSTRUIRE LES GRAND STADES LILLE NICE LYON BEAUCOUP DES GRAND VILLES D EUROPE ALORS A QUOI SERT LES GRAND STADES CE SERAS UN SUPERLIGUE
NUGUET
Guest
POUR LES GRAND CLUBS OU RICHES AU SUPERLIGUE ET POUR LES CLUBS FORT OU OUTSIDERS OU AMATEURS AU PROCUP OU SUPERLIGUE 2
NUGUET
Guest
CREATION UN SUPERLIGUE POUR LES CHAMPIONS D EUROPE C EST COMME PREMIERE DIVISION ET LES CHAMPIONNATS NATIIONAUX DEUXIEME DIVISION AVEC PROMU ET RELEGATION CEST TRES BIEN CAR TOUS LES CHAMPIONS SERONT ANBITTION ET LES CLUBS; LES JEUNES JOUEURS AUSSI
Higgik
Guest
The teams in my competition would still play in domestic leagues, but they would be reduced to a 30 match season. On the Scottish issue, why not have a British league to determine champions????
Ol' BigMouth
Guest
While I am not in favour of a super league, I am convinced its coming is inevitable.Therefore: First, for promotion/relegation, why not use 2-legged playoffs between the bottom teams of the super league and the top clubs in their domestic leagues? Second, Why couldn't such a super league co-exist with the champion's (league) cup? Super league membership would qualify the 16 teams in it directly into the group stage while the other 16 teams come from the rest of the European leagues, through a few qualification rounds based on UEFA coefficients. A few of the top remaining leagues might still offer their champions direct qualification to the group stages as well. Third, all the clubs in the super league should also remain participants in their (premier) domestic cup. Super league clubs would thus not be allowed in the English Football League Cup, but would participate in the FA Cup. Finally, the biggest problem would be with the World Champions League, but it could remain the winner of the champions (league) cup, not the super league. Unfortunately, this could set a precedent that other confederations might follow...How long after a UEFA super league was formed would a CONMEBOL super league follow? This change could easily change the face of football worldwide, not only in Europe. Additionally, I wonder what affect this could have on a league like Scotland's Premiership. When Rangers finally return to the top flight, will they be "stuck" dominating the domestic league until they can defeat Celtic in a playoff? I can't see Scotland earning 2 places in a 16 team super league, and possibly not even in a 32 team league. This would reduce the old firm derby to an occasional playoff, and would ruin Scottish football indefinitely.
higgie
Guest
They should set it up like euroleague basketball, where top teams qualify automatically, then only champions of leagues get in. http://www.euroleague.net/competition/format Reduce leagues to 16 teams (30 matches) This season the teams entered would have been FC Barcelona Bayern München Chelsea Real Madrid Manchester United Arsenal Internazionale FC Porto Benfica Valencia Atlético Madrid Olympique Lyon Shakhtar Donetsk AC Milan CSKA Moscow Paris Saint-Germain Juventus Ajax FC Basel Olympiakos Piraeus Galatasaray FC København Anderlecht BATE Borisov Steaua Bucuresti APOEL Nicosia Viktoria Plzen Dinamo Zagreb Austria Wien Legia Warsaw Maccabi Tel-Aviv Imagine a group of 6 teams being, Real Madrid, Man Utd, Benfica, PSG, Juventus, Galatasaray, with only the top 4 progressing. The Europa League would be along the lines of the EuroCup for basketball http://www.eurocupbasketball.com/eurocup/competition/format Entries for this would be Schalke 04 Olympique Marseille Zenit St. Petersburg Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur PSV Eindhoven Sporting Braga Metalist Kharkiv Borussia Dortmund Napoli Fenerbahçe Fiorentina Celtic Sparta Praha PAOK Thessaloniki FC Salzburg Real Sociedad Real Betis Partizan Belgrade Anorthosis Famagusta Maccabi Haifa Paços de Ferreira FC Nordsjælland Sheriff Tiraspol NK Maribor Slovan Bratislava IF Elfsborg Molde FK Grasshoppers Zürich Zulte-Waregem HJK Helsinki Neftchi Baku Dinamo Tbilisi Shakhtior Saligorsk Pandurii Targu Jui Zeljeznicar Sarajevo Lokomotiva ETO Györ Ludogorets Razgrad Sligo Rovers Zalgris Vilnus + 7 from UCL qualifying round And how about this for a 1st round group Schalke, PSV, Fiorentina, Real Betis, NK maribor, Grasshoppers Zurich The final event would be a third tier for countries with no teams in either of the top 2 and for lower ranked teams in middle ranked teams. In each tier the winners would automatically get a place in the higher level even if they didn't qualify by domestic league.
Kickass Koala
Guest
The only other idea i had was to take the current champions league and instead of having lots of groups of 4 clubs in each, have two large groups with top 4 from each going through to knockout rounds.
Kickass Koala
Guest
My suggestion, The big clubs as you call them or top teams play their domestic comp as usual but play a 2nd string team in domestic cup comps, eg) FA Cup. Keep uefa cup and turn the champions league into an actual league table that goes over 2 domestic seasons not one. They play each team home and away over the two years. A winner is crowned, then the League is reformed for another two year home and away competition. Access is granted just like the UEFA Champions League does now, but you qualify for the two years, and therefor domestic comps only battle to quality every 2nd year. Whiles UEFA cup is battled out to enter every year among the rest.
TheMagnificent11
Roar Guru
Perhaps only have 20 teams and have a top 8 finals series (1 v 8, 2 v 7 etc). Two-legged ties that run at the same time as the promotion-relegation knock-out comp.
Brian
Guest
It would rob football of a grand final. The UCL final is currently the worlds most watched annual sporting event. A 46 game season is dangerious, even with relegation what would teams 5-18 be playing for once they cant win or be relegated, there is no ucl to qualify for. So the only way is to embrace an nfl or afl type model with finals which defeats the whole league system and puts you partially back to what the ucl is now. More realistic would be for uefa to limit leagues to 16 instead of 20 which would cut 8 games for the big teams. This could the be used to increase ucl games. My 24 btw - barca, real, atletico, valencia, munich, dortmund, leverkusan, schalke, man u, man c, Chelsea, arsenal, liverpool, milan, inter, juve, roma, paris, marseille, lyon,ajax, porto, st petersburg, moscow.
Mike
Roar Guru
I doubt that the inaugural season of such a league would based on the results of only the latest domestic season. It would need to be based on an overall performance and, probably even more importantly, which teams will bring in the big bucks. :)
Steven McBain
Roar Guru
I think many of the big clubs could possibly lean this way but it's a dangerous model. As well as 'big games' between the super powers there are two things that football thrives on. Petty local rivalries and competition, i.e. promotion and relegation. That's not to say that fierce rivalries cannot exist at the top of the game, Barca v Real, ManYoo v Liverpool etc but it is the tribalism and parochialism of fans that often brings the fervor to the sport. I completely agree with Magnificent that there has to be some kind of promotion and relegation. If it's done in the correct way, removing the bigger teams and creating promotion and relegation from the domestic leagues for the rest, you could hugely increase competition in those leagues and give the teams and their fans something to aspire to.
PGNEWC
Guest
So Currently Man U would not get into such a comp as they are doing a little poorly --- get real!
TheMagnificent11
Roar Guru
This will only work if it has FIFA and UEFA sign-off. They will only sign-off if there is some sort of promotion-relegation system. My model would be to pick the 24 best teams from around Europe (use whatever criteria you want). They play a round-robin league. There is no Champions League (but a Europa League may exist for next tier teams). The lack of the Champions League means they miss the 6 group stage games they usually play, so playing 46 games shouldn't be an issue. At the end of the season the 4 bottom teams in "Super League" are relegated back to their domestic leagues. The winners of the various domestic leagues play-off in a knock-out cup (with home-and-away legs for each tie). The teams the get to the semi-final stage get admitted to the Super League. You could even say that teams in positions 17-20 play-off against the losing quarter finalists for the other spots. Such a system would make Spain are more even race
madrid john
Guest
Great idea. It would take some of the financial pressure of the majority of clubs that can't attract the Galaticos! Given the economic pain Europe is suffering and the enormous debts which most clubs operate under, at least in Spain and England, a super league makes sense. It might also make ticket prices more affordable. Go Rayo Vallecano!
AZ_RBB
Guest
Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. The reason why UCL clashes are so highly anticipated is because of how rarely they occur. There is no sporting tournament in the world quite like the UCL and part of that is down to its relative sparsity. But I'm sure the tournament will continually evolve over the years. The money it generates per game is astronomical and just about every top tier owner, manager and player is obsessed with winning it. I hope that aura is never diluted by short-sighted greed.
Steve
Guest
"After all, it’s no secret that the European leagues have a handful of teams who always win anyway, so why not pit them all against each other to determine who is the ultimate and true champion?" "Does this not describe the current Champions League? The biggest pro by far is that it would create the greatest and most powerful league in the world, with football of the absolute highest quality on a weekly basis. It would easily surpass the reach and revenue of the EPL." Would it surpass the reach and revenue of the UCL, EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 combined, because each of these leagues/competitions would be adversely affected by a proposed Super League. I think unless there are an equal number of clubs from the relevant countries, then it would be unfair. Say there were 5 from the EPL and 3 from Germany, the English teams would have the advantage as their away games would involve less travel internationally. Sure Europe is not massive, but it would still be an issue, especially if there is bad weather/strikes and air travel is not an option. Then would you have relegation and promotion into the Super League? Like you say, the gap between the Super League teams and the regular league teams would widen, so does it even make sense to promote the best of the rest and relegate one of the Super League teams when the promoted side has probably poorer quality? Also, would Everton or Tottenham care much about winning an EPL title that Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, City did not compete in? I think the current Champions League is great. Perhaps they could refer to the old UCL format of two group stages, to reduce the likelihood of upsets in the 2nd round.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
I thought we would get closer to such comp when we had a G-14 in the 2000, which ended up being a G18. These were the biggest names in European football, some of the richest and most influential clubs (Barca, real, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Inter, ACM, juve, Bayern, Dortmund, PSG, Lyon, Ajax etc). The organisation ceased to exist a few years ago, dunno why really. Maybe because some of the newcomers weren't in it (Man City, Chelsea) and that's the issue. one day you're rich, the day after you're nothing. don't see this happening tbh,
premy
Guest
http://www.clubworldrankings.com/uefa.htm