The ESL was perhaps the most divisive initiative European football has seen in this century so far. The idea of creating a separate tournament for some of the highest-profile football clubs in Europe that would’ve given them more opportunities to play among each other, and considerably more revenue, was met with resistance not only from UEFA, currently the highest authority over European football, but the fans themselves.
Misunderstood?
Barcelona – and ESL – president Florentino Pérez claims that the league was misunderstood – it didn’t want to interfere with the existing structures but to create an alternative revenue stream for the clubs involved. He sees it as a necessary step, considering that several European football clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy as we speak. He also pointed out that the participating clubs have a legally binding contract that they can’t just abandon as they please.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, one of the top 3 long-serving managers in England’s topflight league, said in a press conference a few days ago that the only positive thing to come out of the ESL fiasco is that it didn’t happen. “But what I’ve heard, it’s not over yet,” he told the press – and it seems that what’s coming will cost the Reds an arm and a leg despite the Merseysiders promptly announcing their withdrawal following the backlash that came their way.
Legally binding contract
A set of documents obtained by German publication Der Spiegel from the contract signed by the founding clubs of the European Super League shows that leaving might not be as easy – or cheap – as it seems. Apparently, the clubs withdrawing from the league have to pay a ‘withdrawal fee’ of €150 million (around $181 million) if they want to indeed leave the Super League.
The contract also speaks about the compensation some of the teams would receive – including the extra cash payable to Real Madrid and Barcelona, each of them getting a paycheck of a total of €60 million in two installments, at the end of their first two ESL seasons.
ESL down
The UEFA, FIFA, fan communities, politicians, and everyone else lashed out on the clubs hoping to boost their revenues through the European Super League. As a result, the 3 clubs that would’ve been invited aside from the 12 founders we already knew about – Paris Saint Germain, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund – didn’t even join the initiative, with almost every other founding club announcing their withdrawal from the competition. The final nail in the ESL’s coffin was, in turn, the fact that investment bank JP Morgan withdrew its almost $5 billion funding of the league. “We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future. We will learn from this,” the bank’s statement on the matter reads.
