SUPER LEAGUE: THE WAR FOR FOOTBALL
APPLE TV
“The magic of football is hope. The weaker can beat the stronger. Everybody has a chance. The dream is alive and should stay alive forever. You can rise from obscurity, do anything from nowhere.”
-Aleksander Čeferin, President of UEFA, Episode One.
On April 18th 2021, 12 of the richest clubs in football broke away from their domestic competitions to launch the European Super League (ESL).
Super League: The War for Football investigates the financial and personal rivalries that led to the rebellion and the political infighting that occurred between the key figures in the following days.
Europe’s “old houses” – led by Florentino Perez (President of Real Madrid) and Andrea Agnelli (then President of Juventus) - believed that their revenue from the Champions League wasn’t comparable to the audience they attracted worldwide.
“The problem with today’s landscape is that a club, one year, 100m revenues from television. And one year, 11m if you don’t make the Champions League. There is a song, Get rich or die trying. Here, it’s get the trophy or die trying.”
-Anas Lagharari, Key Capital Partners, Episode One.
Their wish was for permanent status and matches against comparable clubs across Europe without the need to play ‘dead rubbers’ against smaller clubs who qualified through their domestic leagues.
On the other side was Aleksander Čeferin - the president of UEFA - who believed that clubs should qualify on merit and funds to be distributed across the European football community.
Despite years of negotiations and concessions, UEFA agreed to revamp the Champions League to include more matches and even open spaces to clubs with “historical privilege” who may have had a bad season.
However, amid a global pandemic it was clear to Perez and Agnelli that they could no longer financially compete with clubs that were in the Premier League or those owned by Sheiks or oligarchs.
“With the transfers of Neymar and Mbappe for 400m euros in one summer, suddenly other players were bought at crazy amounts, creating a crazy bubble that was not sustained by any rationale. Costs went up dramatically, revenues didn’t follow.”
- Anas Lagharari, Key Capital Partners, Episode Two.
“The Real Madrid’s and the Barcelona’s, they can’t compete with teams that can inject endless capital into their businesses. I can’t go into a spending arms race with Roman Abramovic, with the brother of the ruler of Abu Dhabi. I’ve done quite well in a hedge fund… I can’t take on Saudi Arabia.”
- Tariq Panja, The New York Times, Episode Two.
Within days of the Champions League reforms becoming public, it became apparent to Čeferin and UEFA that they had been deceived.
Perez and Agnelli had been covertly organising a breakaway league. The proposals would threaten the football hierarchy and traditions that had been in place for over a century.
“Like vampires in the middle of the night they went out with their press release...For me it was a declaration of war.”
- Aleksander Čeferin, President of UEFA, Episode Three.
Perhaps, the most fascinating aspect of this story is one of betrayal. The dramatisation of Čeferin and Agnelli’s relationship is enthralling and wouldn’t be out of place if it happened on your favourite tv show.
Čeferin is portrayed as the wounded superhero attempting to save the game we love, whereas Agnelli and Perez are the villains, determined to achieve their aims by any means possible.
Whilst some may find these characterisations overdone, the series excels in tapping into the power struggle amongst the most powerful figures in the sport.
“Behind the scenes there is a separate game afoot. Shifting allegiances, in order to maintain your supremacy. One door opens and another one closes. It does feel very machiavellian, where there is an enemy of my enemy.”
- Tariq Panja, The New York Times, Episode Two.
“The sporting world is aghast. Suddenly, we are just mesmorised by men who normally do their business discreetly behind a cloud of expensive cigars smoke, lurking in the shadows. We were watching these men rip off the suits, put on their brass knucks and start wailing at each other.”
-Roger Bennett, Football commentator, Episode Three.
Javier Tebas (President of La Liga), Gianni Infantino (President of FIFA) and Nasser Al-Khelaifi (Chairman of PSG) also have intriguing supporting roles.
Whilst Infantino and Al-Khelaifi publicly display support for Čeferin, the series highlights the conflicts of interest in doing so.
What makes this show a must watch for followers of sport and business is its unprecedented access to those on both sides.
To its credit, the makers give the pro-ESL camp plenty of opportunity to promote their plans and put their side of the story on record.
“There is so much volitivity in younger generations, 40 percent of them are saying they don’t even watch live sports. Their interest is shifting to other types of content. People globally only follow the best players, the best teams and only play with those teams on the video games. We need to adapt to reality of today’s world.”
-Anas Lagharari, Key Capital Partners, Episode One.
English football fans that watch this are likely to reject such explanations as they did back in April 2021.
Nevertheless, the balance of opinions makes this the most compelling documentary on the Super League. Recent documentaries from the BBC and SKY have focused on how fan action eventually forced the ESL to collapse.
Whilst this is true, this docuseries reveals that was only part of an unprecedented four days in football history that would change the game forever.
If the fourth episode and recent reports on the ESL’s revival are anything to go by, the animosity will remain, and this tale is likely to be just the beginning for the control of European football.
