Written by Sunday night’s announcement that twelve of the largest European soccer teams were pulling out of UEFA Champions League competition to form the new European Super League rocked the football world. The reaction was loud and intense. Politicians screamed. Fans of rival clubs, both in and out of the proposed new league, united together with their objection. It was over by Wednesday, with most teams involved backing out and running for cover.
That’s too bad. I thought it was a great idea, but I may have been the only one. So much for You’ll Never Walk Alone. Let me explain.
I am a relatively new fan of soccer. I still call it soccer. I watched it a bit off and on with interest but became a fan in 2010 during the World Cup, the one with the loud vuvuzelas. I started watching EPL games on Saturday mornings and became a season ticket holder of Houston’s MLS team, the Dynamo. Not only were soccer games fun to watch, but there was also so much to learn about the sport.
Soccer is very confusing and different from American sports, with lots of terms. There are national leagues with divisions in them. If you finish at or near the bottom, you get “relegated” and replaced with teams rising from the top of a lower division. There are no playoffs at the end of the season, but the top finishers get to play the top teams from other countries during the following season. Seasons last nine months, with international competitions and “friendlies” filling up the schedule during the off-season. Players are “transferred,” and managers are “sacked.” There are lots of both.
I spent most of 2012 traveling back and forth to Europe for a project. I was able to experience “football” first hand and understand its cultural significance. It’s everywhere. Watching it there is different because all the big games are on at night when you are at the pub. Having grown my knowledge of the teams and players allowed me to connect with people. I watched the Champions League final there and later followed the European Championships that summer.
My son and I were able to take two trips to London to watch English Premier League games with my frequent flyer miles. He had chosen West Ham United as his team to follow, so we went to games there on both visits. West Ham’s home field at the time was the Boelyn Ground. It is a unique place, buried in a part of East London that most tourists don’t visit. We saw a derby against Tottenham. Nobody likes Spurs, but West Ham hates them. They went to great lengths there to keep the supporters of the two teams separated. We stopped by a pub near London Bridge on our way back to our hotel. We were in Millwall territory. Millwall hates West Ham, and we were wearing claret and blue. That was a learning experience.
I enjoyed our visit to Crystal Palace. It is south of London, too far to take the underground, so you take the train. We found a pub by the grounds and made a few new friends. Most had moved away but returned for matches, and the environment was similar to a college football game in America. The game itself is a brief break from the party, a way to let off energy before returning to the pub. They sing Glad All Over by the Dave Clark 5 over and over and over. You stand the entire time. Winning or losing is secondary to the experience.
I tell these stories because none of this under attack by the proposed new Super League. The traditions can still be kept intact. Because I don’t have a nostalgic feeling for these traditions, it is easier to look at the situation without bias. What I saw then was already a separation between the top six teams in England from the traditions that preceded them. They have been global teams with foreign owners and international fans for some time now.
Seeing the top teams in the world play every week would be great for all fans, and further grow the sport. Who enjoys watching Liverpool breeze to an easy win over Burnley rather than having to play Juventus or Barcelona? Wouldn’t it be better for the fans to have Premier League on Saturday and Super League on Sunday? It would make it a lot easier for international fans to follow.
The ESL clubs’ mistake was not what they were proposing but how they presented it. For something this big, you need to spoon-feed it to the fans rather than dumping it on them in a surprise announcement. People love innovation, but they hate change. If you give them a good product, they will adapt. Amazon, for example, has a 91% favorability rating despite constant criticism and nostalgia for how we used to shop. It’s really about appealing to new fans, and the current setup is confusing and hard to follow unless you have been raised up in its traditions. The traditionalists may grumble, but they will come along if you handle the transition properly. They certainly did not do that this time, but my guess is that it will come back later, albeit in a different format.
This natural progression is impacting college football. I am as nostalgic as anybody for this sport and miss the Big 8 and the Southwest Conferences. I remember when the polls mattered, and we cared about bowl games. However, now there is too much separation between a small number of teams and everyone else. We will see more of the top players migrate to the top teams with the changes to the transfer rules. Wouldn’t a “Super League” of the twelve top programs make the regular season more enjoyable?
For all of its flaws, the NFL has gotten this right all along. They have kept the league competitive and have explored opportunities to expand the game globally. Soccer is already a global sport, and adopting an American model to showcase their best talent would be a tremendous success. They need to figure out how to convince the fans they are looking out for their interest, not padding their wallets.