Chelsea: No romance or competition in a Super League world

At Chelsea and elsewhere, there has always been some kind of romanticism, a certain level of sentimentality that has accompanied football and its communities. It is what allows us to dream, to feel and to love the sport that many has always affectionately named “the beautiful game”. This is why we enjoy the fiercely contested local derbies, this is why we love the dramatic comebacks and this is why we adore ourselves a good underdog story and all its relevant subplots. This is the magic of football that has accompanied us, our fathers and their fathers before them and this is everything that football will lose should the European Super League (ESL) ever come to fruition.

Perhaps there exists a school of thought that having world-class opposition on a weekly basis would do no harm for football as an enthralling product to be consumed by action-hungry fans all around the world. After all, who does not want to see the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Robert Lewandowski having a go at each other’s teams multiple times across a league season?

However, it is worth pointing out that a big part of the fanfare that surrounds every matchup like this is the rarity of their occurrence. Every matchup between two huge clubs is special and feels significant because of this and having an ESL serves only to remove the sense of occasion from major European ties under the current format. Take for instance Chelsea’s semi-final tie in the Champions League against Real Madrid which feels incredibly exciting because it’s Chelsea’s first semi-finals in seven years and because we have yet to face Los Blancos in the UCL before. This novelty and uniqueness would be absent should such fixtures become a common occurrence in the ESL.

Moreover, considering also that the new proposed format in the ESL does not entail relegation or incentives for finishing in the top four spots, the competitive spirit of football would be severely compromised. Cup competitions would likewise become a thing of the past considering that Premier League sanctions for clubs who join up with the ESL include expulsion from all existing cup competitions. As such, if a team is not competing for the title that season, there is a high chance that games would ultimately turn out to be meaningless, dead rubber ties.

More significantly, this level of elitism within the upper echelons of the footballing world would mean that up and coming teams such as Leicester City or West Ham United no longer have a chance of breaking into the elite. The feel-good underdog stories and heroic comebacks would simply cease to exist. This point is especially ironic when considering the fact that clubs such as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur stand to be included in “Europe’s Premier Competition” when they are seventh and ninth in the league respectively.

From a Chelsea point of view, the very reason behind our rapid rise to become one of Europe’s biggest clubs was the concept of free competition which allowed teams to progress up the league with good performances on the pitch regardless of their financial or social status. This was something Chelsea began to excel in following the arrival of Roman Abramovich. More importantly, this meant that as long as a club was smart with its business and diligent in its coaching, there was always hope that it could one day rise to the top of the football pyramid. With the introduction of the ESL, fans of clubs such as Everton or Leeds United dreaming of witnessing their team arrive at the pinnacles of football would see their hopes utterly destroyed.

With all that said, one of the biggest draws of the proposed ESL would be the massive payout that all clubs would be poised to receive upon their admission. What this fails to consider, however, would be the legal battles that ESL clubs would most likely have to fight with their respective FAs as well as with the broadcasting companies currently showcasing matches from existing leagues. This is not to mention the fact that players of ESL clubs would be banned from participation in major international tournaments including the Euros as well as the FIFA World Cup.

From a more grounded perspective as fans, however, JP Morgan loaning out 3.5 billion dollars to finance the ESL is most definitely predicated on the fact that they would be getting their money back somehow. Logically speaking, this would most likely be done through the signing of expensive, exclusive TV deals with various broadcasting companies who would, in turn, be charging viewers exorbitant amounts of money to watch their teams play. This is a lose-lose situation for almost everyone involved and it would have been completely avoidable had clubs not let their greed get the better of them.

In conclusion, Chelsea and football as a whole find themselves at a crossroads when it comes to deciding how they want the future of the sport to look like. Fans across different clubs and countries have already made their voices heard and their thoughts known. One can only hope that common sense can prevail and for Chelsea to take a step away from the ESL before irreversible damage is done.