Twelve of Europe's football clubs announced new competition, the European Super League, governed by its 'Founding Clubs' AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur. “The proposal involves the clubs forming their own competition to rival the UEFA Champions League”.
Having in mind that “football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans”, this competition claims to have the best clubs playing with the best players every week. They will earn almost triple the money from European Super League than Champions League, with “the 15 founder clubs sharing an initial $3.5billion”.
The announcement caused widespread condemnation from many, starting with politicians like Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron, football clubs, football associations represented in UEFA, players, and, more fiercely, pundits as Gary Neville.
The hashtag #RIPfootball is beginning to trend on Twitter as a result of these reactions. The main reasons are 1) the choice of the teams, that “appear to have been chosen based on fan base and income, as opposed to performance”, 2) the anti-competitiveness, with the “founding clubs of the ESL not facing the threat of relegation if they sit at the bottom of the table”, and 3) power of money, with these twelve solidifying “a position at the top of the game and rule over smaller clubs”.
Some were fast and creative and took their thoughts to the training ground.
Between threats and official statements, a lot is being written in which appears to be a real communication battle. Even considering “legal challenges”.
Keep up with the timeline of these “football's volatile 72 hours”!
While you wait for the following episodes, take a look at the best memes so far…
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