Gabriele Marcotti, ESPN FC Senior Writer
The people behind Super League are back.
A22 Sports, the company responsible for organizing alternative competitions to the UEFA Championship (UEFA Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Europa League) announced on tuesday They have asked UEFA to recognize their new cross-border tournament, the Unified League. Nearly a year ago, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that UEFA was dominant and that in order to comply with competition law they could not object to the creation of other cross-border competitions that met certain criteria.
It states that any such tournament must have an inclusive and elite qualification process and be in line with FIFA’s competition calendar.
Is that all? Do we have any opponents in the Champions League now?
Not quite, because there are a lot of hurdles to jump through first.
Technically, the European Court of Justice’s ruling found that UEFA’s rules gave them too much power to prevent rivals from playing cross-border matches, so UEFA put in place new rules immediately after the ruling – which they called in compliance with the ruling of the European Court of Justice. Some of UEFA’s regulations set out standards in terms of open and elite eligibility – which the Unify League appears to meet – while others do not, according to A22 no Comply with European Court of Justice rulings.
A22 said there was too much to mention, but they did cite a clause prohibiting any new club competitions that “adversely affect the good workings of the UEFA Championship”. (It’s kind of like the point of competition: disrupt your competitors and increase your market share.) But A22 believes that UEFA’s rules, as written, essentially force teams that qualify to participate in UEFA competitions Contest.
We haven’t heard from UEFA yet, but you’d think they consider their rules to be in line with the European Court of Justice ruling. So I think we can expect more arguments between lawyers and possibly letters to the European Court of Justice to clarify this, but that’s really just the first hurdle…
What’s next?
Well, even if they clear that hurdle and get their way – which, as A22 writes, means “clubs are free to decide which games they want to play” – they’ll need to be convinced that it’s in their interests to do so. It won’t be easy because while clubs are interested in prestige, history, a say in the game and interaction with fans – all good things – let’s face it, money is the main motivator. It’s unclear how the Unified Alliance’s business model will generate additional revenue in terms of commercial and media rights. (As an event, the Champions League has undoubtedly cornered the market and is arguably the Super Bowl of the sport.)
What yes What is the model number of A22?
There aren’t many details yet, but presumably they will also have sponsors like UEFA. The biggest difference, however, is media rights.
Instead of selling rights to broadcasters and streamers, they will their own streaming serviceunified platform. All games will be displayed for free, albeit with ads. For those who don’t like commercials, they will have the opportunity to purchase an “affordable premium subscription” which will provide more technology extras than standard TV.
Can you make more money this way?
This question raises a series of very obvious questions. If you want to make more money than existing matches, all you have to do is show the matches for free and insert ads, why haven’t the existing broadcasters thought of this? If the secret to increasing revenue is to have an “affordable premium subscription” – rather than the current expensive subscription – why aren’t they doing it?
There are, of course, some merits to questioning the current pricing model – free airing could provide sponsors with larger audiences and more exposure, which could mean higher advertising rates, while lower subscription fees could make It becomes a mass play where you get more subscribers and ultimately make more money – but it takes a real leap of faith to believe that these people can make a difference where everyone else has failed. That is, they believe their format will be more exciting and attract a wider audience…
how so?
You can watch their video commentary here , but in short, there will be four leagues, with the top two – Star League and Gold League (don’t ask) – made up of 16 clubs each. Each league is divided into two groups of eight players, and each group plays home and away games respectively, for a total of 14 games. The top four teams in each group advance to the quarter-finals, which will also feature home and away matches, while the semi-finals and finals will be single-leg matches.
I calculated a total of 246 games – slightly more than the total of the existing “Swiss Model” Champions League (237 games), but, of course, there are 36 clubs in it, compared to a total of 32 clubs in Star League and Golden League portion, so I guess they could break the pie into fewer slices and get a slightly larger pie.
As for whether it’s more exciting, I’m not sure. Year after year you see a lot of the same teams play against each other in the group stages, and you get, I think, a fair amount of meaningless games because in four of the eight qualifying games you Being able to let teams know whether they’re in or out with three or four games left makes the final game day irrelevant. (Of course, this concept has appeared in the championship before, and we are still not sure whether the first Champions League round 8, with all 36 teams playing at the same time, will be a huge risk.)
There is also the fact that the ECJ ruling forces them to be “merit-based” and “open to all” as this could be counter-productive.
What do you mean?
Well, the old/defunct European Super League had 12 guaranteed super clubs – 15 were originally proposed before Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain rejected it. According to A22 regulations, if the competition starts this season, Champions League clubs such as Dortmund, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Barcelona, ​​and Atletico Madrid will not be guaranteed to qualify, but they will need to pass multiple qualifying rounds to obtain one. Playoff berth.
Guess what? Clubs like certainty and hate uncertainty, especially when it comes to revenue.
But won’t they end up in the next league?
Are you talking about the “Golden Alliance”? In fact, Atletico Madrid and Dortmund are not even guaranteed a place in the league. That Either way; they need to make it through the playoffs to get there. But yes, the next league will probably make a lot less money than the top league, just like the Europa League makes less money than the Champions League. That’s the problem.
It’s a very tough sale and they will have a hard time convincing the club that this is more profitable. unless…
Unless what?
Unless someone is willing to offer the club a huge, fat downside guarantee, someone says “I’ll guarantee you more than you’re making now”. It’s hard because now, UEFA generated Revenue from the three games was approximately 4.4 billion euros ($4.6 billion). More than €1 billion of this was spent on administrative expenses (€387 million), payments to ineligible clubs (€440 million), subsidies for the women’s and youth competitions (€25 million) and UEFA coffers (€230 million). Reassigned to Member Associations.
Now A22 obviously might be able to run a more streamlined tournament so their administrative costs would be lower, maybe they don’t want to subsidize the women’s tournament. (They say they will have one too, though it remains to be seen what the exact number will be.) They probably won’t pay out as much money to clubs or member associations that don’t qualify, although they say they will have some solidarity mechanisms. But they would still need to go well beyond the €4.4 billion figure to make it worthwhile.
And, remember, since they will be running the game on their own platform, they will also have the marketing, technology and production costs currently borne by broadcasters.
So, yeah, I guess it takes someone willing to say “I’m going to put in €6 billion a year to cover the downside over the next few years to get this thing off the ground and make sure your clubs are better off” compared to United. , compared to anywhere else. “
Frankly, this is a ton Of course, there are nightmarish risks for both UEFA and the Unification League.
What exactly is a “nightmare scenario”?
Imagine they end up in direct competition with each other, with A22 convincing some clubs but not others. (Alternatively, some clubs simply can’t do so because various countries also have a raft of domestic legislation preventing clubs from joining such leagues, and this may or may not be in compliance with the ECJ ruling.) So what? ?
Let’s say the unified league has Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern and Inter Milan. The Champions League has Barcelona, ​​Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus (and presumably PSG too, unless Nasser Al-Khelaifi jumps ship). Both competitions are significantly weaker, and no, it’s not a linear decline, as Champions League success is built on bringing the best clubs together in one place. Take half of it away, and the interest rate is not halved, but dropped a lot.
Mutual destruction may be an exaggeration, but it certainly makes life harder for everyone.
So what happens next?
I expect there will be a lot of exchanges between lawyers and perhaps some clarification from the European Court of Justice, but ultimately this feels like a power move and A22 hoping to somehow get UEFA to the table. But it’s hard to see how much influence A22 has because, let’s face it: their business model seems silly and no one except Real Madrid is defending them. Unless, of course, there’s someone behind the scenes willing to fund the entire project with billions of dollars.
