The efforts of Super League in recent weeks to re-improve its model against the current competitions of the UEFA has put the national leagues back on a war footing. After the landing of the new CEO Bernd Reichart and his intention to open a debate with the governing body of football in the old continent, LaLiga has gone on the offensive and has released a video in which he charges against the new competition model that he supposedly proposes and that he considers a mere “makeup” compared to the one he initially presented in 2019.
The new face of the Super League stated after his appointment was made public that he wanted to open a “dialogue” on the future of football at club level. “Over the next few months, together with our partners, we are going to launch a structured, well-organized and professional dialogue”, he explains, acknowledging a “broken system” and a “European football that does not reach its full potential”. An objective that seems to carry forward, because next week he will have a meeting at the UEFA headquarters.
After those first statements, Reichart went through a good number of media outlets, where he explained that the Super League had understood its mistakes and was willing to design an open model based on sporting merits.
Some statements that the managers of LaLiga do not believe. That is why they have reiterated their opposition to the “closed”, “selfish” and “elitist” model of the Super League. In a video published on its social networks, LaLiga recalled that when the Super League was officially presented in April 2021, all of European football “positioned itself against” its model. «Now, the promoters of the Super League they intend to make up their formatassuring that they still do not have a defined model but that it will be open”, he adds, pointing out that it is “false”.
“That model is based on promotion and relegation between European divisions where the national leagues do not give direct access to the highest category. On the contrary, they perpetuate the participation of a privileged few, even if they perform poorly in their national leagues. Let’s be clear: anything other than any club earning its place in the European top flight through success in the domestic leagues will remain a closed or semi-closed model,” he argues.
The promoters of the Super League are now preparing a model similar to the one that was proposed in 2019, which is still closed or almost closed, which will destroy the national leagues and which has already been rejected by the clubs and leagues in Europe.#EarnItInTheField pic.twitter.com/JoRk0C580u
— LaLiga (@LaLiga) November 4, 2022
The LaLiga video goes further and criticizes the fact that the Super League claims the role of “savior of football” because the current system no longer seduces young people. He responds with the fact that the audience in Spain among those under 24 years of age has increased by more than 22% in the last 4 seasons and, according to a report by the international agency Global Web Index, fans between 16 and 29 years of age have increased by 3.4 percent worldwide. In addition, according to official TikTok metrics, 60 percent of its users consume soccer and it is the most viewed sports content.
“It will turn the extraordinary into the ordinary”
«The Super League boasts of creating a more exciting competition, when what it is going to offer is constantly the same type of confrontations and turning the extraordinary into the ordinary, with fewer incentives than the current European competitions, where surprises are experienced, knockouts never seen before and emotions exceptional,” he adds.
For LaLiga, the Super League “would destroy the ability to turn dreams into reality”, and pointed out the feats in the Champions League of Porto, Leicester, Villarreal, Monaco, Roma, Leeds or Dortmund.
“The promoters of the Super League must respect the will of the fans and community citizens, where the Council of Europe has already positioned itself against the Super League and the European Parliament has defended an open, democratic model based on meritocracy,” he concludes. .
Hours after the video was published, also ‘A22 Sports Management’, the promoting company “created to sponsor and help the creation of the Super League in Europe”, has responded through social networks.
The company headed by Bernd Reichart has replied that what he says in the ‘spot’ is “false”, since his position “is an open dialogue with European club football, even with critical voices”. “We firmly believe that European football needs an open debate without manipulation,” he adds before demonstrating this position with the statements of his CEO.
