How Football Lost Its Soul Long Before Any 'Super League' 

One day I will tell my grandkids that Jesse Lingard played so well that big six clubs had to run away to form their own league

Arsene Wenger predicted that football will be franchise by top clubs for profit (like American sports) and the whole world laughed at him. The amount of disrespect Wenger received just for being smart was brutal.

Basically "If football wasn’t dead already, it is now!"

Drinking game: take a shot for each “so called super league“

I love how Alfie constantly referred to the competion as the “so called” Super League

“It’s pure greed” -Roy Keane, Sky Sports Employee

"A bit like ISIS" sums everything up ngl

Its pure scandalous good news teams like Dortmund, Bayern and Porto have rejected it.

Football died when you got penalised for removing your shirt - not my quote btw

Competition is dead, there are no more pure sports...thank you, Alfie, everything you have said in this video is correct. These owners don't care about tradition, history, or the tears and blood that have been shed for the colors. They only see 1 color, green, and they will destroy everything to get it...

This is partly why I love the league here in Ireland so much. It may not have the best teams, it may have relatively small crowds, and it may see players booting the ball into the stands more frequently with woeful misses, but it's still got a lot of soul in it and the fans are significantly more connected to their clubs. That's not to say it's perfect but it's a much better than say the situation in the big European leagues.

Imagine calling it a European Super League but it's only 3 Europeans countries and most of the teams are washed up in their own countries

PSG is obviously part of this, but can't start a rift with Fifa till after the World Cup.

You can’t kill what’s already dead 💀 Sad but true

This is why I think private ownership of football teams is a bad idea. As a Portuguese person, there isn’t as much money in Portuguese football granted but there are elections and presidencies because teams are publicly traded and anyone can own shares in the club. This means that if a president of a club does not have the interest of a team at heart they can be voted out. With private ownership there is no accountability and the owners can do whatever the hell they want with no consequences and disregard the fans. I don’t think it will ever go away in English football but it’s a shame how these owners don’t give a single shit about the club or the fans

You know whats the weirdest part about all of this? I realized that i am the problem. Supporting chelsea for about 15 years now. Me and my familiy traveled to london back in 2006. At this point i knew rapid vienna, austria vienna and my local, now bancrupt team. I did not care about football at all. Not only did i not know the offside rule, i didnt even know something like this even existed. I had no idea who the best players are and beside the stories that made it into the sport section of regular news, i had no idea what was going on. That year in london, we randomly walked by stamford bridge. You could hear the fans from the outside, you could feel the passion, and at this moment, i fell in love with the sport. I always felt lonely in my entire life. And just the thought of singing in a stadium with people i barely know, but are glued together by supporting the same club, that warmed my heart (Yeah i know, chelsea isnt the best example for that, but i didnt know better back then and i assume to a certain degree i was draged to a sucessful team to be honest. Some part of me sure as hell is a plastic fan). But that was it for me. I couldnt afford to travel to a match, i didnt knew enough english to even stay at a hotel at this point. The only information i got was news paper collums in my local paper, english football was maybe given 10 lines and the table. This went on for years. At some point german television started to buy the right for maybe one match per round of the FA Cup, and with enough luck, i could see chelsea play for the first time outside the champions league (which was on free TV at this time). Of course it didnt felt the same as i imagined, you just cant funnel atmosphere through a television, but it was great. I will never forget the moment i jumped out of my seat, spilling my drink over the floor when Lampard in the FA Cup Final slipped at the 16 yard box, cought himself, stood up, took aim and hammered the ball into the top corner with his left foot against everton equalizing the game. But at this point i havent even spent a single penny on chelsea, i couldnt afford a shirt, a keyring or anything. The only merch i had was self made during the practical part of my education (couting a chelsea badge in plexiglass, polishing it and using it a key ring). And i was proud of this. This went on. On and on. The first time i actually spent money was back in 2011, and even that was not a jersey, 60 euros just seemed to much (weird when thinking about todays prices), so i bought a replice training session shirt. And this way my proudest posession for ages. I wore it to every lession of physical education i had, i wore it to every champions league match (group stage never showed chelsea, so they had to make it into the quarters for me to even have a chance to see them). At this point streaming became a thing, but only sky had the right i think, so this was out of reach for me. So i only grabbed the odd game from a "half legal" site in bad quality with 3 minuted delay, so i needed to turn off everything else that could spoil the game for me. Those were the times. I think at some point laola, an austrian streaming service even managed to get the streaming rights for the prem for 1 game per week i think, but mostly it was bootleg streams, and i was fine with that. Then Chelsea won the champions league, in a year in which it shouldnt have happended, in a way i could never imagine. It was the best moment of my life, even until now. After the match, i watched it alone at home, i went to the "city" (10.000 people, so barely a suburb anywhere else) and met some friends. To this day they always say that they never have seen me this happy. I was glowing they said. I was over the moon and i couldnt even manage to say a single sentence without smiling. And i am normally grumpy 99% of the day and sleepy the rest of it. The same year i graduated from my school, started uni and worked my hardest for that, but after 3 years i realzied that my hardest wasnt enough and started to aplying for jobs, got one and earned my first realy decent paycheck. I put my life back together, bought a car, traveled to the USA and all the stuff i always wanted to do. Also, for the first time i was able to visit chelsea at the bridge. And this is the part where all my actions, all things i did stating then and there, i am the problem. I bought a plane ticket, checked into a lower budget hotel and my only reason to go to london was chelsea. I was there for 3 days and over 50% of all money spent those days was spent for chelsea. My first jersey, a christmas ornament, normal t-shirts, a keyring, the match ticket, food and a drink before the match, i was in the stands 1h before kickoff, i took more photos that thay than the entire rest of the year. It was everything i wanted for 10 years. The match itself was honestly a litle bit dull, a 1-1 draw with atlectico madrid, and even that was an own goal from savic and michy missed 2 sitters, but who cares, i was in the stands, i sang and i was happy. And i made roman a shitload of money. I went there a second time just before the pandmic hit, franks home debut as chelsea manager against leicester, another 1-1 draw, masons first senior goal at stamford bridge, at this moment i had no problems, i was just happy, and once again, i made roman a shit load of money. And this is the problem. People like me. People who take away tickets from fans, growing up with chelsea in their genes, where chelsea is family tradition. I feel so aweful now. I am the problem. They want the stadium filled with people like me. Not because they like chelsea supporters, but because if you are only there once every 3 years, you will spend a crapload and more of money. Sorry. Sorry for beeing a part of making this happen. It will stop now. The only thing i dont know is, if the money spending stops, supporting chelsea stops, or caring about football in general stops. I dont know, but curently, stopping caring about football is in the lead. After all those years, just leave it behind, as hard as it is, it isnt worth it if i am the one who is destroying the amosphere i loved and wanted to be a part of.

That's what I've been saying, people acting as if only NOW football became all about greed, when it has been that way for 15+ years and UEFA has been taking advantage of it as well.

The abolition of the 3 foreigner rule leading to homegrown talent issues, the Bosman case giving players a mercenary attitude, the early 2000 Sky TV deals leading to hyper inflated transfers and the globalisation of football with clubs being bought by foreign owners has taken Footballs soul.

"Or maybe, you'll just get further alteration to the champions League" This statement aged like wine

This is what I was saying yesterday - footballs been about greed and ain’t been the same for last 20 years

This is how the rich conduct themselves in every walk of life, I hope people can begin to see that

Been waiting since the news broke for this video!

Agree with pretty much everything you said. I hope "small" teams and "smaller" leagues get more fans and attention from people who actually care about the game. It would be wonderfull if greed blew up in the face of the rich and we got some sort of a reset on football. Bring back the romance and actual fair competition

Imagine how Maradona or Cruyff would react If they were alive

I'm reminded of a Dara O'Briain joke: "In Ireland, we have a greater appreciation of the greyness of the human condition. We have all this stuff here which comes under 'That's grand' then it moves into 'A now, don't push it' and finally, we go: 'Right, you're taking the piss!'. With all the money in football starting at the last point until it slowly moves to 'That's grand'

Alfie and his “It is what it is” approach Never gets old ✨

This video almost reminds me of John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight or sth: how to talk about all of the symptoms of capitalism without mentioning capitalism itself as the root problem

I’ve always been an NUFC fan, but haven’t been a ‘supporter’ of the club since around the time Ashley took over. Football is not just a sport or business - it’s firmly part of our culture.

For me the degradation of football came in three waves. The first was the super clubs using unbalanced resources to dominate domestic leagues. The second was injection of more global money solidifying their place with rare exception breaking through. The third is now, the complete removal of the possibility of competition. My only hope is people support their local side and enjoy the sport and connection they have to it.

If you love football, watch the best team that is nearest your house. Or just watch the team nearest your house.

This is why I am happy to be supporting a team in League 1.

It would be great if some of the old European Cup rules return in the modern Champions league so the smaller clubs have more chance of defeating a big club and progress ahead in the tournament. It will be so refreshing for the modern football and also motivating for the smaller leagues and clubs. I think true football fans will appreciate that and it will return part of the "romance" in football. In the meantime when UEFA announced the new Champions league format which will apply in 2024 a lot of people started ranting how unpredictable and random will be and ironically said that they "can't wait to watch Legia Warszawa vs. Levski Sofia". For me these people aren't true football fans. Football is for all people and clubs. If every year the same big and rich clubs play in European competitions it would be devastating for the small clubs and for me personally boring as fuck. Even now I rarely watch Champions league because I'm tired of the same clubs playing over and over again. It's so freaking hard for teams like Crvena Zvezda and Steaua to reach the group stages now and they are European Cup winners! But they still manage to do it from time to time and that's a big success for them. I'm a Levski Sofia fan, what would be my club motivation to win the Bulgarian title, to participate in the Europa Conference league? Yes, It will be great to play other European clubs from our rank, but the thought that we won't be able to play any of the big clubs is sad. Let me tell you something, Levski participated in the 2006/07 CL group stages on a group against Chelsea, Barcelona and Werder and even though we didn't even get a point it was a big success and euphoria for the club. But that will never happen again if the big rich clubs continue being privileged.

The fact that this is all about shareholders' revenue, is exemplified by the fact that Bayern Munich - a team from the league with a 50+1 rule, has openly denounced it.

Football fans are not known for having much independent thought, and what I found hilarious about this whole affair is that if the initial reaction from these club's supporters had been positive, then all the sheep would have jumped on the bandwagon loudly proclaiming their support. Instead, as the initial reaction was negative, all the sheep jumped on the bandwagon loudly proclaiming it to be 'the death of football', whilst blindly ignoring the fact that football in England died years ago and ceased to be a sport at that time. Football in England has been a business ever since the rebranding that created the Premier League.

£60m rotation players was when I started losing hope.

There is to much money in football now, this is why its happening, being able to pay players 200 300k a week super inflated contracts football is eating its self. Remember when football was on ITV free, then sky BT got involved tv money started poring in inflating it all. billionaire owners moved in who couldn't give to shits about results. Or when we had one kit every 2 seasons, now we have 3 plus all the training kits every season. The whole lot needs a reset with more realistic player wages and contracts.

Day 6:Please make a video about DINAMO BUCHAREST...The story of our club is a hard one...And you telling it can really help us a lot,our club is clinging to survival,and we raised 2 milion euros to try to save the club... Dinamo is one of the biggest clubs in Eastern Europe,it has 18 league titles and 13 domestic cup titles...It reached the Champions League Semi Final in 1984 after beating the holders of the trophy Hamburg...In the Semi Final they played against the great Liverpool side of the 80's...After the 89 revolution the club lost one of their greatest generation after their players where bought off by western clubs,similar to what happened to the clubs in East Germany that you already talked about...Corruption and neglect brought this giant of romanian football to it s knees...At the moment Dinamo is preety much the ONLY true historical side in Romania's top division...This team stood afloat thanks only to it's fans...In the summer some new spanish chiarman came and bought the club,brought players on huge contracts and left without paying them...The players just broke the contracts and the club accumulated even more debt...If the fans did not step in and accumulated 2 milion euros the club would have been dissolved...For anyone watching outside of Eastern Europe it might be hard to understand it s value...If u re English imagine Liverpool being dissolved...This club is OUR Liverpool,and it's stadium OUR cathedral...With all the fears of relegation,players leaving and managers coming in and leaving the club still managed to fight it's way to a Romanian cup Semi Final...Please,make one video about our story too...

I'm from finland where ice hockey is the biggest sport and I like it as well. As a result I've followed American hockey league (Nhl). I know we Europeans don't generally like the American sport model with no relegation, draft and salary caps but even with it's faults there is one thing great about it: FAIR COMPETITION. In American sport league every team has equal chance of making it to the top because of the salary cap they have. It stops richer teams of just throwing money around and dominating. In a result of this Nhl's two most watched and richest teams haven't won the championship in nearly 30 years and out of current 31 teams I think only like 8 haven't never won the championship. If we want more competition in football we need a leagues with salary cap and also some kind of budget for buying players. The problem would be to get the current big teams owners to agree to a model where we still have relegation and they can't outspend smaller teams and in that way basically guarantee their place at the top.

So basically Alfie’s decided footballs already dead because there’s a positive correlation between money spent and league position. Cheers Alfie mate really opened my eyes with this one.

This is true though. But I don't think a super league is any good either way. Sure bring reforms and changes but a super league will just destroy it all. Its like you cutting your entire arm just cause you felt pain in your biceps.

“Having no social media platforms of their own, a bit like isis” is too funny 😂

Fans of these clubs were happy with their owners when they were spending money on the top players to come to their clubs. They have colluded with the owners and have only themselves to blame.

i was waiting for the Alfie measured response tbf

champions league would be a whole lot more fun and unpredictable when the 12 giants leave, so I say let 'em leave!

I have a lot of respect for fans of Non-Premier League Teams. I am not from England and I used to never understand why would someone support a low league, random club unless that very club climbs the ranks and makes history. I have found an absolute level of respect for y'all

In fairness to Saudi Arabia, you might say they are modernizing into the 14th century, but it's actually into the 16th century according to the Islamic calendar, as they just reached year 1444.

This was my comment on the HITC Sport video yesterday and I'd say I completely agree with you and this video Alfie : As much as I hate the idea of a European Super League, I think that we should put equal blame on FIFA and UEFA as well. UEFA wanted to expand the Champions League to 36 teams with a 10-game group stage for more TV money, which makes team more prone to injuries and exhaustion. However, the money from the UCL is not "reasonably" distributed amongst the clubs. This is the reason of this Super League. In addition, FIFA decided to host the World Cup in a country where workers are being abused, and FIFA and UEFA keep increasing the international fixtures for their own advantage, pushing the "FIFA virus" crisis even further. Therefore, I'd say that FIFA's and UEFA's greed and corruption have led these mega-clubs to use greed against them instead. The mega-clubs feel that they are contributing more to the competition but receive less, and they see international fixtures as a waste since their players are getting more prone to injuries, but they have to treat the players themselves and pay their wages. These are the reasons why football fans in my country are overwhelmingly in favour of the European Super League. The ESL is a joke, but UEFA and FIFA are jokes themselves too! As for the ESL, good luck having El Classicos or Manchester Derbys inside stadiums that are not full even after the pandemic. P/S: I also can't see the point of UEFA or the Premier League applying sanctions on the ESL mega-clubs. The mega-clubs are having the higher ground in this situation, banning them from such competitions will cause a massive drop in viewership of the competitions, since fans of those clubs make up the lion's share of the viewers. The sanctions would make the Premier League or the La Liga no different from the Portuguese Primeira Liga or the Russian Premier League to be honest.

It’s like you guys are barely grasping the reality.. football its not in the hands of the fans anymore ..epl it’s almost American owned .. and that’s have been uefa’s fault ..the point was not to destroy football but to take uefa out .. before the put the new champions league format that will put the final nail on the coffin ...

It's like football lost its soul after Johann Cruyff died

Don't think I've ever heard Alfie talk about boxing...

The football pyramid is what made me fall in love with the sport. The fact that small teams have the chance to gain promotion and compete with the big teams. Look at Leicester City. Gaining promotion, narrowly dodging relegation, winning the EPL, and have now competed in UEFA Champions League. That’s why I love football. As a fan from the US, I don’t want to see only the top teams play other top teams.

Four english champions in the champions league, and teams like Celtic have to play 6 qualifying games to try to get into the so called champions league lol

When I heard the news, I was thinking how long it would be until Alfie came out with a video about it....

Agreed top flight football lost its soul long ago but this just rams home the point in such a way it cannot be ignored

I am a Liverpool fan I never saw the where, I WOULD WALK ALONE. I am saddened by that fact.

2015 FIFA Scandal actually ruined football in general

His voice is so calm i can go to sleep listening to it 😊

For me it lost the charm with the inception of the Champions league. Over commercialization drove me further and further from the beautiful game. Even National team football is losing it's charm rapidly.... So soon I will likely opt out of it all unless major changes are at hand.

Wow, this has been by far the most thought and out and rational rant

I have been losing interest in football slowly over the last few years becoming more and more less bothered about watching my favourite team. However I think the nail in the coffin was COVID. Although I disagree with a lot of the pandemic and the way we (general population) have been imprisoned under an almost Nazi/North Korean style tyranny, football was allowed to continue. There is only two reasons for this and that is capitalism and greed. While we were confined to our homes and told we can't see our loved ones, overpaid footballers have been allowed to sweat and spit over each other on a field for 90 minutes. They claim to be creating a "covid safe" environment. Well if we can do the same, why can't our families still see each other? Why do your teenagers need to be demoralised by being tested daily and having to wear masks rather than breathing fresh air? Footballers could have survived this "pandemic" if it went on for 5 years with the wages they are paid. Yet half the nation at least has been broken. They are not footballers anymore, they are prostitutes who sell thier soul for the highest bidder.

Football was already a little broken for a long time but the super league is like the billionaires smacking a crack with a hammer until the whole wall collapses as they can harvest the bricks for themselves

I remember the time when clubs could only have 5 foreigners on their teams. Bring it back already.

The rot started when the biggest and richest big city clubs decided to keep their home league gate receipts rather than share 50/50 with the visiting clubs.

This is the final nail in the coffin but football has been on a downward spiral since 92'. Also isnt it funny sky sports employees are the ones so against it saying its "ruining football" when they were charging 15 quid for STREAMING the game. When you get a bundesliga ticket for less than that and the football is more enjoyable.

I just realized this is what the super league was, thank god Bayern said no to it, they never fail me.

"Every free-to-play games can be exploit by pay-to-win concept"

All very true. The day where Celtic could win the old champions league with a team of players born within 8 miles of their stadium or a homegrown PSV Eindhoven team to even qualify. Those days are gone and dead. What happened to Salzburg and Wimbledon will happen to more and more clubs. Good video pal

Was not expecting a Peter O’hanraha-hanrahan reference here but glad it happened

Why are these teams even bothering to stay in their FA's? These associations do nothing for them and frankly an NFL/NHL style league without the BS of the division tiers is probably better for them. Champions League would end up being redundant but it's an expendable tournament if this was to go through.

A disgrace !!! the american system reached europe franchises, don't cry arsenal fans if suddenly kroenke moves arsenal elsewhere since he loves to move teams around !!!

Love the video, hate how full of holes the "arguments" against the super league are, pretending this is still the working man's game. Sure the Leicester title win was a great spectacle and very impressive from the players and Ranieri but in my eyes it's not a win for the people or football when the club owned by a Thai billionaire win a trophy over those owned by Middle Eastern, American or Russian billionaires

The "soul" of the Bundesliga seems still fine to me.

The irony here, I believe, is that these clubs, wanting to find a new way to extract revenue, will indeed make more money but will blow it all on astronomical transfers and salaries anyway. Why? Because the fans demand it. They want the thrill of their club (Real Madrid, say) being the first club to pay $1b for a new striker. After which another club (Barcelona, say) will need to be seen to pay $1.2b for their own new striker (just to keep the fans happy that theirs is a “serious” club) ... and so on, until the money’s all gone.

I don’t see this Super League happening, when push comes to shove and the actual league is about to start they’ll realize how it’s not feasible in any way shape or form.

Everyone needs the german 50+1 rule, bring the power back to the people!

Something tells me, the European Super League is gonna be like the Chinese Super League (Heck, it even has the same name🤣) will be a huge spectacle, with sky-high transfer fees and enormous wages everywhere, but the bubble will burst after 4-5 years of its formation

What did you expect! English Premiership league , NEVER pay a player more than £50,000, NEVER BUY a player who is not from BRITAIN . IF you were to show football starting from the 1960 on tv the next generation would see the game as it was meant to be.

IT'S A DISGRACE MAN

I am a Catalan FC Barcelona fan, and i'm completely against the Superleague, for many reasons, many of them already mentioned all over the place. Yet this "football is for the fans" approach is pure hypocrisy when it comes from UEFA, FIFA or in our case, the "Liga de Fútbol Profesional" or LFP, the board governing the Spanish league. UEFA has already ordered a completely insane new Champions League format for the 24/25 season, FIFA allowing world cups in winter so that the dictatorial Qatar regime can organize them, and the LFP boss (Javier Tebas, a disgusting far-right enabler) whining while games are set at crazy times (10pm on a weekday) for alleged global TV audiences while local kids are already sleeping.

Alfie - Makes a video supporting ESL five months ago Irish guy- Makes a video bashing the ESL Their viewers- *Visible Confusion*

HITC SEVENS! after seeing your Barca video and the deportivo one... The super league was lead by Madrid and driven by Barcelona.... Barca on the verge of massive crisis on the pitch but in huge debt.... Let them fold if they can't be responsible... Can't believe how easily manipulated we are.... Thoughts? Worth a video????

I can't believe you are implying that Football wasn't perfect in every way before this Super League announcement.

I was just saying this to my friend... No one blinked an eye ( fans or UEFA) while our club was spendind 500 M in 3 years , after beeing sold to a foreign, human rights abuser, Bilionaire... And we all celebrated, like narcisistic fools, while beating rather easily, in UCL, historic teams like AJAX or Porto, or Borussia, PSV, Lyon, Lazio, etc etc...... that spend today 10 times less than us, therefore not standing a chance competing against huge budgets... All because they dident sold out as a club yet, so they can keep up... Clubs were bought and created a monopoly visible from outter space and FIFA (we all know why) did nothing about it.. Man city broke nearly every rule in financial fair play and still UEFA gave them a pass.. The beautiful game as been rigged for a long... long time now... Now it is just biting us all in the arss.

We all know football has gone out of control for years now but this isn't it. The sport can be reformed, this is just a dagger through the heart of the sport. The way Perez talks about how nobody under the age of 24 cares about football or about having to reduce the length of a football match so it appeases international television audiences, its insane.....

I don't agree with this video. It's super English oriented. For example take Roma, Lazio, Atalanta. They have consistently been more successful that Milan until this year. Why Atalanta is not in ESL, but Milan is? Money, not success. On top of that, Juve got kicked by Ajax, Lyon and Porto last three years although spending more than all of them.

18:14 Wasn't expecting the Peter O'Hanrahanhanrahan reference, but I definitely appreciate it 😂

Why hasn't anyone tried the salary cap model for the clubs like we have in Canada/USA major sport leagues. You can't have 5-6 superstars with out-of-this-world salaries. It provides more of a level playing field for all teams. Management, team tactics, drive, and leadership mixed with levelled talent separates the men from the boys in our leagues. Sure, you'll have runs, the likes of Chicago Bulls or Detroit Red Wings in the 90s, but normally, you can see different teams winning the leagues within a 5 year time span as of late.

Reminded me of hikaru nakamura's "I literally don't even care"

Biggest load of mellow drama ever... UEFA have aways pocketed 75%of all profits from Champions League and also sign all their own deals. The 12 teams wanted a more even share and more rights. To be fair, they deserve more as without the top 10 teams in Europe, there isn't a Champions League

Day 74 Ways to fix var with your suggestions. Also no to European super league

gotta say im so happy for the 50+1 rule in germany and the clubs/league activly communicating with the fans here we have affordable ticketprices and very local fanbases regularly in the stadiums. Im also proud that our super clubs didnt join this bullshit (might be cause of 50+1). Wanna see those greedy clubs crush down when noone is watching their games. Ironicaly this is the best Bundesliga promotion if it lands since we are not a sellout league like the other top 4 leagues . But i guess arsenal were fearing to go the same way as Schalke 04 in England slow decline and without european football they soon dont attract anymore good players and so on.

Glad I’m an Ipswich fan

Thank you. I cannot agree with this more. Capitalism has ruined football, the same thing it does to literally everything.

100% agree with you, lets hope the teams do a U Turn and soon - Follow us on Twitter and join the discussion: twitter.com/AtTheBridgePod

Not super familiar with European Football but it seems like you are experiencing the Americanization of Football as we already have the greedy price gouging in all our pro sports especially NFL.

we've all been waiting for this video

Its all good when they buy 100 miljon euro players, but not if they want to innovate football... the players that get these 500k a week salaries are also to blame for this. People are reacting emotionally but I guarantee you if this superleague excists 5 seasons we all be watching and enjoying it... it’s how humans brains work. UEFA is just as bad.

Sky put football in the coffin 25 years ago. This is just the nail going in.

As an American who hates the idea of a Super League, one thing Alfie doesn't realize is that a pyramid structure invites the clubs with the most money to insulate themselves at the top. A closed system does not allow for this, given that teams are not punished for failure or rewarded for success nearly as much. Closed leagues have equalizing/balancing measures to keep the league competitive. Just look at the Los Angeles Lakers before LeBron arrived, or the current New York Knicks: big teams languishing because they have no motivation against failure. Having super clubs comes with the territory of open competition and a league pyramid.

I hope that the real supporters of the teams who have joined the NFL style "Super League" starts their own phoenix clubs like the clubs of AFC Wimbeldon, FC United of Manchester, Steaua Bucarest and Austia Salzburg.