Opinion | European Super League: how Asia’s next generation of fans may help the 12 rebel clubs achieve their goals
- The forces behind the breakaway league do not care about tradition and history and they will target fans from outside Britain who feel the same
- Fans cried foul when the European Cup was replaced by the Uefa Champions League but few modern fans pine for the old days of a straight knockout format
The argument was fierce. The rabid Manchester United fan from Singapore was mocking the “old” European Cup format, in which only the league champions of each country were eligible to compete in a straight knockout competition with two-legged rounds and a one-off final.
“Look at the kind of teams who won, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest. What kind of teams are they?”
This was in 2002, only nine years after the Uefa Champions League – with more clubs eligible to enter and boasting group round-robin games before a knockout phase – replaced the European Cup.
Football’s agents of change do not target the current, informed generation of fans when demolishing tradition and history. They look towards the next swathe of loyalists who are emotionally detached from the past.
Our Singapore friend will, like the many Champions League traditionalists of the past 30 years, be horrified by the news that the so-called “big six” English Premier League clubs (yes, Spurs are there, snigger, snigger) are hoping to join three giants from Spain and Italy to form a breakaway European Super League.