The Super League Wasn't About Football
Ramy Al-Kadhi
Head of Commercial @ Anghami & OSN +| Novelist | Podcaster | Founder of Knuckle Headz London (Limited Edition Boxing & Padel Gear) | Proud Arsenal Fan
Everyone and their dog has heard of the Super League fiasco and how it reverberated across the football world. For those who haven’t heard, a bunch of large football clubs across Europe colluded to start a select league and leave the current European competitions in place. It guaranteed yearly income, backed by JP Morgan, and avoided natural rules of competition such as qualification for a spot.
The reaction was uproar from every football fan worldwide and was quickly disbanded. It ran against concepts of fair competition where any team can earn the right to play with the big guns.
Football won, but this article is a quick meditation on supposing that this had nothing to do with football. It was about money and the greed that can sometimes come with it.
It was also about greed.
The owners of each of the main protagonists were American Billionaires, who bought said football clubs for profit. Nothing inherently wrong here; however, a paradox exists. Many of these owners aren’t football fans. A football club is not a typical business because its product is passion. Football is beautiful, lives in the household and is the highlight of peoples weekends all across the globe. Profits are essential, but ignoring the beauty is a mistake.
Given these owners had profit in mind, they did something detrimental to every football fan to line their pockets more. That’s why the Super League isn’t about football.
It’s ok to want to make money; of course, it is. But when billionaires avoid tax, get richer during crises while paying workers minimum wage (Bezos and Amazon), it’s vital that we all collectively take a step back and ask ourselves, is money, for money’s sake, a good thing? No, it isn’t.
Profits should guide companies, but not to the detriment of the every person. On top of this, money should not separate people into categories of normality and La La Land spectators.
In the case of the Super League, a group of Billionaires sitting at a table in La La Land felt they could change the game and cheat the fan. The celebration was that the collective spirit of ‘’regular’’ people shone through and saved the game. But what happened should heed as a warning, and not just in football.
Senior Advisor, MENA, Stagwell Inc.
3 年Well said and well written, Ramy.