Super League - where's the purpose ?

I am an ex-pat Mancunian living in London, passionate lifelong Man United fan and season tickets holder, and a football fan. Yesterday I phoned Watford FC to get on their season ticket waiting list.

Everything about the new proposed and likely to happen super league feels wrong. It dominates every front and back newspaper headline this morning. It has caused genuine united (and city, arsenal etc) outrage.

There’s a number of parallels in the procurement world. Dominance of the big consultancies and strategy houses being an obvious one. But the principles of equality, particularly in public sector procurement, ensure that every supplier has an opportunity to develop, win work and grow.

How do we teach our children these values? Even my 18-year-old daughter yesterday told me she wants to stop supporting Man United and follow her maternal family team QPR because United's owners don’t respect their history. She doesn’t want to see United v another big team every week. "Those games you look forward to, they are special occasions". Otherwise, football will become boring.

Football is a level playing field. It represents the values of community, friendly rivalry, equality, passion, integrity. The super league is likely to destroy those values.

Let’s not even get started on the carbon emissions of all those flights the teams will have to take playing all over the world to satisfy the global fan bases.

The pandemic has taught us that anything is possible. Change can happen. The so-called big 12 clubs chose to make this change at a time when the world has been on its knees. I think, hope, and pray that they underestimated the response of the world.

“Big” or “super” is not about money or social media followers. It’s about history. It’s about acting with a moral conscience knowing that as you have the most fans, and the most money, the world will be watching and doing the right thing is a duty. It’s about using that power to create a better society. It’s about others. Not self.

In the Consultancy world big and small  brands have taken on this responsibility creating social value in the regions they operate. They are creating equality in the workplace. Maybe not perfectly but with acceptance of duty. Accepting competition. Acting with purpose.