A European Super League is bad for the game

From the leaks published by German newspaper Der Speigel on Friday, 16 clubs across Europe have been making plans to create a Super League with plans to break away from their domestic leagues. The 16 teams will consist 11 'founding members' which consist of teams like Manchester United, Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Arsenal including 5 'invited teams' that include Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan.

A European Super League has been talked about several times over the years but from the leaks, it looks like it is a possibility. Despite the denials made, it's a clear reflection of everything wrong with the game right now and a Super League will change football as we know it in a bad way.

What makes football so popular is that anyone has a chance no matter the odds. We saw it when Greece defied the odds to win the European Championship in 2004 and Leicester City's fairytale run to winning the Premier League title in 2016. A Super League will quash that possibility at once with all the top teams all in an exclusive group that the others will be unlikely to join. It's already seen in the Champions League with the top teams going far in the competition with a very rare occurrence like Roma last season.

This will also mean that there is nothing to play for and will make the game boring. This was what many feared when the Premier League was created in the 1990s when the top sides wanted to break away from the English Football League.

However, what made the Premier League successful was that they kept the important things to keep the competitive like promotion/relegation. With no promotion/relegation, there's nothing to play for removing the excitement factor. This is something used against the American football league, Major League Soccer (MLS), since teams from the second division can't get promoted to the MLS.

From what I mentioned before, it will make the game boring. What makes games like El Clasico, Bayern V Dortmund, Manchester United V Manchester City special is that they are rare and don't happen often. With how often these games will become, the excitement will fade away becoming irrelevant making the game boring in the process.

With the gap between the richest clubs and the others widening, increase in ticket prices, huge TV deals, a European Super League would really hurt the game in the long run as these big clubs are becoming too big for their own good in finding ways to be more profitable. Football is the beautiful game, we shouldn't make it boring.