A century ago, our football took place in regional championships, leagues whose champions (and from a certain moment the runners-up) played the cup in home and away knockout rounds. The winner was the Spanish champions.
The emerging professionalism required more games between the best and for 28-29 the league model was imported from England, all against all. The regional championships were affected and eventually disappeared. All European countries experienced the same process at that time.
After a century, it is time for a change of scale. Today the regional championships would be the national leagues; The cup would now be the Champions League, which only offers a few games from the best for which the model is too small.
This is how the idea of the Super League was born, whose proposal failed because it was a contradiction: a closed group formed by co-optation between conspirators, without promotion or relegation, with 12 permanent members and 4 wild cards (invitations) per year to enjoy the founder. . It failed because Bayern, Borussia and PSG refused and on the second day England’s big six (United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham) collapsed due to the country’s reaction. And then Atlético, Inter and Milan.
(The league was not founded without sporting merit: it consisted of the six who had once won the cup, the three defeated finalists and the winner of a tournament with candidates to complete ten. And it was born with a second division and with promotions and relegations).
This bad project actually helped speed up the inevitable process. UEFA has been giving more space to the best leagues for years (the European Cup started with the champion of each country, now there are four of the major leagues and those from the smaller leagues pass filters that place them in the Conference League or the Europa). League. League), but this uprising and the insistence of American funds to invest in a major championship forced him to quicken his pace. International federations that did not recognize the power of money in time lost control: FIA-FOCA, FIM-Dorna, ITF-ATP, FIG-PGA…
With the ECA, UEFA is refining the idea of three 18-team divisions: Super League, Europa League and Aspirant League. There would be four promotions and relegations between second and third place. Only two between the first and second because the Pata Negra Club didn’t want to take any risks. They are still threatening a separate split if the ECJ ruling, which they expect on Tuesday 18th, contradicts UEFA’s monopoly. And they want their relegation to be decided not by the poor ranking in one year, but by the average of the last three or five. They don’t want a bad season to ruin them.
There are things to solve. Attending 34 European Cup games at the same time would be chaos for the calendar; Their idea would be to split each division into two groups, with a final phase. Then there is the role of the national leagues. It is believed that the title or a good placing in your own league will bring you a cash bonus and possibly points in the Super League standings. Clubs could expand their squad to 34 players to serve the European and domestic fronts.
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