What If... the Super League had happened?
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What is the Super League and why did it emerge in 2021?
The athletic FC.
Hello and welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Emma Payton. This is What If, where we discuss the biggest sliding doors moments in football and look at how different life might be on an alternative timeline. This week, we're asking: what if the European Super League never failed? Well with me in the studio today is the athletics Dan Kilpatrick. Hello. Hello. Hello. And we've also got our senior sports news reporter down the line in Matt Slater. Hello.
Hello.
Hello. Um, I mean you've you made your debut last week, so you kind of know what to expect this time round, right?
I did, yeah. Yeah. Um I f this feels like relevant to me because I think the the FIFA plan to to sell off the World Cup, which has been the the biggest newsy thing of the last few months, feels like it has so many parallels with the the super league failure. Um even right down to some of the people involved which which maybe Matt can get into shortly. So yeah, this feels like a very good time to do this counterfactual. Yeah.
Well, so far in this series, we have looked at a multiverse where Pep Guardiola never joins Barcelona, Roman Abramovich by Spurs instead of Chelsea, and Wayne Rooney joins Manchester City. But here are the three major alternative timeline moments we'll be focusing on this week centered around the European Super League, which first came up in 2021. Would it have worked if it went ahead? What would have Happened to domestic competitions and international football, and frankly Would we be watching football anymore if it did happen? Um so Matt, let's let's start with a bit of a history lesson then, which is what we tend to do on this podcast. Of course, April twenty twenty one, this is when it all kicked off.
A breakaway group of twelve teams threatened to rip up European football before the project ultimately collapsed pretty quickly actually in the space of just two days. You were very much across this story at the time. So remind us, I guess, who signed up for it and and how it was all gonna work.
I'm
gonna
I'm gonna take everyone back to the pandemic. Those salad days, you know, happy memories, right? So April twenty twenty one. Yeah, exactly. Um and look, the the pandemic is part of this story, very much so, right? The the clubs were reacting to, you know all the misery around and all the losses, the the the financial losses. So you know, this didn't come out of nowhere. Um but anyway, the idea. Um, yeah, it was gonna be fifteen founding members, permanent members. Uh three of them didn't sign up. We'll mention those a bit more in a mo. But the twelve that did, the the devious dozen or the dirty dozen, were our big six. So Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, those three were very much involved. Um Chelsea Man City and Tottenham, as well as the big three from Spain, so Barça, Real and Atletico, and then three from Syria, so Juve and the two Milan clubs, AC and Inter.
And the idea was Uh they were gonna be si uh there was gonna be a midweek league. Uh starting in August 2021. So we'd if this had happened, we'd be we'd be sort of talking about the sixth season of this. And the idea was they were going to be split into two groups of ten. They play each other home and away, so a guaranteed 18 midweek games. And then the top three from each of those two halves would go into a quarter final. The teams that came fourth and fifth in those two halves would play off to join them in the quarterfinal. quarters and then two leg quarters, two leg semis, and a final. So a maximum of twenty three games. Um here's what they weren't gonna do. They were saying they weren't going to leave their domestic leagues, so they were going to carry on playing at home.
But they were quitting UEFA. They were leaving UEFA's competition. So this was instead of the Champions League, Europa League, whatever it was they were going to be in. So that's the sort of, you know, that that's it. That's that's kind of the big announcement. They promised a hell of a lot of money. So uh the the the 15 were gonna s were gonna share.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the Super League and why did it emerge in 2021?
0:01–8:02
2
Which clubs originally signed up and what was the proposed competition format?
8:02–14:52
3
Why did PSG, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund decline to join?
14:52–21:24
4
How did fans, politicians and governing bodies react to the announcement?
21:24–30:22
5
What would have happened to domestic leagues like the Premier League and La Liga?
30:22–38:36
6
How might the Super League have affected the Champions League and European football hierarchy?
38:36–43:43
7
What would have been the impact on international football and player eligibility?
43:43–47:10
8
Which alternate timeline do the hosts prefer – a successful Super League or the status quo?
47:10–49:27