“This venal, self-serving plan has not come out of the blue. Ever since England’s Premier League was formed in 1992 – itself the result of an elite breakaway – laissez-faire ownership rules, spiralling player salaries and booming broadcasting fees have distorted competition and corrupted the values of the game. The top clubs have become rapacious, profiteering institutions. From inconvenient kick-off times to ramped-up ticket prices, supporters have paid the price, their interests often being treated with flagrant disregard…

“In a way that the promoters of this schism failed to take into account, the year of Covid has foregrounded the protective obligations of national authorities and fostered a sense of civic solidarity at odds with unfettered market values. In plotting a way forward, the [British] culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, should learn from the example of Germany, where elite clubs are majority-controlled by their fans and thus protected from exploitative owners. Not one German team has signed up to the new Super League…

“After decades of money-grabbing at the top of the game, a new settlement for football is indeed required. But it is not the one envisaged by [Manchester United owner] Joel Glazer and his unscrupulous allies.”
Editorial Board, The Guardian

“Today almost every English Premier League club is controlled or co-owned by as many as 19 billionaires from 10 countries. In Italy, AC Milan is controlled by Elliot Management, a U.S. hedge fund best known for buying distressed sovereign debt. In France, Paris Saint-Germain is controlled by an investment vehicle owned by Qatar. Each has his own reason to buy a club, whether that’s reputation laundering or, in the case of soccer’s American billionaire owners, the pursuit of profit…

“Whichever country an owner comes from, all now agree that an American-style rationalization of the business — and the European Super League is the biggest manifestation of their approach so far — would yield the best returns. The fans, of course, come last in all this.”
James Montague, New York Times

“[This] must be an opening salvo in a movement to wrest control of football out of the hands of greedy suits and back into those of the fans. Without real change, those cheering for the collapse of the Super League are toasting a return to a grim status quo where fans are priced out of matches, rich clubs hoard resources at the expense of both smaller ones and competitive integrity, and football is largely a marketing mechanism and means for billionaires and oil states to launder money…

“This is an opportunity to demonstrate that not only is the brazen greed of a proposal like the ESL unacceptable, but the conditions that created it must be destroyed… Fan ownership would certainly be a start… But it cannot alone hold back commercialization. Instead, fan ownership should be seen as a framework in which bottom-up, democratic soccer can flourish.”
Dave Braneck, Jacobin Magazine