There is a war raging on for football’s soul and it looks like football is losing

Many expected it to happen the day before, on Sunday the 18th of April. But when that didn’t happen, people expected it to be dead and buried much like everything else before. Or to, at the very least, take longer than it did. But apparently, when one creates a Super League and transforms the entire landscape of an elite sport that is watched by billions while earning three Richie Rich vaults full of money that few can even imagine, timing is of the essence.

Because as potent a statement can be, especially with the icon club flag image, this could very well mean the end of football as we know. The announcement has shocked the world and transformed the opinions for many about their football clubs. Especially those that have been seemingly been created for the fans and by the fans with Liverpool and Barcelona at the top of that list. But it simply didn’t seem to matter here which is partly why people are clueless about how to react.

And yet that’s exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours. Like somehow, being in the biggest leagues, across Europe, while playing in the Champions League on a consistent basis has handed them egos the size of Europe which has lead them to believe that they somehow own football. Football as a sport, that is followed by billions of fans and has about the same number of clubs, is their sport because they’re the biggest and highest earning sides.

It’s what led Arsene Wenger, in 2009, to say “I see more a European league developing over time rather than one team going out of the country. The national leagues will survive but maybe in 10 years, you will have a European league. I'm not sure 100% that I'm right but I feel inside our game there are some voices behind the scenes coming up to do something about that, especially if the rules become too restrictive for these clubs."

The revamped Champions League has added to that with football effectively pointing to the elites and saying, well you kinda sorta run this game friends. Not completely, because you need us to help out, but without you this entire game of football would be nothing but a lackadaisical kickabout. And yet, all those plans over the years have fallen short or been put to bed by UEFA, FIFA and the rest. 

Yet this seems different. This feels different. 

It feels like a monster that has been created by an adoring crowd, through no fault of their own, as the clubs grew and grew in stature. As social media allowed them to measure their status, as transfer fees grew beyond a reasonable limit, as the world kept on watching and watching and watching football even when football fatigue set in. This feels so very different from Project Big Picture and all those other insane plans. But it has still had the same effect.

It has led to yet another war for football’s soul with the European Super League, their founders and everyone else backing them on one side. While on the other side of the chasm, stands UEFA, FIFA, the domestic federations and the fans weapons and tweets ready to be fired. And yet, even then you get the feeling that it’s a hopeless battle. Because after decades and decades and decades of telling them that they effectively are the game, it allows them to effortlessly erase several generations worth of data.

But as the war rages on, as UEFA imposes sporting and judicial bans, as FIFA tries to release statements and helps out things will become worse. Even if the domestic federations, from the FA to the RFEF (Spanish football federation) stand their ground and go ahead with the domestic bans, you get the feeling that those 12, soon to be 15, clubs won’t really care. It seems that the clubs are still willing to go ahead with the plan even if UEFA bans players from international competitions.

And yet, you get the feeling that they don’t really care. But there is a small chance, much like with Project Big Picture, you get the feeling that if UFEA, FIFA and all the rest actually stamp their authority the way we know they can when it comes to money, this might all go away. This could be nothing more than a bad dream, on a bad Monday with everyone hating Mondays forthwith. Blame Mondays becomes the new trending hashtag and not Superleague, FIFA or various other variations of the same thing.

The Athletic’s Carl Anka, in a tweet that has been added below, makes an excellent point because that's exactly what the 12, soon to be 15, clubs believe. They believe that all this is better for the game. That 10 billion in solidarity payments, over 23 incredibly long years that will most definitely feel like a 100 to whoever gets the payment, will make up for the fact that their insane lust for money has created this. The same way Tottenham believe sacking Jose Mourinho will help deflect from all this news.

The exact same way that the founders of the Super League include a club whose owners sought emergency funding, another whose's owners don't care about the club, another who couldn't spend a penny last summer and may not be able to and one club that are facing their worst financial crisis in years and happens to be £1 billion in debt. Plus there's the club owned by the Glazers, a Serie A giant that needs a £100 million by next summer and a club that was, technically, banned from European competitions for......overspending.

And the kicker? It's not like these clubs have actually transformed the Champions League and thus outgrown it that they need this new elite competition. Have Arsenal? Have Tottenham? Hell, have Manchester City or Manchester United or Juventus or Inter Milan or AC Milan? Four of the mentioned teams aren't even in the competition, one hasn't won it at all, one hasn't won it for 22 odd years and the other got knocked out in the group stages.

There are those, especially recently, who watch football because it’s popular and not because it’s filled with an absolute gold-mine of history. But because watching and/or supporting a team like one of the 12, soon to be 15, clubs from the list is actually a status symbol and makes them popular, so to speak. They’re in the millions, maybe even the gazillions and will actually be the supporters watching on as a Super League wrecks the footballing landscape as we know it.

They’ll be doing that and the rest of us will be watching, wondering and thinking about the glory days.  When football was actually competitive, had some sense of integrity and whatnot instead of being “drunk on selfishness and a lack of solidarity” in the words of Javier Tebas, the La Liga president.  All this reminds me of something from the Avengers series, yes the same Marvel thingy that nobody watches anymore.

UEFA and their armies are the Avengers while Ultron and his minions are the ESL. Technically they should both be Ultron and his minions but nobody makes a movie about two bad dudes duking it out against each because absolutely nobody will watch that. Or will they? But that's beside the point because the point is that Sokovia is football and we all know what happened to Sokovia.