Football is a team sport we all are well aware of. It might be our favourite sport , the get away from the stress and chaos. Most of us would have memories playing the beautiful game with our friends in the streets. Chasing the ball , celebrating after scoring a goal , copying our idols. But sadly today , it no longer stands for what it was created for. Today , it has become a business for the big sharks and it all started well before the dreaded but discarded Super League.

But what is the Super League? The European Super League or the ESL is a new competition formed by the biggest clubs in Europe with a single motive in their back of the mind: Money. The Super League would consist of 20 clubs while offering permanent spots and privileges to the elite clubs. The tournament replaces the existing Champions league which is unable to balance the expenses of these clubs. The rules announced are-

The proposals of the league included 15 founding members which can’t be relegated along with 5 teams which will be selected based on merit via domestic leagues.

There will be two groups of 10 and top 4 from each would qualify for knockout stage.

Matches to be conducted mid week along with the domestic leagues.

But instead of being welcomed by the fans , the project has been met with hostility. But why? The league does not go with the spirit of the game. It kills the chances for the small teams to survive and to spring a surprise defeat against the big clubs. Its not sport if it does not matter if you lose. The league is just a money minting machine as it brings in mindboggling revenue to the clubs. Every week the big clubs playing against each other would bring in huge viewership revenue but it will slowly kill the excitement of two top teams playing against each other. Moreover it will have a disastrous effect on smaller teams as their chances of playing at the top would diminish along with their meagre earnings compared to the top clubs.

Thus , as soon the project was announced , it faced massive backlash from the fans. Protests erupted near the club premises along with hostility on the social media. The Fans made their message clear- NO TO SUPER LEAGUE. They wanted free and fair competition. The FIFA and UEFA threatened to ban all the players and the clubs. The domestic leagues decided to throw the clubs out of the leagues. The European Governments put pressure on the clubs and made their intentions clear against the super league.

In 48 hours , each club , one after another , started withdrawing themselves from the league. The league got postponed as the fans astounded and ousted the billionaire club owners. The fans won as the owners resigned and apologised to the fans.

However , these club owners can’t be blamed for what had transpired. It was something FIFA and UEFA was reaping for the seeds of corruption they had sown. For the past 3-4 decades various cases have come forward exposing the corrupt officials in position of power. The most recent one being the 2015 FIFA corruption case in which officials were arrested for accepting bribery. As time has passed , football has become more of a business than a sport. The ownership of the clubs in the hands of billionaires instead of the club presidents elected by the fans has aggravated the greed for money.

But the recent events of the super league have proved that these officials are not as powerful as they believe they are. It is the fans who hold power and decide what they want from their club. We all must unite to minimise the role of money at the top or the beautiful game which started in the 19th century might die due to the greed of a few.