Written By: Baani Mehandru
Edited By: Aarushi Bansal
Designed By: Aradhya Poddar
The last few days have been filled with vigorous discourse regarding a few changes that have occurred in football, stirring responses that have changed us completely. Football fans who grew up, attentively watching and taking delight in the sport are now left aghast due to this new revelation.
On Sunday, 18th of April 2021, it was announced that football fans, across the world, had lost the sport and that the game had now gone to the grave. This was a consequence of the new founding football league called the ‘European Super League.’ The league is known to be proposed as a rival to the UEFA Champions League. On the same day, twelve teams including AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Tottenham announced that they would be breaking away from the original football order to ‘change football forever’ but little did we know that this ‘change’ would leave us at a loss of words.
The confederate that binds the players and their teams to this league is, to all intents and purposes, the baby of Florentino Perez, President of Real Madrid who will act as the Chairman of this League. Alan Shearer, the Newcastle United legend, announced, during an interview, that the plans proposed by the league are rather ‘plain and simply wrong’ and that the teams participating in this competition should be banned from the Premier League altogether.
Additionally, a large number of people in Europe reacted to its founding, regarding it as ‘a bonfire of greed’ causing the fans to revolt against this movement through ways we, as an audience, could not have imagined. Fans of Liverpool, absorbed by the anger for their team deciding to join this affiliation are seen burning jerseys outside Elland Road as well as chasing the coach of the team, degrading him and the team completely.
While it’s known ‘Football is for the fans,’ the new league’s formation was without their knowledge and consent. While no consideration was given to their fanatics, the league’s formation has now resulted in the sparking of ideas that could lead to the Super League’s demise. Ergo, it was believed that football was undeviatingly moving away from the people that gave it life.
The brief progression of the League is now taking a turn, leading to its conclusion in its entirety. The disapproval from UEFA, FIFA, and the fans has caused several teams to withdraw from the alignment including Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool, and Arsenal, Inter who bowed to the pressure they received from them within just 48 hours of the formation. United mentioned ‘We will not be participating in the European Super League’. As viewers, we were elated to hear Liverpool F.C give out their message to the world stating ‘This is our collective position. Our commitment to this football club and its supporters is absolute and unconditional. You’ll never walk alone.’ Following these teams, Chelsea and Manchester City have also declared to take a step back from the same.
Despite the mayhem caused by the Super League, the withdrawal of several teams has brought the game closer to the fans. The clubs that have continued to participate in this have received a warning from the FIFA president - Gianni Infantino, who apprises them by stating 'Either you're in, or you are out' demanding them to make their decision about their position in the same. The outcry caused today due to such formations has encouraged us to believe that after 135 years of history, several clubs have disappeared due to their indifference towards the game. Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom declared that he would not permit the formation of such closed groups, threatening to pass legislation that would break the European Super League if they continued to take such decisions.
Finally, in the last few days, it has been revealed that the Super League has now fallen out of action thereby being suspended as a breakaway competition. Since almost all clubs have withdrawn from the League, due to the contract they signed, they’re now compelled to pay a fine of 300 million euros. In addition to the fine, the clubs that were a part of this, are now going to face a 60 Million euros lawsuit by UEFA which was revealed by Gazzetta Dello Sport - an Italian sports newspaper. The project is now being reconsidered ‘in order to reshape the whole project’. Within just a few days, the new hasty league that was proposed by Florentino Perez has rapidly collapsed due to the bellow they received from the fans, the Government of the United Kingdom as well as from UEFA wherein the necessary consequences are being devised for all teams that took part in the European Super League.
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