Greek Football vs The Super League

Greek Football vs The Super League

By Steve Kountourou 

In light of the recent news regarding the European Super League and the twelve teams who have agreed to join it, almost everyone is completely against this idea. Supporters of the aforementioned clubs have taken to social media to voice their displeasure, anger and sadness that the beautiful game is finally having the remainder of its soul ripped out, all in the name of the rich getting richer and leaving behind the values and the history of what made those clubs and European football so great. 

In its place will be a stagnant uncompetitive tournament with no relegation and clubs who will qualify every season because they have a place guaranteed rather than fighting in their domestic league and earn the right to qualify for Europe's biggest stage. 

But the question I would like to raise is, what happens to the other leagues without a place in this almost completely closed league despite five qualifying places being up for grabs supposedly, for a competition nobody wants to be associated with? 

What are the options for Greek football if everything falls into place, to keep the viewership to keep our football competitive and to a high enough standard and what about a place in an official UEFA competition? 

Well, this week I will hopefully answer these rather long-winded questions with some very theoretical answers. 

The Balkans League 

Firstly let’s take a look at an idea that has been talked about on numerous occasions, a Balkans league. The basic concept would be a joint competition involving the biggest teams from around the region banding together to form their league. 

The top teams from the major leagues like Greece, Serbia, Croatia and Romania would all participate in what would become the primary domestic competition and combining all resources, TV viewership and revenue to create a healthy and competitive league that could maintain a high level of football for all nations involved. There would be qualifying places allocated for European competition, a domestic cup and relegation to the division below. 

 

The downside to this is that it would mean the teams who were previously in the first tier of their old competitions would be forced to play in regional lower leagues, which is a possibility many people would be strongly against and for good reason. Clubs and supporters would not be willing and rightfully so to give up their status as a top tier side in their country and resort to competing in a more international league that is the second or third division while also having to fork out more money to travel to different countries for away matches. The model would work for the minority and not the majority which would make it no better than this supposed European Super League.     

 

Perhaps in a more Champions League-style format, the concept could work much like the old Balkans Cup, with the top teams facing off against one another in a group stage format, with the top teams going to a knockout round-robin to see who reaches the latter stages and then the final. That way it would be a completely international competition and it would require qualification via each nation's separate domestic league. The only trouble with this concept is that there is no guarantee of interest from a more international audience and the increased amount of fixtures would only make an already growing fixture list that much longer.  

South Eastern Mediterranean League 

A more recent idea surfaced in the last couple of months and one that is semi based on an old concept. In the seasons between 1967/68 and 1973/74, the champions of the Cypriot first division would qualify to compete in the Alpha Ethniki and if they were relegated, which almost all of them were, they would return to their native league and the new first division champion would take their place. 

A similar idea has been thrown around in the form of a joint league in Greece with neighbouring Cyprus and Israel. Much like the Balkans League concept, it would involve the biggest clubs from each of the three leagues forming on the regional Mediterranean to compete in. As there would be fewer nations to incorporate different teams this would mean more opportunities for smaller clubs in each country to participate with European places and relegation being added also.

 

There would still be the issue of other clubs missing out having previously played in their original domestic competition and being forced to play in the lower leagues as well as expenditure on travelling to different countries every other week. There would also be the question of commercial viability and how interest will be generated in competition with other European domestic leagues and the Super League. Even if it was solely a Greek Cypriot League and you promoted it internationally to the Diaspora that still may not be enough to tempt people of non-Greek ethnicity to tune into a game between Olympiakos and APOEL for example.

 

European Competition Places

Finally, I would like to briefly touch on the official European competition. Despite the possible expulsion of the twelve teams from the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League this would not free up places for nations like Greece to receive any more advanced places in qualifying or straight into the group stages sadly. That's still down to the improvement of the coefficient via teams performances in Europe. But what could happen is a more level playing field upon reaching a major competition. 

With all of the elite clubs gone there is the theory that if the money is distributed more evenly, anyone could progress further/win an international trophy without any out and out favourites to monopolise the European stage any longer. This could also lead to the quality of these competitions diminishing slightly as well as interest with none of the most lucrative clubs participating. 

But could it be more exciting and unpredictable and perhaps give a Greek team the chance to progress to the latter stages of a major tournament? Possibly.     

All of this is very hypothetical and at the end of the day, we could be talking about how nothing has changed by the end of this week and this was all a massive stunt by the big teams to get what they want from UEFA and FIFA. 

All we can do now is wait and see what the future brings, and hope that if football is to change, it will be for the supporters and clubs sake, rather than for the rich to get richer and profit even more from the sport they stole from the poor.

Hellas Football 

Follow @stevekountourou