Europe's Super League collapses after 6 clubs withdraw
Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland, Brian Sozzi, Julie Hyman, and Oscar Williams-Grut discuss the latest in the Soccer Super League collapse.
Video Transcript
MYLES UDLAND: Busy earning season continues to get underway. But some news this week has captivated investors coming from overseas. And that is the false start, the beginning and now the seeming end of the European Super League, which would have been a new soccer league. Basically bringing together any household name that any casual American fan can name off the top of their head together in a new competition, which obviously broadcasters, banks, probably the players themselves would have all benefited from. But we've seen now the spirit of competition, let's say, went out on the continent of Europe. Yahoo Fiance's Oscar Williams-Grut joins us now. For the latest, Oscar, on the league that was, will not be. But I think in the future, people sort of think, is going to come back in some form or fashion.
OSCAR WILLIAMS-GRUT: Well, Myles, this idea has been kicking around since the late '90s. Silvio Berlusconi was one of the first to try and push this, when he was in charge of Milan. But, once again, we've seen this over the years, whenever it tries to rear its head, the fans, the players, even this time politicians, really stick the boot in to bring this to a close. The European Super League is officially dead today, before it even began.
Huge leaks of this project on Sunday. And it seemed like the most advanced effort we've seen since these ideas began in the late '90s. Financing was secured from JP Morgan, over 3 billion euros. We had 12 teams, all apparently signed up with binding contracts to join this new competition that was set to launch as soon as next summer.
But the messaging, the market research really on this was woefully inadequate. Almost as soon as it was announced, the fans immediately rejected it. Players on the teams who were involved spoke out against it, notably James Milner, the captain of Liverpool, which was supposed to be one of the corner piece teams. We've also seen politicians, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson here in the UK, also they will do everything they can to block this new league, this breakaway league. And then of course, we had football's authorities, FIFA and UEFA both said that players who took part in this competition would be excluded from competitions such as the World Cup and the Champions League. Two of the biggest moneymakers in the game.
Well, because of all this, the idea behind it essentially was to try and secure a financial future. It looks increasingly like it was going to destroy their financial present. So yesterday, we quickly saw this project fall apart. Chelsea, the West London Football Club, were the first to officially announce last night that they were pulling out. They were swiftly followed by Manchester City. And by this morning, all six of the Premier League teams involved-- and accounted for half of the entire teams-- had pulled out. Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid have joined them. And the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid are on the cusp of leaving. Leaving just the likes of Juventus and some of the other Italian clubs in there. So it really has collapsed.
Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, one of the key figureheads in this, admitted today, I don't think the project is still now up and running. Now, as well as this being a sporting failure, it's a business failure. We've seen Ed Woodward, who is the head of Manchester United, resigned last night. Shares in that business are down 6%. While Juventus shares are down 13% today. I think we'll continue to see shockwaves of this continue to emanate out, as many, many fans and investors, like me, are going to be very unhappy with how this has played out.
MYLES UDLAND: Well, and, Oscar, I'd love to ask you that question. As a fan, we were chatting in the break, you're a supporter of Crystal Palace, which is a club that I know as one that hangs out in the middle to bottom third of the Premier League table usually. But, usually not up for relegation. So let's call it a solid, but not elite club. I mean, how did you see this, as a supporter of one of those types of sides? And then think about a world where you're playing basically Arsenal's backups when they do come to town, because they're focused on the Super League? And obviously they're going to have Champions League obligations and so forth?
OSCAR WILLIAMS-GRUT: Well, from my perspective, if you beat Arsenal, you beat Arsenal, and that's always a good day out. I would much rather watch Crystal Palace beat Arsenal than watch however many times, Real Madrid are going to play Arsenal, if we have this new Super League. And it becomes a sort of monotonous, every year they play-- And bear in mind, this was also set to be in addition to the Champions League, in addition to the Premier League. We already have a really packed schedule of games over here in Europe. So it would have been yet more football to watch.
I mean, if I had to diagnose the problem here underlying this, it seems like they're very worried about a lack of interest and uptake among newer generations of fans. It's not necessarily the product that's the issue, it's how they market it, how they sell it to these new generations and get it in front of their eyes. What we've clearly seen over the last 48 hours is these people are not very good at managing press relations, at managing many, many stakeholders, and imaging. They're very good at spending money, raising money, and accumulating money. But I think we need a little bit more than that.
MYLES UDLAND: All right, Oscar Williams-Grut with the latest on the state of European football, we'll say, as we head towards an eventful summer. Euro is happening this summer, if I'm correct. That right?
OSCAR WILLIAMS-GRUT: Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
MYLES UDLAND: Hopefully, hopefully, we'll see. All right, Oscar, we'll talk to you later on.
