The Curious Case of Manchester City and various Super Leagues
By David Crook
Why Have the Football Leaks about Manchester City Appeared Now?
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s the biggest Football Clubs in England met secretly to discuss how they could share out the revenue in the game so that they were able to retain more. They hit upon the long threatened idea of forming a new league of elite clubs. The bodies responsible for running the English game -the Football League and FA made noises that they would crush any attempt to breakaway and threatened reprisals against the clubs. The media talked bleakly about the death of the English game but nevertheless the Premier League was born.
Fast forward to 2018 and a similar story is taking shape. An elite number of European Clubs – mainly being lead by the traditional clubs are considering whether a breakaway league would enable these Clubs to share out the lions share of the TV revenue between themselves. In the background the bodies running the European game threaten reprisal and the media talks bleakly about the death of the beautiful game.
The difference in 2018 is that the path towards the breakaway is murkier than ever. Much like the birth of video cassette in the 1980s when two rival formats (VHS and Betamax) battled for supremacy there are two broad breakaway proposals being touted and both are backed – unofficially at least – by powerful figures.
The clash between these two rival ideas seems to be partly responsible for the recent Football Leaks stories about Manchester City, who seem to crucially find themselves as political pawns in the crossfire. Caught up in some way by both proposals and perennial enemies of the traditional elite clubs, there are attempts afoot to limit the growing power of Manchester City.
In attempting to discuss this there is an inclination to sound like a conspiracy theorist. So I will try and avoid any of that in this blog. Instead I will seek to navigate a way through the story by highlighting the facts unearthed by others.
The Spanish newspaper La Marca published a much more detailed account of the developments surrounding a European Super League and how the main players in this have planned for some time and how it is this battle which may be at the heart of the football leaks. La Marca stated here that not only have the European elite clubs planned a new Super League but rather than the allegations in Der Spiegel where Manchester City were named as one of the founders – the new money clubs are firmly on the outside of the arrangement. Its worth remembering at this point that both UEFA and FIFA are firmly opposed to any breakaway European League, but probably for different reasons.
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UEFA are opposed because it is their flagship revenue stream which would be instantly hit by a European Super League, and UEFA may find themselves outside of both the power structures and governance of the new Super League. Therefore press articles about UEFA and Financial Fair Play are all leverage in the power play going on.
FIFA are opposed to a European Super League but seemingly because their Chief Executive, Infantino has been progressing a rival idea – an expanded World Club Championship. rather than considering some European Super League this proposal creates a Champions League style format which is worldwide. How exciting is that?
That intriguing prospect would be run fully by FIFA curtailing revenue and power of UEFA. So far FIFA have been coy about the considerable investment money behind the project but recent leaks have suggested it is potentially going to be underpinned by Mubadala Investments, which is a sovereign investment fund. Strap your conspiracy theory on now because the people behind Mubadala are detailed here on their web pages.
As you can see the investment group potentially involved in developing an expanded World Club Championship alongside Infantino and FIFA have several prominent board members who are also part of Manchester City. It may be no wonder Infantino said of his involvement in negotiating FFP sanctions against Manchester City when heading UEFA that “We saved football”.
The Football leaks allegations have centred upon the perceived wrongdoings of Manchester City and Infantino and UEFA. The releases have been seized upon by fan boy journalists driven by club agendas and eager to score points and clicks. So the questions about Football Leaks which really should be being explored by any credible journalists are – who benefits from the leaks and who is likely to profit? Whose power may be curtailed as a result?
Related Story. Why Manchester City Can Expect Another Investigation?. light
The whole murky saga of Football Leaks feels like an end game – a last hand played in poker. From this point on, the whole story may just get more interesting and more secretive as the machinations of rivals intensifies. And the goal of achieving a share of the biggest prize money on the planet becomes increasingly all consuming.