By Kristian Lovstad
On Sunday the 18th of April, twelve of Europe’s premiere clubs announced that they were distancing themselves from UEFA’s competition format to pursue their own ‘Super League’. This was set to be a midweek competition and would replace both the Champions League and the Europa League.
Among these clubs, were the 6 most prestigious clubs in England. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham were all set to join this Super League, as social media posts from the clubs’ official accounts confirmed.
“We have seen their true colours now.”
(Liverpool Supporter)
Immediately, though, we saw supporters express their negative thoughts towards the clubs and their involvement in this proposed Super League.
Over the next few days, both Liverpool played Leeds and Chelsea played Brighton, and even though fans are still not allowed in the ground, they came together outside the stadium to protest against the clubs and their owners. The same happened outside the Emirates, even though Arsenal were not playing that day.
It did seem to have an effect though, as just two days later, on the 20th of April, all six English clubs announced that they were withdrawing from the project.
We spoke to supporters of these clubs, and they were pretty much all in agreement that even though they were happy about the Super League being discontinued (for now at least), they had lost trust in the owners of the clubs.
One of the Liverpool fans said, “we have seen their true colours now, and this whole procedure has made us feel more like customers than supporters.”
Even if that is the case though, it is clear that fans are still hugely important. If that hasn’t been proven enough over the last year when stadiums have been empty, and the supporters haven’t been able to cheer their team on, it has been made even clearer now.
The fans were able to disrupt a billion-pound project because they all came together and fought against something they believed to be bad for the sport they all love. As has been said many times before, football is nothing without fans.