There have been a ton of strong takes on the European Super League since yesterday, and deservedly so as the concept seems to be universally reviled. Now the supporters are starting to stand up and push back, and really, they are the only ones who can stop this.
If public outrage is strong enough, and consistent, then maybe the breakaway clubs will get cold feet and reverse course. Legally, it does not seem like much can be done to stop them, as the Super League is being underwritten, to the tune of $6 billion, by JP Morgan. It’s extremely unlikely that the New York investment bank would undertake an endeavor that coule be derailed by litigation.
Jurgen Klopp to Kicker in 2019:
"For me, the Champions League is the Super League, in which you do not always end up playing against the same teams… Why should we create a system where Liverpool faces Real Madrid for 10 straight years? Who wants to see that every year?" pic.twitter.com/DHB8HVIKo9
— GOAL (@goal) April 19, 2021
You have to hope that the club owners will somehow grow a conscience here, if/when they realize that no one, outside of themselves, seems to want this thing. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp foresaw this coming, as evidenced by the quote in the tweet above.
Longtime Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger also saw it coming. But today sees the beginning of the supporters fighting back, as some Liverpool fans have appeared outside Anfield with banners reading: “LFC against European Super League.”
Additionally, LFC supporter group Spion Kop 1906 has announced that they, as well as other groups involved in adorning the iconic Kop stand at Anfield will remove their groups’ flags in protest against the Super League.
We, along with other groups involved in flags, will be removing our flags from The Kop. We feel we can no longer give our support to a club which puts financial greed above integrity of the game.
— Spion Kop 1906 (@SpionKop1906) April 19, 2021
Of all the takes against the Super League, maybe Gary Neville had the best. He slammed all the sellout clubs, including his own United, for what they’ve done.
For the purposes of this article though, we’ll just focus on what he said about Liverpool, as he hit them and United the hardest. (full Neville quotes go here)
“The reaction to it is that it has been damned, and rightly so,” Neville said.
“I am a Manchester United fan and have been for 40 years of my life but I am disgusted, absolutely disgusted.
“I am disgusted by Manchester United and Liverpool the most.”
“Liverpool, they pretend (with) ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ (they are) the people’s club, the fans’ club. Manchester United – 100 years, born out of workers. And they are breaking away into a league without competition? That they can’t be relegated from?
“Liverpool Football Club. Seriously? If you go on the streets of Liverpool – I don’t have a great relationship with them, I don’t like them and they don’t like me… but I always thought they were honest, had integrity, they would look after their people and their own.
“That’s gone. Forget that. If they sign that letter of intent, they are as bad as the rest of them.”
As they say on social media, no lies detected.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.