Sometimes the irony of a moment grabs you with memorable intensity. I had been interviewing over Zoom for a part-time warehouse manager for a food bank of which I am a trustee. We were discussing a minimum wage job and the applicants were outlining how sad it was that the position existed in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile in a parallel, incomparably richer universe FIFA were looking to mount a major power grab which would see them form an 18 team European Super League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the banner headline flashed across my screen, aside from the irony that two such disparate worlds exist I wondered if this was the end of supporting Arsenal as we know it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five English teams are allegedly in talks to join the league. The first four are fairly obvious and the fifth will almost certainly be either Arsenal or their historically significantly less successful rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, who have always struck me as impostors in any \u2018Big Six\u2019 of English football. At this stage it throws up a conundrum. Despite reservations about what this might mean for the experience of supporting Arsenal how would we feel to be excluded for eternity from the richest bonanza in European sport? Especially if our place was usurped by S***s a team who have never won the Premier League and who haven\u2019t won the top division for almost sixty years, as the clock on this website will tell you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A consortium of banks led by J.P Morgan are supposedly putting together a package worth around \u00a34.6 billion and offering untold riches to those taking part. If you are included Champions League qualification is a given. Fail to be included and you must labour (if you are lucky) in the Europa League at the very best. Forget any chance of signing or retaining world-class players or ever dining at the top table of European or English football again because the gap between the super-rich and the rest will be huge and will increase year on year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Expect legal battles that will consume years of hostile posturing, provide gigantic legal fees and which will tear the structure of football apart. UEFA will not let FIFA, an organisation that I thought had been discredited beyond measure under Blatter, make an uncontested power grab that would render them impotent and immeasurably poorer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will be grave and understandable concerns that this is all about money and the future of the game will be scarred beyond recognition. But honestly what did you expect as big organisations like the Fenway Sports Group, the Glazer Family Foundation, and of course KSE have entered the English game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Altruism and a desire to see English football flourishing for its own sake was never on their agenda, and for those who bemoan that imagine if you are not able to compete financially because your backers can\u2019t or won\u2019t compete with the very biggest boys. How frustrated would you feel then? It is highly likely that with this on the table KSE were prompted to write big cheques for Aubameyang\u2019s new contract and the release clause for Thomas Partey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But imagine if Daniel Levy with his new super stadium with its echoingly empty trophy room is rebuffed. Do you expect him and all the other clubs slipping off the really mouth-watering gravy train to go quietly? Cue legal arguments that will tie up clubs all over the Premier League for years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will look at Arsenal\u2018s situation in more detail in a second but imagine if you are, say, Leicester. You never expected to be part of a power cartel dominating English football did you? But you might expect to be involved in European second-tier football on a regular basis. Is that a fate they might accept? But would Everton, Wolves, Aston Villa, West Ham and Leeds United accept it? With some of the best players in the world in the Premier League it is likely that the competition will be highly lucrative and glamorous but without the carrot for all but the lucky five of top European football. How could they keep their best players? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What might this mean for Arsenal?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Firstly, which side of the great divide will we be on? Given the European links that Dein and a bloke called Wenger, who is a major player at FIFA now, have forged in the past, and add Arsenal’s international support to the third most successful playing record in English football history…it is highly likely that if we are talking about five English teams we will be one of the five. If it is four then we will definitely miss out to four richer and more recently-successful English clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we are in a European Super League expect sky high admission prices (imagine the cost of around fifteen European games!). It is hard to see how a full Super League could be accommodated in the time available for a feasible season, plus a number of Premier League games! Would there be time for the FA Cup and would anyone in the big five play their first team in it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Possibly the Premier League might shrink but it won\u2019t shrink much (cue more legal battles) so the season might be extended and the Big Five will probably need much bigger squads which they could clearly afford . <\/p>\n\n\n\n Would there begin to be pressure on the Premier League? Might the European Super League try to tempt members to make it a full League and persuade them to ignore their domestic leagues or play a shadow squad in that league? (unlikely if the Premier League retains high grossing TV deals but the real big bucks for TV will come with involvement in the ESL). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The knock-on effects that were predicted for the EFL during the recent putative takeaway \u2018Project Big Picture\u2019 will again be a matter of debate. Will the small clubs become increasingly marginalised or\u2026might people who really like football decide that they and teams below them in the pyramid represent the true beating heart of football? Might this be a necessity if top football clubs court the corporate pound and price out the less affluent fan? <\/p>\n\n\n\n These are huge questions but answers are harder to give when facts and an awareness of how far negotiations have progressed are difficult to come by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For us as fans it is so hard to take a clear position. When I thought that the formation of the European Super League might mean that we would substitute games with Wolves and Everton for PSG and Bayern Munich (which we might very well lose!) I felt as did others on this blog that we would find domestic football more meaningful and accessible. Remember, if we do make the ESL we might languish towards the bottom of such a League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But would we make that conservative choice if we are unable to compete to sign stars like Partey or Aubameyang or if we find that Bukayo Saka and his ilk will not extend their contracts because they want to play in the ESL? While the ESL exists you want and need to be in it. If the plans are scuppered we could imagine a decent future without it but money of this magnitude provides a momentum that is irresistible. The genie is out of the bottle as far as reorganisation of European football is concerned and the money men will not be denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those who care deeply about the soul of English football (and this includes me) this is a sad day even if it is a day that provides a possible profitable watershed in Arsenal football history. And if we are not part of the plans that will reshape the game, our great club will be marginalised, possibly for ever. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes the irony of a moment grabs you with memorable intensity. I had been interviewing over Zoom for a part-time warehouse manager for a food bank of which I am a trustee. We were discussing a minimum wage job and the applicants were outlining how sad it was that the position existed in the first place. 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