It is a measure of English football’s cultural weight that during the brief life of the European Super League, even BBC Radio 4’s Today programme became host to a rare critical discussion on the power of the global super rich. It was striking to hear Justin Webb, the sometimes insufferably complacent presenter, challenge the culture secretary Oliver Dowden not just on billionaire owners, but on what could be done to give fans more of a stake in their clubs.
The uniqueness of this situation, and the possibility it opens up for a wider debate about social forms of ownership, should not be missed. To see how unusual this is, look at Spain, where the response of both press and public to the planned ESL was at best indifferent and at worst collusive – like the obsequious coverage accorded Real Madrid’s president, the conservative construction magnate Florentino Perez, who offered a defence of the ESL (“It will save football”) that was intellectually threadbare and transparently self-serving. Fans of Barcelona and Real Madrid seemed either enthusiastic or resigned to the enterprise. There was certainly no organised protest among fans of the clubs planning to breakaway, nor a social media storm from the wider football and political world. In England there was both.
Large-scale protests were held at Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United – where, notably, fans stormed the pitch before a game with Liverpool – demanding not only the end of the ESL but the departure of their clubs’ proprietors. Gary Neville’s sustained, impassioned anger on Sky Sports was emblematic of a wider dismay and fury among mainstream football media, players at leading clubs, and fans of all kinds, joined by city mayors, local councillors and MPs.
