Watching the thumping Barcelona inflicted on Real Madrid at the Camp Nou in the Classico last night, my mind could not help wandering what major football clubs – including Manchester United, has in store for their fans in the next 10 or 20 years. A world wide audience of half a billion viewers – read that slowly, yes, 500 million, was estimated to have watched that game on television, internet, mobile phones and whatever else modern technology can provide. Ask yourself, what else will that same technology be able to offer us in the next decade or two?
Now take a look at the economic opportunities which will become available for the owners of those clubs and you can see why people like the Glazers are desperate to hang on to their money making machines by any means possible. Clubs like United are currently locked into a collective television rights agreement which protects their smaller Premier League colleagues but does anyone really expect that deal to last forever?
The odds are that the big clubs will go their own way irrespective of how much opposition they may face from the Premier League, Uefa or FIFA. United will join their counterparts from England, Spain, Italy, Germany and another half a dozen countries to form their own European Super League. It will be either that or be left behind – and it may happen much sooner than you think.
Can anyone stop it? Can the wind be stopped by simply blowing in it? Just think about the Real – Barcelona game. How difficult is it to imagine those 500 million viewers paying an ultra conservative average of just one pound per head to enable them to view the game on whatever electronic gadget is available to them? That’s just for one 90 minute game in 2010, multiply it over a whole season in a decade and the amount of money generated becomes almost incalculable.
An initial 14 to 18 club European Super League is not a pipe dream, it’s an absolute certainty with the only question being the timing of it. The enormous amount of money involved, the availability of modern technology and the demand from a new breed of football fan is simply too overwhelming.
The biggest obstacle could be people like me and maybe yourselves who grimly hold on to the traditional values football bring to our lives. Reality tells me that we are fighting a losing battle.
Is a European Super League for Manchester United inevitable?
Maybe? But until than we just have to enjoy Manchester United dominating the English game.
do you really think that 500 million will watch that kind of game every week? There is only one reason why all this people watched the game and that is because it only happens 2 times in a year. We already have a super league and that is the Chapions League, the clubs would loose alot of money if they would leave the premier league and champions league just to play in að super league were every team is great, but people would probably grow tired of it after few seasons. The game is perfect now, United is 1.st in the EPL, through to the quarter final in CL and Liverpool is in Euro league and playing like shit in the EPL. You just gotta love it 😀
The following you would expect in the European Super League – Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, AC Milan Juventus, Bayern Munich, Ajax, PSV, FC Porto, Benfica, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea. But a large number could argue a claim to be involved – Bayer Leverkusen? Schalke? Hamburg? Feyernoord? Valencia? Lyon? Marseille? Bordeaux? Borussia Dortmund? Fenerbache? Galatasaray? Besiktas? Sporting Lisbon? Tottenham? Rangers? Celtic? – opposition of FA, UEFA, FIFA – I doubt it will happen.
I cannot really agree egill.The game is far from perfect now. The Champions League does not really get interesting until the knock out stages. Andy is much closer to the mark. Imagine the clubs he mentioned being paired together throughout a home and away season.
No, you will never get 500 million for every match but 400, 300, 200, 100, even 50 mill? That’s a hell of a lot more than you can fit into any stadium. Imagine United packing 75,000 at Old Trafford PLUS such a huge world wide audience for which they get a percentage? That’s an unimaginable amount of money.
Finally, why would people get more tired of that after a few seasons than they would do watching the usual top 5 or 6 clubs in the Premier League year after year?
@Andy just a thought. With two London clubs I can understand your omission of Spurs but why a mid table Liverpool ahead of Rangers or Celtic? One of those two will be a far more worthy inclusion, but which one?
I say this is a United supporter, but any talk of leaving Liverpool out of the equation based purely on this season’s efforts is a little skewered. Like United, it has an incredible tradition and record, and would have to be one of the major teams considered from England, not least because of it’s world wide brand, which is much greater than any of the London clubs, Arsenal included.
No argument from me timbo, only comment is that if Liverpool are to be included then Chelsea has to go. Three English clubs will have to be the absolute maximum unless the league can accommodate a total of 20
Poor article. This has been batted back and forth for many years now. The Glazers have been at OT for what? nearly 6 years and counting? Don’t you think they were thinking the very same things at that time?
To get huge numbers of viewers you need to attract neutrals (the supporters will watch anyway). But neutrals aren’t highly motivated to watch. They’ll watch if its on, if they aren’t doing anything else and if it doesn’t cost them anything. It’s hard to make much money out of that.
Also the figures for numbers of viewers for live football are notoriously dodgy. They usually just count everyone who has access to a channel showing the match. I remember a couple of years back when Sky claimed a ridiculous billion viewers worldwide for some big Premier League match. Some journalist (I think it might have been in the Guardian) tried to estimate the real viewing figures and came up with just two million!
i think it will happen, but it will include the not so big clubs aswell….look….www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oRO-c8cYSA