Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan criticized UEFA on Thursday for adding more games to the Champions League calendar without “thinking about” players.
Gundogan said the new format – set to take effect in 2024 and include a minimum of 10 games per team in the group stage – isn’t much better than the controversial European Super League.
Gundogan’s City withdrew from the Super League project – a 20-team competition that promised to give 15 clubs a permanent spot – after intense backlash from fans, pundits, and players Tuesday. Some of Gundogan’s teammates, including Raheem Sterling, celebrated the club’s decision.
“With all the Super League stuff going on … can we please speak about the new Champions League format?” Gundogan wrote on Twitter. “More and more and more games. Is no one thinking about us players? The new UCL format is just the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League …
“The UCL format right now works great and that is why it’s the most popular club competition in the world – for us players and for the fans.”
Earlier this week, City manager Pep Guardiola blasted UEFA for looking after its own interests and denying teams recovery time between seasons.
“Do they listen when the managers and the footballers say when they want to finish the season and have two weeks, three weeks off?” he said. “And after, start again, start again. There are many injuries. What is the problem with injuries? Absolutely nothing. Another player, don’t play this one, play the other one. The show must go on.”
City, who are still active in three competitions, will play a minimum of 60 games this season.
The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) and the U.K. government are overseeing an extensive review of football in England and Wales designed to put fans at the center of the sport’s governance.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur were set to join the European Super League until they bowed to fan pressure and backed out on Tuesday, triggering the competition’s collapse after only two days.
That particular threat to the domestic game is over, but Tracey Crouch – a Conservative MP for a constituency in southern England and the former sports minister – will still lead the government’s supporter-led review of the nation’s sport.
“What the last few days have highlighted is that football in this country does need a complete overhaul,” Ashley Brown, head of supporter engagement and governance at the FSA, told theScore on Wednesday.
“Crazy decisions such as the European Super League (shouldn’t) even get talked about, let alone see the light of day,” he added.
Brown doesn’t know yet if the government’s review will be a definitive partnership with the FSA.
However, he confirms government representatives contacted the representative body for fans in England and Wales before and after it announced its own investigation. He also hopes the Conservatives’ inquiry will lead to “wider support and recognition from the government” for the FSA, which relies on sponsors and football-focused charities to operate.
Crouch “will do a root and branch investigation into the governance of football and what we can do to promote the role of fans in that governance,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday, according to The Guardian’s Peter Walker and Haroon Siddique.
The FSA’s review, with or without government assistance, intends to look into every aspect of how football is run.
Brown says Germany’s 50+1 rule – which ensures club members hold a majority of voting rights – is ideal as an ownership model, but he appreciates it would be difficult to force into the longstanding structures of English football. Instead, a more realistic aim would be to form an independent regulatory body to oversee the sport’s governance, and also to introduce a different class of shares at clubs, giving fans an opportunity to approve and veto key decisions.
And after the Super League movement underlined the big clubs’ preoccupation with money in their decision-making, it’s clear an extensive look into football’s vast financial chasm is required.
“Why is all this money passing through the clubs into the hands of a few people?” Brown said. “So, of course, we’ve got to talk about player salaries as well, we’ve got to talk about parachute payments, all these topics which have had a detrimental impact on the game need to be addressed as a whole. So, it’s a holistic review that we very much require.”
The use of Video Assistant Referees (VAR) was already under review before the Super League plot arose. The FSA has conducted a huge survey into the popularity of VAR, Brown says, and the Premier League is taking a keen interest in the results.
Brown isn’t able to divulge the outcome of the survey until it’s publicized in the coming days, but he did offer an ironic response when pressed on the FSA’s findings.
“I don’t think anyone would be surprised about how popular VAR is with the fans,” he said.
The FSA’s ambitions aren’t restricted to its own shores. The group is also assisting umbrella organization Football Supporters Europe, the pan-European body that represents football supporters across the continent, in its efforts to shake up UEFA’s operations.
The groups are dismayed at UEFA’s weak anti-racism stance and the reformatting of its competitions that, Brown explains, put “more pressure, particularly in this country, on some of our other historic competitions and their continued existence.”
The FSA and other representative bodies of fans across Europe are determined that the fallout following the Super League’s collapse isn’t over, and the rebuild is just beginning.
The Super League has crumbled as quickly as it arose.
Amid a furious backlash, all six English clubs decided to leave the ESL just days after revealing their intention to join the competition.
Manchester City led the way Tuesday, announcing they “formally enacted the procedures” to withdraw hours before Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea made their exits official.
Arsenal are the only club thus far to offer an official apology to their fans.
AC Milan are also pulling out of the breakaway venture, according to The Athletic’s David Ornstein. Atletico Madrid and Barcelona are believed to be out, as well, according to The Times’ Matt Lawton, though there are conflicting reports about the Spanish teams’ stance.
In the wake of the mass exodus, the Super League said it would “reconsider” the project.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said he regrets “the anxiety and upset caused by the ESL proposal” but felt “it was important that our club participated in the development of a possible new structure that sought to better ensure financial fair play and financial sustainability.”
Real Madrid, Juventus, and Inter Milan would be the only remaining founding members of the Super League. It’s unclear if they will also withdraw, though it now seems inevitable.
Amid the chaos of the apparently failed tournament, beleaguered Manchester United executive Ed Woodward reportedly resigned.
“I am delighted to welcome City back to the European football family,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who earlier in the day encouraged the teams to admit their mistake and change course. “They have shown great intelligence in listening to the many voices – most notably their fans – that have spelled out the vital benefits that the current system has for the whole of European football.”
Response to the Super League has been scathing since plans were announced on Sunday, with fans, players, coaches, national governments, and, of course, the sport’s governing bodies condemning the idea of a closed event. UEFA blasted the so-called “dirty dozen,” threatening sanctions, including banning players from the World Cup.
Over 1,000 fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge on Tuesday to protest the proposed league, which was met with widespread derision when 12 of the continent’s richest teams pledged to band together.
Less than two hours after the protests began, reports started filtering in that the Blues were pulling out of the competition.
Europe’s biggest sides engineered the planned 20-team event to guarantee a consistent and massive revenue stream. The 12 founding members had agreed to share an initial pot worth €3.5 billion.
The Super League was viewed as a Champions League replacement, with teams hoping to continue competing in domestic competitions. But the concept of a closed league, in which 15 clubs would be permanent members, was lambasted.
Fans protested in the streets, players and managers spoke out, and, ultimately, it appears that was enough to derail a plan that top clubs have long held over UEFA as leverage.
Bayern Munich flatly rejected the idea, while Paris Saint-Germain refused to offer support.
“It’s not a sport when the relation between effort and reward doesn’t exist,” Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said Tuesday, echoing one of the most prominent complaints about the idea.
Manchester United’s involvement in the new European Super League was just as much of a shock to players as it was to supporters, according to Laurie Whitwell and other contributors from The Athletic.
“The boys aren’t happy,” a source close to the players said. “They feel exposed by the club, uninformed, and as though the club didn’t bother to fill them in or consult the players over career-influencing changes.”
Those involved with other impacted Premier League sides revealed similar concerns. An Arsenal insider told The Athletic the team’s players were also angry over a lack of communication from club officials.
Additionally, one footballer from a top-six side expressed concern over UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin’s threat that players who compete in the Super League risk being banned from continental and international tournaments.
Manchester United announced Sunday night that they, along with 11 other teams, intend to participate in the breakaway competition, which would rival UEFA’s Champions League.
Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward reportedly told manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer of the team’s involvement just before kick-off Sunday against Burnley, The Athletic adds.
Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes appeared to speak out against the European Super League in an Instagram post Monday, saying, “Dreams can’t be (bought).”
Meanwhile, Manchester United supporters gathered outside of Old Trafford on Monday to express their opposition to the controversial plan:
United and Arsenal are two of six English teams involved in the Super League, along with Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur.