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The Champions League Legacy
Published by Ian John on May 12, 2009
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What has been the lasting legacy of the Champions League?
Has it really been good for the game?
A gaze across European Football’s elite divisions will tell you a familiar story. In England Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are some way ahead of the rest, in Spain it’s Barcelona and Real Madrid, in Italy, Milan, Inter, Roma and Juventus. Only in France and Germany this season does it look like things will change a little, with Lyon and Bayern Munich finally being usurped as perennial title winners.
I’m afraid that the legacy for the teams who do well from the Champions League year in year out, has been a large increase in wealth, a large increase in buying power for top players. However what it has done is focussed a great pile of cash on the teams who already have the most. This then translates into entirely predictable and lop sided national competitions, which should be the bedrock of the game.
For many years English fans laughed at the Scottish league and how it was dominated by Rangers and Celtic. The standing joke was that as soon as one of the old firm lost a league game, the title race was over. But is it any different in England, we may have four teams involved most seasons, but usually it is just two of the four and always one of them seems to be Manchester United, one of the richest clubs in the world. In Spain, the days of Real Madrid and Barcelona’s dominance being challenged by the likes of Valencia, Deportivo La Coruna or Sevilla seem long gone. Only Villareal have made an impact of late and they are now miles off the pace. In France for years it was Lyon, the richest club in the country and further enhanced by being the only French team to really make much impact in the Champions League. Same in Germany with Bayern Munich, in Italy, in Greece, in Turkey…
Is this good for the game?
The 1979 European Cup Final was contested by Malmo and Nottingham Forest. What price that ever happening again if this is allowed to continue? You are more likely to see Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafa Benitez swigging beer together on holiday at Butlins, while negotiating the transfer of Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres to Manchester United.
The British Government has suggested that Champions League cash needs to be spread throughout the clubs in the top flight. It’s hard to justify teams like Stoke City or Newcastle United getting £5m extra because of what Manchester United or Chelsea have achieved. It seems unfair. That is because it is. Teams should not forfeit their wealth due to their success. It runs contradictory to human nature.
So how do you level the playing field to make things a little more interesting?
A salary cap? Move back to the old system of one team from each country qualifying for the champions league alone? Television money spread more evenly throughout all national teams?
I can’t see any of the above. For one the power is held by the clubs who benefit the most. G14. Any attempt to reduce their financial pulling power and income would result in a breakaway superleague, of that I am certain.
Sadly, in effect, that is what we already have. We have the super league teams playing in their domestic leagues, often playing weakened teams for league games ahead of “crucial” European games. With squads packed with talent that regular internationals cannot even get on the bench. Young stars cannot get the football they need to develop and other clubs cannot afford to buy players from them because of the huge wages players are on.
The lasting legacy of the Champions League won’t be great football, it will be greed. It will be the lasting definition of the have’s and have nots. It is strangling the life of the domestic game across Europe due to the powerful financial enrichment at the few, at the expense of many. It is an exclusive club and only the rich are invited.
Image courtesy of **popdesign ** at Flickr.com
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Nabyl Charania on Tue, 12th May 2009 2:25 pm
You’re right about the fact that success in the Champions league is an exclusive club, and it appears that only the rich are invited. However most of the games have been exciting to watch, and the finals should be extremely exciting. That being said, point well made that the champions league is not really good for the game it self, nor for the development of players across the leagues who’se teams don’t have the money to compete at the European club level.