The Super League is back again. But will the new ‘Unify League’ ever get off the ground?
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Yet another ambitious and widely unwanted proposal has been put forward to revolutionise the European game. The new Super League idea still has no extra clubs, and now needs Uefa approval for that to change. Therein lies one of the circular issues for the rebranded “Unify League”, that has brought football right back around, albeit with declining interest.
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This is the third successive Christmas that has been preceded by a Super League story – “the annual Florentino Perez pantomime”, as one source put it – after the last two legal controversies. Some senior figures in football even expressed surprise that it took the company charged with organising the Super League, A22, this long to come up with a new format following last year’s European Court of Justice ruling that criticised the governance of both Uefa and Fifa. But then they now have to pass pre-authorisation rules that had been amended before that. Those behind the Super League say they will now formally request recognition.
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As part of fair questions about the governing bodies’ monopolies, Uefa now has to consider any applications for new competitions, based on four tests. They are: administrative and financial; sporting and technical; ethical; sporting merit. The European Court of Justice specifically said Fifa and Uefa have a right to set those rules, in order to protect the game. The criticism was only about the previous version of the rules, not the right to set them. It was seen as “interesting” within Uefa that the Super League movement now accepts it needs authorisation from the governing body as the regulatory authority.
