Europe’s top soccer leagues are in a state of upheaval.
Revenue has plummeted as attendance at matches has been restricted. Broadcasters have demanded rebates for games cancelled by the virus. And teams, who in normal times spent much of their revenue buying high-priced talent, retained few earnings for a rainy day that few ever saw coming. Emboldened by the precarious state of the game due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, the business model of the sport is under attack.
The world’s richest clubs are making a play to entrench themselves at the top of the sport, private equity investors are trying to buy distressed assets and lucrative media rights deals are coming apart at the seams.
“Crisis creates opportunities,” says Kieran Maguire, a lecturer of football finance at Liverpool University. The Uefa Champions League, Europe’s richest football competition and among the most-watched sports events worldwide, is being targeted for disruption by a group including some of the biggest teams with financial backing from JPMorgan Chase, said a person familiar with the situation.
Top of the pile
The new tournament would guarantee spots —and with that prize money —for teams like Manchester United and Liverpool rather than requiring them to qualify on an annual basis as the Champions League does. A formal announcement may come as soon as at the end of this month, Sky News said . Details including the list of participating clubs have yet to be finalised and the plans could still fall apart, says the report. In England the billionaire American owners of Manchester United and Liverpool proposed a relief plan for lower-tier teams who have seen revenues vanish as fans are restricted from attending matches.
The idea, however, came with a catch: a restructuring of the governance of the English Premier League to give its biggest clubs an outsized voice in its future direction and a permanent place at the top of that country’s football pyramid.
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