It was one of those moments when JuventusAndrea Agnelli, president, tried to make it seem that he was more focused on the game than the business.
“If we think about the group stage of the Champions League, all of us can guess 15 out of 16 who will qualify for the last 16,” he told his audience at the Leaders Sport Business summit. “The first two teams in each group of the Champions League are probably written. We want to find more relevant games.”
That was in October 2019 and Juventus — on course for their ninth consecutive Serie A title, twice runners-up and twice beaten quarter-finalists in the previous five seasons — were among the certainties to reach the knockout stage once again. They won five games in their group and drew one.
It was in fact alarmingly predictable that the 2019-20 group stage would be this. By the end of it, all 16 clubs left in the competition were from Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues: four apiece from La LigaAnd the Premier League, three apiece from the Bundesliga and Serie A and two from Ligue 1 — and not a single representative from Portugal, the Netherlands, Scotland, Russia, Turkey, Greece or anywhere else.
It was four per team in La Liga and the Bundesliga, and three for each in the Premier League. Serie ALigue 1 with Porto as the sole flagbearer for Europe. Something had to be done.
Contrary to all expectation, something has changed — at least in the short term.
Last season saw four teams from outside the ‘Big Five’ leagues in the last 16: two from Portugal(Benfica, Sporting Lisbon), and one each from the Netherlands(Ajax) Austria(Red Bull Salzburg). Already this season, Club Bruges, the Belgian champions, has progressed alongside Benfica and Porto. Sporting, Salzburg, and Shakhtar Donetsk may join them in the final 16.
Shakhtar Donetsk was represented by Real Madrid (Photo by Adam Nurkiewicz/Getty Images).
Happy now, Andrea? Hmmm, perhaps not, because Agnelli’s Juventus are among the clubs whose chronic underperformance has contributed to this sense of upheaval. This is also true BarcelonaAtletico Madrid. SevillaThey are also out, adding to what has been a miserable campaign for La Liga. AC MilanAnd Tottenham HotspurNext week, you will face a nervous final gameday.
Some things are more predictable in superclub age than the Champions League. They include the possibility of Agnelli and/or a substitute Agnelli appearing in the near future. Real MadridPresident Florentino Perez will be the first to stand and declare that the case has been made for a European Super League by seeing Barcelona (if they play their cards correctly) drop down to become members. Manchester UnitedAnd ArsenalIn the Europa LeagueBruges and possibly Shakhtar or Salzburg are competing in Champions League knockout stage.
They will refer to the television audience. What number of people will be able to watch a Champions League knockout match, for example, between Bruges or Shakhtar? How many people will be able to watch a Europa League match, for example, between Manchester United and Juventus?
And doesn’t this underline the desperate need for a breakaway competition which guarantees more match-ups between the biggest clubs — and thus bigger broadcast and commercial contracts — rather than a Champions League which allows the remote prospect of Club BrugesWe could take up a place in the last-16 that could be used to go to Barcelona United, Manchester United, or Juventus if we could modify the entry criteria.
Well, no. On the contrary, this season’s Champions League illustrates the absurdity and the gross indecency of the so-called European Super League projectPerez, Agnelli and Joel Glazer tried to inflict this on the game 18-months ago.
Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, is also expected to speak. Tebas will be reflecting on the dreadful campaigns of Sevilla, Barcelona, and Atletico. They have won just three of their 15 group matches. with “state-owned” clubsLike Manchester CityParis Saint-Germain. It would be remiss to say that Atletico scored only four goals in five games against a group comprising Club Bruges and Porto. Bayer Leverkusen, and that Barcelona’s performances in this season’s Champions League have been almost as Over a longer period, they are extremely self-destructive in terms of their financial strategy.
Juventus and all European football are entitled to be upset by the Premier League’s financial power. However, the Premier League has not made them fall behind Milan. InterFrom a position where they were dominant over the past decade, Napoli and Napoli in Serie A. They also lost to Maccabi Haifa twice and Benfica once in the Champions League. To suggest that an underperforming Juventus — or an underperforming Barcelona or Manchester United or whoever — should be ringfenced, on account of the club’s profile or brand, would be an affront to anyone who believes in sporting integrity.
This is what they want. It is why, faced in recent years with a landscape in which the ‘Big Five’ Leagues have become so dominant, their answer was not to make a more level playing field but to try to elevate themselves and their clubs to an altogether higher plain, effectively putting themselves out of reach forever.
While the dreadful ESL project was aborted shortly after take-off in April 2021 — with Chelsea and Manchester City the first clubs to distance themselves from the PR calamity that was unfolding — the threat remains. The ‘Swiss model’ that will be used in the Champions League from 2024-25 onwards is not quite as hostile or as anti-competitive as the ESL, but it comes from the same dangerous school of thought: that business matters more than sporting merit; that, if there is a way of minimising the risk to Manchester United’s, Juventus’s or Barcelona’s business plan, then killing off Club Bruges’ and Sporting Lisbon’s ambitions indefinitely is a price they will happily pay for it.
The argument for business is evident. Yes, it is. But the ESL planned to take the state of European football in 2021 — a self-perpetuating English ‘Big Six’, a big three from Spain, a big three from Italy, plus probably two clubs from Germany once they overcame their ethical concerns and Paris Saint-Germain once their Qatari ownership overcame a few diplomatic hurdles in the short term — and set it in stone for eternity. Yes there would be five revolving “guest slots”, but if you were Newcastle UnitedNever mind Napoli or Napoli Celtic, Salzburg or Shakhtar, then you could pretty much forget about any prospect of competing at European football’s top table. Forever.
That would be quite scandalous. Is that not? Europe has a more exciting team than ever beforeNapoli have assembled a team featuring the young talents of Victor Osimhen, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and Victor Osimhen. Juventus has been making unimaginative signings over the same time. It’s almost as if these clubs have become so obsessed with reinventing football that they have lost sight on the basics of running a football club.
It is hard enough for the richest and most powerful clubs in the world to fail these days. This is due to the financial advantage they have accumulated over the Champions League era, with its prize money and increased global visibility. But if and when they do, there has to be scope for those clubs to fall out of the elite — however briefly — and for other clubs to take the spoils and get a shot at glory.
I fear that Bruges, in February, will be swept aside by a Manchester City, a Real Madrid or a Paris Saint-Germain with embarrassing ease. Such is the difficulty of expecting a club in Belgium — in a city with a population of 117,000 — to emulate their success of the more meritocratic 1970s, when they reached a European Cup final and a UEFA Cup final in the space of three seasons.
It is better for Bruges than to lose the chance they have worked so hard for. The Belgian league wonA play-off round was played. Atletico beat Atletico 2-0, Porto 4-0, and Leverkusen. Finally, Atletico drew 0-0 to reach the finals with two games remaining.
A dubious reward for surpassing expectations in the Champions League is often to have your coach or your top players taken away by clubs higher up the European football food chain. But there must be a mechanism that allows champions from Belgium, Austria, or Ukraine to reach the knockout stage while underperforming English, Spanish, or Italian clubs don’t.
Agnelli spoke in 2019 about wanting more “relevant games”. What he meant — as was made clear by the ESL abomination that came soon afterwards and by the Swiss model which the ECA eventually persuaded UEFA to adopt — was more games between famous clubs, even if the majority of those games take place in an extended league format where, self-evidently, there is far less jeopardy and far less competitive tension than before.
Does that really reflect what people actually want? They might, at least for a few television specials. However, the novelty will soon wear off. The Champions League’s appeal has been seriously tested by compressing the six rounds in the group stage into a nine week period. The schedule feels relentless.
These unexpected and unpredicted outcomes are inevitable in the context (Napoli 4-1) Liverpool, Maccabi Haifa 2-0 Juventus, Dinamo Zagreb 1-0 Chelsea) have brought much-needed drama … of a type that Agnelli, Perez, Glazer et al would happily forego. The jeopardy that led to elimination for Atletico, Barcelona and Juventus is also evident.
Napoli have been this season’s success story so far (Photo: Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
Could the viewing figures be affected by the knockout stages of the competition? Yes. They will, but sport is not about the number of viewers. If, with all the financial advantages they enjoy, Barcelona and Juventus can’t make it to the Champions League knockout stages — and if Manchester United can’t even qualify in the first place — then it shows there is still, thankfully, a degree of unpredictability in European football.
This is what Agnelli Perez, Perez Glazer, Joan Laporta, and all the others find so disturbing. They refused to correct the problem of a Champions League becoming closed-door, but instead embraced it and capitalized on it. It is still a insult to all those who love the game that they would put business before football.
The one delicious irony is that, by taking their eye off the ball and losing sight of what is happening on the pitch, they have given other, smaller clubs a chance to compete — clubs from Belgium, Austria and, Ukraine is a country that can’t be trusted in difficult circumstances.
They have shown that there is still hope for the Champions League format even though they failed. That, without doubt, will be what Agnelli, Perez, and co. shout loudly for change.
(Top photo: Joan Valls/Urbanandsport /NurPhoto via Getty Images)
