You say you want us to stream your games, buy your merch and come to your pre-season friendlies, but then you ridicule us for suggesting that you might like to try one of our fan-friendly all-star games, and then you get all “coming over here, stealing our clubs” about us investing in your league.
Are you really interested in us or just want our money?
American fans of European football could be forgiven for thinking they’re getting mixed signals from the object of their affection at the moment.
And European football is at it again this week, batting its eyelids, laughing at America’s jokes, saying it might be willing to play Champions League games outside Europe.
This one, like all good courting rituals is full of codes.
“Outside Europe”, for example, really means the United States. Because, as ever with European football, this relationship is fundamentally about money and there are three main “outside Europe” destinations that will provide the type of cash the big clubs get out of bed for: 1) the Middle East 2) China and 3) the US.
Options 1 and 2 are somewhat controversial. Option 3 is the one that just increased by 150% the amount it will pay to broadcast/stream Champions League game. It is also staging most of its games at the 2026 World Cup. A tournament that is expected to break all records in terms revenue, audience, and profits.
So, when UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA, the big clubs’ talking shop) say they might take some on the road, they mean American roads.
The big question is which games?
One idea: According to The Athletic’This week, s Adam CraftonThe idea is to possibly move a group-stage or two to Los Angeles or New York City, depending on how the occasion will be handled.
This is the latest iteration of the spitballing that UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin started last year when he told French sports newspaper L’Equipe that he was “a fan” of the idea of staging two single-leg semi-finals and a final in a Champions League “final four” week.
The Champions League and Champions League were the last two competitions UEFA held in 2020. This was the catalyst for this idea. Europa LeagueIn August, a very small window was available. Both tournaments reached the quarter-final stage with a possible last-16 game. COVID-19 intervened in March.
Everyone wanted to start the 2020-21 season on schedule, so UEFA eliminated the home/away format for the quarter-finals and semifinals. Instead, the Champions League was completed in Portugal in 12 days and the Europa League in the same period in Germany.
Because the games were held in empty stadiums there was no concern about crowd trouble, accommodation costs, or high-cost tickets for visitors. The tight schedule and high stakes made it a great television program. Players seemed to like the convenience of not having to travel as much. This was evident in their positive feedback.
Ceferin was certainly impressed by it., UEFA’s commercial department and Team Marketing, the Swiss agency UEFA has used to sell the Champions League around the world for 30 years.
Of course, a final eight meant dropping six games — four second legs in the quarter-finals and two in the semis — which is a lot of lost content for broadcasters and missing ticket revenue for the clubs.
What about a final four? All of them held over the course of a week in a major urban center? This sounds like a lot. There are many ticketed events and hospitality opportunities. It also creates buzz and jeopardy. Which broadcaster, sponsor, or club accountant doesn’t love all of that?
However, nobody really ran with Ceferin’s idea until April this year when his new best friend forever, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Telled The Athletic he was a “final four” fan, too. If the name means little to you, Al-Khelaifi is the chairman of UEFA’s broadcast partner in the Middle East and North Africa, beIN Sport, president of Paris Saint-Germain, chairman of the ECA and a member of UEFA’s executive committee (ExCo). He also runs Qatar’s tennis federation and is a big player in padel, too. He is very important.
Real Madrid celebrates victory over Liverpool at the Champions League finals in May (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images).
Anyway, a few weeks later, British newspaper The Times reported that the “final four” idea was gathering momentum among football’s powerbrokers and a formal proposal was in the offing.
Five months later, we still wait for the plan to emerge. It is not surprising that ideas are gaining momentum in European football for a long time. Since the 1950s, people have been talking up the idea of a European Super League. We don’t like to be rushed.
We now reach this week’s UEFA ExCo meeting and the next round ECA meeting. UEFA’s gathering is on Tuesday on the Croatian island of Hvar, and the ECA holds its autumn gathering on Thursday and Friday in Istanbul’s poshest hotel. These guys are tough.
You will not find “final fours” or moving Champions League group-stage games to Miami on the official agendas of either meeting — that is not how these things tend to happen. In fact, a ring-round of some of the decision-makers at these meetings suggests we are still very much at the “just an idea” stage for both projects.
America, sorry, but Champions League games will not be happening in American stadiums. We do not know how long it will take, as we have not yet begun to talk about this with European fans. Major League SoccerWhy it should allow a larger, foreign competitor to stage competitive games on its territory. This last conversation may take some time.
While you wait, we can offer you an alternative. It combines the excitement of a final four with the famed, successful teams trying to win both a trophy AND a cash prize.
Can we? Great, have we told you about our new “Opening Tournament”? It will be a joy to watch and, more importantly, it will replace the UEFA Super Cup which European fans only care about if their team is there.
Harsh? You are so rude! Real MadridOr Eintracht Frankfurt can remember the score of last month’s Super Cup or where it was played?
To keep you from opening another browser, it was 2-0 Real and the game took place in Helsinki in front of 31,000 people. That was three times as many who crammed into Belfast’s Windsor Park for the 2021 edition between ChelseaVillarreal.
UEFA’s early-season showpiece between the previous season’s Champions League winner and Europa League champion has also been staged in Trondheim, Skopje and Tallinn in recent years. They were all fine cities. However, none of these matches generated much shareable content. This writer did not see the opening ceremonies or half-time performances.
So we now have a contest which has a time slot but isn’t doing much. We also have an appetite for more football from our most important growth market.
Why don’t we trial the idea of “final four” week by adding the winner of the Europa Conference League to the mix — thereby providing another great platform and earning opportunity to the ECA’s middle-class clubs — and perhaps even invite the MLS champion to add some competitive edge to the proceedings?
See, there’s an idea that could fly.
UEFA must also keep in mind that it cannot fill this space without meaningful content. This is its fierce rival FIFA will.
The game’s global governing body already has a North American World Cup to look forward to and is desperate to add an expanded Club World Cup to its inventory of sellable content. A tournament to determine the club world champion is a great warm-up event. It would also make a great legacy event.
The broadcast and commercial agreements are locked down until 2024. This means that we are only two seasons away from seeing this or any similar event. We will be all over you in private but then cool in public; we won’t answer your calls but we’ll pop up in your socials.
Don’t mistake this for lack of interest. Our big clubs just want to be the best. And as the film that also gave us the phrase “show me the money” put it, you had them at hello.
(Top photo: Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
