AS the grubby Super League tale escalated on Monday, with Sky Sports giving the accident and emergency treatment to the story, BBC broadcast a programme that was a tonic for any feelings of impending doom.
The documentary Different League traced the rise of Derry City through their application to the League of Ireland in the mid-1980s and the steady ascent – with the support of their community – to the unlikely position of champions of the Republic.
It finished up with the dream European Cup draw against Benfica, a first-round tie that brought a then superpower, managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson, to the banks of the Foyle.
There’s a romanticism in that tale which just isn’t possible in modern football, and most of the actors involved have come to terms with that.
As it happens, AC Milan and Arsenal, two members of the Super League dozen, have both visited Ireland for competitive games in the last nine months, but that’s a fairly anomalous situation.
Still, the idea that it’s possible is part of the concept of the European football pyramid, even if the growth of the Champions League behemoth, with revenues that have filled UEFA’s cash reserves, has pretty much removed the prospect of David v Goliath encounters.
The European Cup ideal, where the champions of weak leagues could win the prize of a game against the best, is dead and gone.
Arsenal played Dundalk in the Europa League last year but these type of games for Europe's lesser lights are becoming rare.
On the infrequent occasions where these type of encounters do happen, with an underdog progressing to group-stage football, consumers around the world – including on these shores – complain about the one-sided outcomes.
Giving out about turkey shoots against the likes of Ludogorets is exactly the mindset that fuels the belief among detached owners that a paying TV public just want more of the heavyweights, all of the time.
That’s not to defend the Super League proposal which unravelled dramatically on Tuesday night. But let’s not pretend that changes to the club game overseen by UEFA have maintained some noble competitive spirit of football that everyone holds dear.
The guaranteed four spots for teams from the top leagues, while leading lights down the ladder scrap through game after game to get close to a golden ticket, is not fair to the majority of their 55 member nations on a pure football merit perspective. But it’s a massive commercial success that fuels the business in other ways.
Every power grab by the big clubs over the years has had a trickle-down effect on the football food chain. The sense of outrage experienced by the ‘Premier League 14’ is similar to how middle-of-the-road teams in leagues such as Ireland have felt with the playing field having been skewed by the distribution of UEFA money.
This, effectively, is compensation for the Champions League becoming more and more of a closed shop.
At the moment, the champions of Ireland will collect in the region of €800,000 from UEFA for winning their league. This is almost eight times the level of prize-money that is available domestically.
To their credit, UEFA have kept open a number of slots through the ‘champions route’ for teams from smaller countries, but the bulk of them have ended up availing of the back-door route to reach the Europa League (like Dundalk in 2016 and 2020) and from this year onwards, a new third competition – the Europa Conference League – has been sold as an attempt to deliver group-stage football to teams from a greater number of countries.
But it’s all weighted towards the champions, the big fish in the small pond, and while UEFA can’t take blame for the fact that some small leagues have terrible prize-money and little or no domestic TV money, it has happened under their watch.
External owners, such as Dundalk’s American backers, have got involved with the view to dominating domestically and farming most of the European cash headed for Ireland as a starting point, although they’ve ended up breaking something that didn’t need much fixing.
Shamrock Rovers are in the box seat now, with investment from Dermot Desmond aiding their ambitions, but any talk of a peace negotiation, with longer-term implications for the structures of the Champions League, is unlikely to end well for the smaller leagues.
The ‘Swiss format’ adopted by UEFA for 2024 (supported by the FAI) opens the door for one extra champion but it also bends to allow teams in – based on their historical status – and this is heading down another slippery slope.
There have been encouraging reports that a European Clubs Association, stripped of the Super League leading lights, might push back against this, feeling a sense of empowerment from the outpouring of scorn towards the breakaway merchants. But, again, the beneficiaries of this would be the national champions ruling the roost in their own patch.
Either way, the niggling sense remains that the big guns will lick their wounds temporarily and then politely remind everyone of the reliance on their revenue generating capabilities.
In time, it’s more likely that the debate will shift towards appeasing the rebels again, even if this window of uncertainty might kick that can down the road.
What we do know is if there was a move towards a fifth Champions League spot for the top leagues, England’s football establishment won’t be crying for the out-of-sight, out-of-mind small fry. Everton, West Ham, Leicester and Co would be unlikely to condemn that.
After a brief cameo cast as the good guys, UEFA will have to manage that situation going forward. Yet for all the flaws and the hypocrisy in aspects of its posturing, the reality is that UEFA’s continued well-being is important for the silent majority.
Any impact on UEFA’s revenues, resulting from the powerhouses grabbing a bigger piece of the pie, creates the possibility of smaller compensation payments to the have-nots, so there’s a cocktail of potentially bad outcomes if its power is diminished.
This week’s storm would have alarmed the FAI who need a healthy UEFA for funding purposes, and therefore had no option but to send out a statement of support.
If the FAI delegation were asked to do a Riverdance ahead of Congress they’d probably weigh up the pros and cons of saying no on account of their debt position.
Like the individuals who fought back against the doomed Super League proposal, they have to accept that sometimes all that can be achieved is making the best of a bad situation.
