The world has been abuzz with sports news over this past week as information around the European Sports League emerged – six of the biggest football teams in the UK combined with three teams from Italy and three from Spain had the aim of creating their own invite-only league in a bid to change the way European competition was held as it had been long suggested that the current approach needed improvement, it certainly wasn’t something that many fans were hoping for however as huge backlash led to all of the big teams pulling out before the league would ever get underway.
To many, it may not be surprising how big of a backlash there had been given how popular football is across a much wider market around the world, particularly with emerging betting markets like this WV online sports betting for example that have a vested interest in European football, but also raises the question now for many of whether or not the ESL is dead in its tracks, or whether there’s possibility for it to emerge once again?
(Image from skysports.com)
From the language given in the statement by both Real Madrid and Juventus, the two big clubs largely responsible for pushing the ESL forward, it seems as if it will take a back seat for now but neither are done with pursuing better options for competitive European football – there’s also the matter of the JP Morgan huge multibillion dollar investment showing just how wrong they had got things with the backing – it’s unlikely any legal recourse will be popular, and the bank is certainly suffering from all of the negative press around the choice that had been made.
There are now certainly calls from many fans to expect more from their teams – some feel the explanations and apologies offered out weren’t enough for what the plan had been with teams like Manchester United taking a big brunt of this follow a short one sentence statement on how they had pulled out of the ESL, whilst there are some suggesting that the quoted reason of fans being part of the equation were never considered, it’s tough to say that the huge backlash given wouldn’t have at least swayed some minds even with all of the money on the line. For many the lesson to take away from this shouldn’t just be that it was a failed venture, but instead a failure to understand modern football and what fans alike are looking for from the sport, as mentioned given this likely won’t be the last push to create something similar, there will be many paying much closer attention to how changes may be implemented, and whether it will just be the same package as the ESL but dressed up differently to see it slipped past the fans once again.
