Told Ya So: The European Super League's Incredibly Stupid Attempt to Establish A Football Aristocracy (Cafe Society Quick Bite #7)
Dukes, Counts & Barons went out of style decades ago. Someone should have told the billionaire football team owners.
Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s weekly magazine on the intersection of community and society — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team. Maxwell is building a new type of social club.
I’m risking making this a blog about soccer/football but the boneheaded attempt at forming a European Super League (ESL) was just too good of a “teachable moment” to pass up.
Two weeks ago I wrote about how the differences in European soccer vs. American soccer fosters a much better sporting community:
. . . perhaps one of the reasons why soccer culture around the world is so strong is the participatory nature of it, the dream that your local team could one day play in the Premiere league, inspires more lower division engagement, local rivalries and enhanced tribalism. The opportunity for your team to advance and the risk of relegation creates real stakes, a local villain, and gives real purpose to being a fan.
Apparently the teams that formed this Super League don’t read my blog (shocking!) because a few days ago they did what will go down as one of the most out of touch and bone-headed moves in the history of sports — they attempted to form a sports aristocracy, anointing themselves as the landed gentry, the Barons, Dukes and Counts, of European football, power forever engrained…
Have a great rest of the week!
David (@dlitwak) & The Maxwell Team
