December 18 – The European Super League (ESL) is dead in name only. It’s backer, A22 Sports Management, has proposed an alternative league hierarchy compromising 95 clubs across four leagues.
Branded as the ‘Unify League’, it sees its revenues underpinned by its same-named ‘Unify’ streaming platform.
A22 has applied to UEFA and FIFA for official recognition of its pan-European club leagues and believes that its proposal aligns with the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in December 2023 that a competition where qualification is inclusive and is not a closed or franchised league can be officially established.
“The proposal is also fully aligned with the UEFA definition of the ‘European Sports Model’,” said an A22 announcement. Clubs qualify for the four leagues (perhaps more accurately termed divisions) by performances in their domestic.
If this sounds familiar, it is. This is pretty much the same basis of qualification as UEFA’s club competitions. It appears that A22 doesn’t just want to take on UEFA and its club competitions with a rival league, it wants to be UEFA.
Not surprisingly reaction from Europe’s other leagues has been swift and condemning of A22’s ambition and the danger it poses to the governance of European football.
LaLiga were fast out the blocks with an official response saying: “Once again, A22 has presented yet another model of the failed European Super League, now called UNIFY League.
“A project that threatens the governance of European football by seeking to follow a handful of big clubs for their own benefit, promoting a broadcast rights commercialization model that would benefit only a few elitist clubs and destroy the economy of national leagues. The project continues to lack support from clubs, federations, players, fans, national governments and European institutions.”
The men’s ‘Unify’ competition would feature 96 European clubs divided across four leagues, Star, Gold, Blue and Union.
Star: The top league – would involve 16 clubs, grouped into two pools of eight.
Gold: The second league – would be the same.
Blue: The third league – would have 32 teams, grouped into four pools of eight.
Union: The fourth league – would also have 32 teams, equally grouped into four pools of eight.
Clubs play each other within their groups, seven at home and seven away. Top four finishers in their groups in Star and Gold will qualify for the quarter-finals while in Blue and Union, the top two in each group qualify for the final eight.
A22 also want a chunk of the women’s international game that UEFA is currently investing in, proposing a 32-team competition divided into two tiers – Star and Gold. Each would feature 16 clubs, grouped into two teams of eight.
Bernd Reichart, CEO of A22, said: “A22 is focused on ensuring the sustainable growth and development of football. Our extensive engagement with key stakeholders revealed a number of pressing challenges facing the sport including increasing subscription costs for fans, an overloaded player calendar, insufficient investment in women’s football, and dissatisfaction with the format and governance of the current pan-European competitions. Our proposal is designed to directly address these challenges.”
What isn’t really clear is how much support Reichart has from clubs outside of A22’s owners Real Madrid and Barcelona, neither of whom have a record of philanthropy when it comes to revenue sharing in their domestic market.
What is clear is that if the Unify League is going to make any headway it will have to generate north of the €4.4 billion that UEFA generates from its three men’s club competitions right from its start.
Of that amount more than €3.3 billion goes to the competing clubs. Just over a billion of that goes on administrative costs (€387 million), payments to clubs that don’t qualify (€440 million), subsidies for the Women’s and Youth competitions (€25 million) and €230 million to UEFA to be redistributed to member associations.
A22 has not released any revenue projections or even names of potential sponsor partners. Finding money for new international club competitions is not easy – just ask FIFA. Unless of course you have a Saudi buddy in the wings ready to bail you out. In that context finding €4bn+ is barely a drop in the oil well to own the European club game. After all, they dropped $2 billion on 54 golfers for their LIV Tour without batting an eyelid.
Contact the writer of this story at paul.nicholson@insideworldfootball