City football fans divided over European Super League

Kolkata is known for its football craze. Be it East Bengal or Mohun Bagan or matches involving Brazil and Argentina, Bengalis just need a reason to take sides and get into lengthy debates. So at a time when the entire football world stands divided by the European Super League (ESL), how can Kolkatans stay away? So, not just on social media football fan clubs and enthusiasts are getting into heated discussions on the issue.
The ESL has been started by the 12 most celebrated football clubs across the world and these clubs get to be a part of the tournament just by virtue of their popularity. And this is exactly why Kolkata football fans are irked. In fact, the announcement of the league has been met with heavy backlash from across the world.

Viv Sarkar, one of the founding members of the social media group, Football is in Our Blood, said if ESL takes place, then the basic concept of the sport – competitiveness – will die. “In the tournament, the 15 founding clubs will be competing on a permanent basis without relegation. The competition will be over,” he said. Sayantan Mukherjee, another football enthusiast and a diehard FC Barcelona fan, agreed and said without the relegation system, it’s likely that players won’t put much effort and the entire art of football will take a beating. “If Barcelona plays in the tournament, I’ll stop supporting the club. Football is above any club,” he said.


Besides fears about the quality of the sport taking a hit, the supporters are not happy with the system of choosing the clubs. The fact that the owners of the 12 clubs decided among themselves to play in the tournament is making football fans cry foul and call it ‘elitist’ and ‘exclusionary’. “In the entire system and planning, the owners didn’t think it was important to inform the players, managers and other stakeholders. Besides, the entire format is not at all democratic and that’s why it is against the spirit of football. This is extremely unfortunate,” said Soumabha Saha, who runs an East Bengal football fan club and is a fan of Real Madrid FC.
Besides, several clubs like Leicester City FC and Roma Napoli Lazio, which have been playing really well in club football in the past few years, have not been included in the ESL. “This is because these clubs are not very popular worldwide and might not be able to attract viewers and advertisers like the elite ones. This is unfair, if not criminal,” Viv said.

The supporters of the ESL, however, are not ready to accept these arguments. They said without the relegation, the sportsman spirit of football will come back and the players will not get into cutthroat competition. “If you ask me, this is a win-win situation for all. If this tournament starts, which seems highly unlikely now, there will be different football for all to see,” said Anweshan Thakur, a Real Madrid fan.
Faraz Ali Khan, a football fan for 19 years, doesn’t agree with the logic that ESL is only for making money. He said for several decades, club football is being commercialised and it’s nothing new. “Spanish Super Cup has been happening in Saudi Arabia and the Supercoppa Italiana is being played outside Italy for the same commercial reasons. Now, we are feeling scandalised with ESL because they wanted these commercial changes overnight. But I think these changes are inevitable,” he said.