UEFA, Governance, and the Control of Club Competition in ...

more successful clubs. Whilst elements have been introduced into the competitive system whichhave constrained the ability of clubs from smaller nations to qualify for competition, it remains thecase that sporting merit determines participation in European club football. the principle of sportingmeritocracy is so ingrained in the cultural of European football, that any divergences from that willbe highly unlikely in the future.ii. Two leagues or super leagues? Determining the futureIf a closed European super league is a distant prospect, how can we expect the structures ofEuropean competition to develop in the future, and what will determine change? The rationale andthe force of the free market will clearly play a defining role, but such a role cannot be looked at inisolation from the existing organisation of European sport. It is worth reflecting initially on thedesirability of change. What do we want from European competition and what should be thedeterminants of change? It seems that voices from all ideological positions agree on at least onething, and that is the desire for a greater degree of equality in competition. 19 The disagreement liesin how to achieve that. One economic approach argues that greater equality should be achievedthrough more redistribution of income within leagues. The alternative economic approach is toallow clubs of similar economic weight to compete more regularly with one another, which wouldinvolve restructuring of leagues. We have already argued that greater redistribution is politicallydifficult to achieve, which means that leagues would continue to be similarly unbalanced. But moreimportantly one has to ask – would greater redistribution actually achieve that? Interestingly, whilstacademics have debated the impact and importance of declining competitive balance,representatives from across European football have played down the growth of that imbalance:In any league at any time, there’s always been three or four clubs at the start of the seasonwho are probably going to win it. Liverpool dominated in the seventies and eighties. Now Isuppose the argument is that a Forest and Derby are going to find it harder to come throughand I tend to agree that it is going to be more difficult to see in the future (David Gill, chiefexecutive, Manchester United FC, personal interview, 28 th January 2005).I think it’s a fallacy to suggest there’s a huge change. If you look at Liverpool’s dominance inthe 70s and 80s, that was pretty all-powerful and comprehensive. So is it radically differentnow? The Champions League to an extent hasn’t helped, because in absolute terms – ofcourse people talk about the gulf between the Premier league and the Football League – but inabsolute terms the growth between those in the Champions League and those not is bigger…You’ve still got a situation in England where on any given day, any team in the PremierLeague can lose (Rick Parry, chief executive, Liverpool FC, personal interview, 17 th February2005).Such interpretations clearly, perhaps deliberately, underplay the competitive transformations inEuropean football. Whilst Gill and Parry acknowledge both the impact of the Champions League,and the declining ability of previously successful clubs to compete at such a high level, it suits theelite clubs to underplay the significance of the transformations, as that serves to legitimise theircontinuing dominance of the competitions in question, and undermines the calls for greaterassistance to the smaller clubs. However, their point does remain valid. One can talk aboutdeclining competitive balance, but one also has to accept the reality that competitive balance hasnever been a defining of objective of European football. This can be explained by the nature of the19 Whilst greater equality is desirable, complete equality is probably not. Supporters as well as wanting to see a faircontest also take into account other factors, like the desire to be associated with a winning team, or indeed the desire tobe associated with a smaller team. Similarly, it may be the case that some competitions, such as the FA Cup, derivemuch of their appeal from ‘inequality’ and the prospect that a smaller team may come up against and defeat a largerteam.43