Angelus News | May 7, 2021 | Vol. 6 No. 9

The dream
lives on
Could the quick collapse of an
ambitious European soccer ‘money
grab’ be an encouraging sign for
the pope’s economic vision?
BY CHARLES COLLINS
LEICESTER, England — It was
the strangest two days in world
sports. Late on Sunday, April
18, 12 of the biggest soccer teams in
Europe announced they were forming
a “Super League” and would compete
against one another — and a few select
other elite teams — every year.
By Tuesday, the whole thing had
collapsed.
Although such a format would be
familiar to most Americans — it is how
all professional leagues work in the
United States — it would have turned
European soccer upside down.
Soccer is based on promotion and
relegation. Each nation has a league
Fans of Chelsea Football Club protest against the
European Super League April 20 in London. | ROB
PINNEY/GETTY
pyramid, and the worst performing
teams drop a level after each season,
replaced by the best performing teams
from the lower-placed league. It would
be like if, depending on their performance,
the Columbus Clippers and
Sacramento River Cats had the chance
of replacing the Texas Rangers and
Pittsburgh Pirates in baseball’s American
and National Leagues.
What that means — at least in theory,
let’s say — is that a team playing in
the equivalent of a Class AA baseball
league could win the World Series in
three years.
In the current format, the best performing
soccer teams in each European
league then play one another the
next year in the Champions League,
considered the most competitive annual
soccer tournament in the world.
What these dozen teams decided to
do was leave this system behind —
they wouldn’t have to qualify to enter
the European tournament anymore,
because they couldn’t be relegated
from the Super League.
The teams were England’s Manchester
United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Totten-
18 • ANGELUS • May 7, 2021