A Brave New World

The Background

Finally after seeing the corporate avarice of leagues such as the EPL[which saw obscenely nearly 50% of all Worldwide total transfer spend in 19/20] and the unfair bias towards the established ‘elite’ clubs in the flagship  UEFA Champions League resulting in the massive disparity between the uber elite clubs and the others, and the gap getting wider, UEFA and the various FAs have taken positive and radical action. The result is the total opposite of the proposed Uefa 7 billion ‘bail out’ which was just going to go to the established controlling elites once again, and do nothing for the struggling smaller clubs. 

Things came to a head with the attempt  by the elites trying to form a Super League and finally the organisations who purport to be about fair play and developing the game for all, but in fact were just pandering to the elites, finally stand up for fairness and totally overall the game in Europe.

The result is a restructured UCL which will live up to its name, its for the Champions of the various leagues only  it will no longer be about being accommodating for controlling  establishment rich elite.

The UEFA Cup Winners Cup and other old comps are revived along with the Europa Conference League meaning many more smaller teams will now play continental football generating more revenue and increasing the lower leagues co-efficient.

Along with this comes a massive overhaul of the tax and sponsorship system, meaning the distribution of wealth is more or less equal throughout Europe[sponsorship/tv deals/prize money are divided out on a more equal basis by the FAs]  and for those who try to bypass the rules comes a massive corporation tax to stop there being mega wealthy clubs in future.

In England the EPL is gone and the Football League structure is back to the old Division 1-4  tier system  with TV deals/prize money being shared out on a more fair basis eg the top division clubs no longer get £100m in tv money it is £40m meaning division 4 teams get £20m. With the total restructure clubs at the lower end can now offer wages of up to £20k a week and the top end £100k so the gap is massively reduced.

Also the big fan driven change is most leagues in Europe have copied the German system and  clubs will now follow the 50+1  ownership structure, with fan elections every 5 years. The day of the sugar daddy is over!! there will be no  bypassing FFP and funding massive transfers/wages for vanity projects and cornering the market with all the best players on obscene wages.

The various FAs also bring in rules so more home nation players [most leagues state clubs must have 8] have to be part of the match squad and stringent transfer changes mean only 1 non EU player can be signed during a season unless current non EU players are released in the top division . There is also more younger players having to be in the match squad especially in  domestic cup games.

Also there is a more relaxed work permit system for lower leagues so foreign players can come in at the lower end if they improve the team so allowing better quality in the lower echelons and a total reversal of the old system.

With this structure in place and with several other changes  to the rankings the outcome is top league/club status level out and so the need for a young player/s to leave his club/country to join a bugger club in a ‘top league’ is now less appealing he will get the chance to earn roughly the same and take part in the major Continental comps by playing in his native country eg the next De Jong /De Ligt is more likely to stay with Ajax than leave for a perceived bigger club the gap is minimal and the appeal not there.  

The outcome is the elite do not take kindly to seeing their massive share of the pie now being divided equally up for all and their power to carve up the young football talent between themselves is gone so they threaten to start up the ESL again….. this time UEFA and the FAs are ready and call their bluff the dirty dozen are banned from all UEFA comps for 10 years and they are demoted one division from their various top domestic leagues. 

The 12 do infact start up the Super League[it is non UEFA affiliated] but with no real investment it is basically a glorified friendly Cup with hardly any revenue the sponsors are long gone.

 The elites without their sugar daddy backers, or the ability to keep buying the top players even when they have massive debts which they were allowed to do previously with impunity has come to an end. 

They will have to re structure and will find themselves having more or less the same income as every other club in their domestic league, and on a par with many other clubs on the continental front, football has called their bluff and is prepared to move on without them if need be, the tables have turned and so it is a Brave New World indeed.

 International changes

In light of the above and trying to get a fairer system in the footballing  World FIFA have opened the World Cup from 2022 to include 64 teams with the respective confederations being able to send more Nations from their various regions so we will see many more countries taking part in the tournament who wouldnt get there normally.

UEFA have also increased the EUROS to 32 teams from 2024 and with the numbers increasing the Nations league has been scrapped in that it is no longer needed to be used as another route to the major International comps as enough European countries  qualify via the qualification groups[the top 2 in every group and the 3 best placed 3rd teams also, meaning 25 go to the World Cup from UEFA].

To replace the Nations league and to have meaningful International games rather than friendlies  comes a Nations Cup format running bi-annually based on groups of 5 nations on current World seeding,  but Group A will have 6 teams.There is promotion and relegation from the groups.

To add some spice there are also ‘fixed ’regional groups with no promotion, including a revamped Home nations which includes an England B team, and a Baltic/Scandinavian Cup to get that competitive local rival edge.

so I will be starting a career  at Wrexham details here https://sortitoutsi.net/content/56871/wrexham-the-deadpool-years 

 but the project here is to report on how the total restructuring of European football plays out for clubs/leagues/nations

In various 10 year sims the following leagues  Serbian SuperLiga the Tippeligaen Allsvenskan Prva HNL Scottish Premier League Austrian Football Bundesliga Swiss Super League Belgian Pro League  Eredivisie  Russian Premier League Primeira Liga  Ligue 1 Serie A  Fußball-Bundesliga  La Liga English Premier League all have provided  finalists in the UCL, and the semi finals have thrown up some very interesting teams

 Eredivisie / Scottish Premier League/Primeira Liga grew to be the strongest leagues  with the  Fußball-Bundesliga proving to be the strongest league overall

Teams like Ajax Atalanta Leicester Dortmund Celtic Sevilla Bayern  have all won the UCL… PSG didnt win it once👍