I’ll get it out of the way right now, I’m not a fan of the Super League. It stands for everything against what I was looking for when I dipped my toes into the water that was European Football – free reign for clubs to control their own destiny through the their own good or poor choices, and reap the benefits or suffer the consequences. Now that is all out the window. The European Super League is a money tree, and a free pass for teams to conveniently get a do over after years of poor business acumen, and in some cases minimal results to justify entrance into a select club.
Madrid President Florentino Perez said the following, “We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.” I’d be very curious to see the polling and research on what the desires of four billion fans truly are. I highly doubt its a guaranteed olive branch for clubs to earn $4.2 billion in seed money to fund their own sandbox, while continuing to drive the gap between the rich and poor in domestic leagues.
Let’s just call a spade a spade, it’s all about money. So few teams are able to minimize their losses – let alone turn a profit – that the hole just gets bigger and bigger each years. Essentially 15 teams get a “do-over,” clean out their debt, and start fresh with a clean slate. I’d wager a guess that financial incompetence gets amplified to even a larger degree, and clubs don’t really find themselves in any better position. Debt is not necessarily a bad thing, and enterprises need it every day to fund projects for future gain. But debt in football is a slippery slope. In such a slow growth market (from a revenue perspective) there’s nearly no way for a club to not only pay off its interest, but then pay back principal on a loan that most clubs treat like a gift. What’s the only way out? The only way clubs can make legit money, pay off debtors, and at least find some semblance of the black: TV revenue and sponsorship deals. Et voila, you have one of the largest TV deals in history, disguised as a football league, and you’re indebted to Jamie Dimon (what could go wrong???).
The two charts above from the brilliant SwissRamble on Twitter sum up what’s going on. It’s financial save scumming. Clubs with ridiculous expectations have no way to satisfy their debts in the current football economy, and field a club in line with their recent historic success. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but these two graphs above really save you about ten thousands words. If you were hesitant that the Super League was anything more than satisfying bank loans and getting a second chance to move to an exclusive profit generating league (definitely TBD), think again!
What Does This Mean For Atalanta?
Sadly, it’s the clubs like Atalanta, Napoli, and Ajax that suffer. In an age where it’s pick your poison: either balance your books or fight for domestic and European glory; clubs like I mentioned above basically get spit on. Where’s the incentive to practice good financial discipline and fundamentals in coaching, development, and youth building? So few teams have cracked the code, and now its all for naught. Atalanta still should hold its head high. The club has done everything right the past six years, and became a model for success that requires patience, disciplined decision making, and full buy-in from management and ownership.
Atalanta should do nothing different. In fact it can’t. The club never would have reached such heights without their current model of success, and no get rich quick scheme would fix that (except a blank check from a Saudi mogul, which I don’t want to happen anyway). In fact if anything, Atalanta should go more public with their process, beat its chest more on how its been able to achieve the near impossible, and become a thought leader in football operations in this wacky day and age. At this point it is really becoming an us against them mentality, and the more clubs that can operate like Atalanta we can maintain healthy domestic competition, clubs not on the brink of financial disaster, and most importantly good and exciting football.
As the reason behind the ESL starts to rear its ugly head, I’m even prouder to be an Atalantino. Whatever happens with European and Italian competition, I don’t want Atalanta to do anything differently – and as I said before, I would like them to become more vocal on what it takes to be not just a good football team, but an excellent sporting organization. There’s no get rich (or get in the black) scheme outside the world of Jamie Dimon – and we’re not even sure if that’s entirely true yet. So cheer on and support your club – whoever it may be – and let the spectacle backed by good fundamentals come to the forefront. The perfect analogy may be a Dogecoin shiller versus Warren Buffett – who would you rather back in the longterm? Easier answer for me. I’m prouder than ever of Atalanta today, and as always Forza Dea!!!
