Economic research contradicts European Super League backers: Closed or semi-closed leagues would fail in Europe
PR | Jean-François Brocard, associate professor and economist at the Center for Law and Economics of Sport, University of Limoges.
European sports have already witnessed commercial companies establish new leagues, but they did not succeed, writes Jean Francois Brocard, associate professor and economist at the Center for Law and Economics of Sport, University of Limoges.
“We cannot expect a private company to take into account the public nature of sport, to the detriment of the development of grassroots,” writes Mr. Brocard.
Why it matters: Europe’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (CJEU), is holding back on publishing a full judgement on the case brought to it by organisers of a proposed European Super League (ESL) until after the summer.
The perspective: There is a mistaken belief that the closed formats of the North American professional sports leagues would work the same in Europe. Importing the North American model does not automatically mean importing the profitability.
9 August 2023 - 3:17 PM
Those plotting a proposed Super League for European football have been very vague from the beginning and have changed their arguments several times already. Ironically, their one consistent claim has been that a Super League would generate higher revenues than the current system, but even this is incorrect because there is extensive economic research that shows how closed leagues and semi-closed leagues are rarely profitable in Europe.
When 12 European football clubs unsuccessf
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