As I said in another post, the only leverage UEFA and the respective FAs have against these clubs is banning the players from domestic and international play.
Some players may be upset about that, but at the end of the day, these are professionals. If they can expect a pay raise while playing increased competition week in week out in a new format, they may definitely be down for it.
People keep missing the point. The appeal of the Champions League is just that; the storied and established clubs of Europe battling it out to see who is the best. This format gives them a chance to do that, but in a more complete league fashion. Clubs are businesses. They are only members of their respect FAs insofar as they are contracted to their leagues. There is nothing stopping them from hightailing it and forming a new league. Do you really think a league of the top 20 clubs in the world will not be more watched than a league without them?
By year 3 or 5 of the competition, I do believe it, yes. The reason is simple, only 5 of the clubs so far confirmed for the Superleague are actually considered the best in the world and have global appeal. And what makes them have that global appeal is the fact they dominate in their countries and have storied rivalries there. That's why they get the best player and spend so much money.
Once you take domestic play out of the equation, you take away the illusion of meritocracy for fans in each country.
And most importantly, without a domestic competition, the large majority of clubs in the Superleague lose all of their appeal. Who is gonna give a shyt about Arsenal or a Milan that hasn't done shyt in a decade playing Real Madrid in 2025 when they do it every year? There's no novelty to it anymore and there's nothing that proves those are the best clubs in Europe because they literally wouldn't be competing in their countries. A club like Manchester City became bigger because it started to win in their country, you take that away from them and they become a hollow "big" club because they haven't won shyt in Europe.
That's why they rely so much on UEFA/FIFA letting them stay in their FA's competitions. Without that shyt this superleague will not be a Champion's League 2.0, it's gonna be Entitled 5 Clubs play against each other like it's an international friendly tournament in a FIFA video game. The project can't stand on it's own and these big clubs are betting on being so big that the rest of the continent will bow down to them and let them have their cake and eat it too. If they succeed, good for them, but if they are left by their own devices, they will fail sooner rather than later.
They know they need domestic leagues otherwise it's a mid week circus with no meaning at all.
