Cometh the hour, cometh a breakaway football competition that is, essentially, a revised version of the failed European Super League.
A22 Sports Management, a Spanish company created at the behest of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, were the agency behind the original ESL proposal in 2021, which – while supported by numerous clubs across the continent – was shot down by fans and UEFA.
Bloodied but unbowed, A22 have now returned three years later with a modified version of the European Super League: the Unify League.
The concept is even more bonkers than the ESL, with teams split into four ‘branded’ divisions and playing 14 home and away games, before potentially qualifying for a two-legged knockout phase.
And even more of a headscratcher is that A22 want to give the games away for free, offering up live broadcasts to fans without any charge.
So can the Unify League really work without a viable revenue stream? And will Europe’s elite clubs want to be a part of it?
The Unify League Explained
One of the issues with the European Super League was that its founders wanted to ringfence places in the competition for the biggest clubs… irrespective of their performance in their domestic leagues.
That was one of the main reasons that the ESL was a damp squib from the get go, and so A22 have decreed that the Unify League will be a meritocracy, with clubs qualifying based upon how they fare domestically.
The men’s version of the Unify League will be made up of 96 teams, with two divisions of 16 – called Star and Gold – plus a further two divisions of 32, called Blue and Union.
📣NEWS: Today, we submitted our proposal for official recognition of a new European competition to UEFA and FIFA: introducing the Unify League, with modified qualification system based on domestic league performance.https://t.co/M72nhYtJ2o
Watch CEO Bernd Reichart explain: pic.twitter.com/yN81V5NVcI— A22 Sports (@A22Sports) December 17, 2024
Within those divisions, clubs would be split into groups of eight, playing each of their opponents home and away in a round robin format.
The best-performing sides in each group would qualify for a straight knockout phase, with two-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals followed by a one-off final.
It’s a format that would guarantee each club 14 games, which is one of the reasons why the Champions League was expanded prior to the 2024/25 season; the idea is that the best teams in Europe will play against one another more often.
But such a schedule would put increasing pressure on the welfare of players. A Premier League player, if competing in the Unify League as well as domestic cup competitions, could be required to play more than 50 games per season… not conditions that are conducive to them performing at their best week in, week out.
How Would the Unify League Be Financed?
More games means more money, right?
That’s true, in the sense that clubs sell more tickets and have other revenue streams on matchdays too.
But the Unify League, according to A22, would be built upon a unique foundation: it would be free to watch its games via a dedicated streaming service. Yes, there would be adverts to sit through, although there would apparently be a ‘paid-for’ version that is ad-free.
For the humble football lover, that is great news. But for the financial sustainability of the Unify League, you wonder how that can really work as a model. For context, UEFA sold the broadcast rights to the Champions League for £917 million back in 2022.
And the Premier League, meanwhile, agreed a mammoth broadcast deal with Sky and TNT Sports worth £6.7 billion back in 2023.
So can the Unify League really be financially sustainable with a free-to-air model that leaves so much money on the table?
What are the Perks of the Unify League?
If the Unify League can pull off a free-to-air streaming platform, it would be a major coup for fans.
Quite whether the major clubs would be excited to be crowned champions of the Star League or not remains to be seen, but you suspect that A22 are working on a package that would make the Unify League financially agreeable to them all the same.
How that would be financed, however, is another matter entirely…
According to A22, the Unify League would be ‘better for fans, players, clubs, domestic leagues and grassroots football.’ Supporters will get to see some of the world’s best players for free – a rarity these days, but how will it be better for players and their clubs, in reality?
The A22 website reckons that the Unify League will create less of an imbalance in domestic leagues, with a ‘broader base’ of strong domestic clubs. That’s a point that can be easily argued, since its only the best-performing sides that will have access to the Unify League.
As for grassroots football, A22 have commented:
“The new Unify League proposal will increase solidarity payments for grassroots and non-participating clubs to 8% of league revenues with a minimum payment of €400 million (£330 million), exceeding the amount distributed from the current pan-European competitions.”
Will the Unify League Actually Happen?
This is the million dollar question.
If the clubs invited to participate in the European Super League had had their way, that competition would already be up and running.
So there’s an appetite for a breakaway league, and maybe someone coming along and shattering UEFA’s monopoly on European football is no bad thing.
According to media reports, A22 are pretty bullish on the chances of UEFA actually acquiescing to the Unify League and giving it their blessing. That, it has to be said, seems unlikely.
The Sun, meanwhile, reports that a number of Premier League clubs have ‘privately’ signalled their intention to sign up with Unify.
However, clubs no longer have to fear UEFA sanctions if they join a rebel competition, after the European Court of Justice said that banning them from doing so – with punishments ranging from fines to points deductions and suspension from the Champions League – was unlawful.
To that end, does UEFA really have the power to stop the Unify League from happening if that’s the will of its member clubs?
