September 3 - Euro Sceptics

A LONG time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

It is a period of civil war. Rebel football clubs, meeting at a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Uefa Empire. During the battle, Uefa spies managed to see secret plans for the Rebel’s new European Super League, a new continent-wide league with enough power to destroy Uefa and domestic leagues. Pursued by the Uefa’s sinister agents, a mysterious man named Rodolfo Hecht races across Europe, custodian of the secret plans that could change football forever in the galaxy….

Strained Star Wars analogies aside, today in 1998 saw some of Europe’s top clubs meeting to discuss the possibility of starting a breakaway European Super League, outside of the control of Uefa.

The man behind the plan was Rodolfo Hecht of the Milan-based consortium Media Partners and his idea was to get leading clubs from around Europe to begin an exclusive midweek competition in 2000, to replace the Uefa-run Champions League, which although was very lucrative for the clubs in it, was not as lucrative as they would like. In footballer’s terms, the clubs getting in a tiz about not getting enough cash out of the Champions League was like Ashley Cole swerving off the road in shock and despair when Arsenal offered him a paltry £55,000 a week contract.

In London for the big meeting, Mr Hecht said it would be “a project with no losers”, and he was now “more confident than ever” that the project will go ahead as planned, despite threats from domestic leagues, including the Premier League, about what would happen to clubs who joined.

Speaking after being appointed to a continent-wide task force to look into the matter, Peter Lever, Chief Executive of the Premier League gave a clear warning to potential English rebels.

“There’s a great determination amongst the clubs in the Premier League that anyone who wants to go their own way will have to face the consequences.

“It may well mean that they will find themselves not inside the league,” he told BBC News at the time.

Clubs were also told their players would not be selected for England duty were they to join the breakaway league.

The supporters too were mobilising against the idea. Ivan Todd, of the Campaign Against the Superleague, told the BBC: “It is silly really that Rudolfo Hecht has said that this league could benefit the fans.

“We have talked to the fans and the supporters clubs, we have had a unanimous message: the superleague sucks.”

In the end, the Premier League clubs all decided to tow the line, and accepted that any changes to European competition should be done under Uefa aspices, but the threat of a breakaway Super League continued to rear its head every so often until the G14 group of Europe’s most powerful clubs disbanded in January this year, after finally reaching a compromise with Uefa about greater say in the running of the game. Peace in the Galaxy at last.

For those of you who thought Sky Sports was so over the top it was beyond parody, think again and watch the clip below, and click here to see what else happened on this day in football history.

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