5 ways in which European Super League can change football forever

#3 Salary cap

FC Barcelona v Club Atletico de Madrid - La Liga

Via the European Super League, the biggest clubs in Europe are trying to cash in on their popularity to receive bigger TV payouts by automatically assuming the position and prestige of elite European football with a sort of safety net around them.

Going by the manner of the text used in the announcement, the ESL seems to be hinting at introducing salary caps for players akin to the system they have in NBA. The fact is that these European giants are going to be in the European Super League every year and the revenue flowing out of it is theirs for the taking.

And with top players aware of the fact that they won't be getting big paycheques elsewhere, they will want to stick around and the owners will pump less money into maintaining their squads because the profits will find their pockets regardless.

#2 No relegation, no promotion in the European Super League

Manchester United are currently playing in the Europa League after crashing out of the Champions League

As per the initial announcement, the European Super League will eventually have 20 teams. The teams will be divided into two groups of ten and each team will play all the other teams in their group twice, once at home and once away from home.

Subsequently, the top eight teams across the two groups will make it to the knockout stages. The interesting thing to note here is that when teams underperform, they have nothing to lose as they will remain part of the league no matter what happens.

There is no qualification, relegation or promotion for the 15 founding members of the European Super League. It really is a bubble of football clubs seeking to exist independently. But it comes at the cost of the spirit of competition. What is a sport if it's not competitive?

without the threat of relegation there is no honour in winning https://t.co/IUOrKeeOHr

— Massive Attack (@MassiveAttackUK) April 19, 2021

#1 Shorter football matches

Making football matches shorter will seriously hamper the dynamics of the game

There is a good chance that we'll be subjected to shorter football matches as well. Sigh. Yes, that's something that could very well happen. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has already floated it as a suggestion when talking in detail about the European Super League.

It makes sense from where they're sitting. Going by how reliant they are on broadcasting rights, the club owners will be looking to maximize their income in all manner possible.

In today's world, where immediacy has become the norm, the owners could very well make a decision to shorten football matches to make them more entertaining and thereby attract more viewers. This worked for cricket, didn't it? 20-20 cricket is thriving but football doesn't work like that, does it?

Florentino Perez to El Chiringuito: "If young people find football matches too long it may be because they are not interesting enough... or maybe we might have to make the football matches shorter". 🚨

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 19, 2021