Kicking Off: The Rise & Fall of the Super League

One of the breat things about professional football is that is comprises a merit-based pyramid: no-one is guaranteed a place in the top competition, although of course imbalances of finance mean that it's not a competition with equal odds. As the owner of a top club, however, a closed competition might be the better way of ensuring you can milk the power of your brand; and each change in football's structure moves closer towards a closed shop. Proposals to set up a new European super-league, however, have to-date failed, in part because the fans don't want it; one wonders how long they can hold this off. This documentary tells of the last such failed attempt. In fact, there's not that much of a story: the proposal is conceived, announced, the fans reject it, and for now, the clubs back down. And we don't learn much that we might not already have known. The bigger point is that the tremendous power wielded by a handful of billionaire owners; indeed, the plot could be seen as an attempt by one group of extremely rich men to protect themselves from competition from other similarly (or even more) wealthy individuals. What was wrong with the super-league is to some extent what's wrong with society; and that won't go away in three days of fan-led protests.