Roy Hodgson hopes scrapped Super League plans will spark debate on football governance

BY SAM SMITH

Roy Hodgson hopes that scrapped plans for a heavily criticised European Super League will lead to a discussion about how football is governed.

The proposal for an exclusive division of 12 of the continent’s biggest clubs was announced on Sunday evening. However, it took just 48 hours for England’s ‘big six’ to announce that they would be withdrawing following vast supporter resentment.

Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur each released statements saying that their involvement would be discontinued.

Crystal Palace boss Hodgson hopes that the collapse of the idea – which would have seen clubs share a lucrative £3.5 billion fund – will spark a debate about how the national and European game is run.

“The attempt to bring it about has taken a huge blow, a huge knock back,” the 73-year-old former England head coach said.

“It will be a while before the next group of owners come forward and say: ‘I’ve got a good idea, why don’t we form a league where we can’t be relegated and we get all the money, and you others get on with your league and enjoy that as best you can – [because] we won’t be there to prop up some of the Football League who are likely to be playing’.

“I think it’s going to take a long while – you can never say never, of course. But my major hope is it will lead to some sort of reform, it will lead to people looking more closely into how football is run – not just at national level but certainly at European league level.

“And if there are errors, as people are suggesting, or perhaps things that need to be corrected in the way UEFA are managing our European game, if there are things to be sorted out there I hope this will be the catalyst to get something sorted out.

“Most importantly of all, I think it would be a foolish club owner and a foolish UEFA executive who underestimates the power of the people, the power of the fans from the game they love. What they think is important, what they obviously want to see is that teams can get in the Champions League, unlikely as it might be.

“We didn’t expect Leicester win the Premier League. We didn’t expect them to get into the Champions League before they won the league. At the start of that season, if I remember correctly, they were pretty [high] odds to get anywhere near the top four of the Premier League. They won it and quite rightly took their Champions League place.

“That’s what people want to see. It might be a long shot, but it’s good that shot exists. We can go for it and hope and dream that one day it won’t just be Manchester City, Man United and Chelsea playing in top European games, it will be the likes of us.

“I can relate to that because I was able to enjoy that type of experience and that type of dream come true, if you like, with Fulham in the Europa League.”