Brazil could be the first country to have a super league
Born from the initiative of the six major verdeoro clubs, it traces the model and motivations that had driven their European counterparts
Sports
May 18th, 2022
May 18th, 2022
When the idea of a Super League among the best teams in Europe was promoted in March last year, the common feeling was one of anger and dismay, especially among fans. But we, the Europeans, were the ones usurped of our sports. Instead, on the other side of the world, in Brazil, the same thing happened, with little outcry from the more or less Super League fans of the various Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus.
Six Brazilian clubs, practically the strongest and most successful (but not quite all), have agreed, through the signing of an official document, to create a Brazilian superleague, known as Liga do Futebol Brasileiro, Libra for short. The clubs involved are Bragantino (Red Bull's club), Corinthians, Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Palmeiras, Santos, and Sao Paulo. The best in town of Brazilian football brought together in a mini-league well-liked by the financial firm Codajas Sport Capital - which is to seek funding for the tournament - for a project that is part of a larger overhaul of Brazilian league TV rights.
Brazilian soccer is certainly not experiencing its heyday, especially on the club side. In fact, if the Selecao is one of the strongest brands in the soccer imagination and one of the most credible pretenders to the World Cup in Qatar, the verdeoro teams are slowly losing appeal not only internationally but also on their own soil in favor of the big European clubs. One of the problems is the imbalance in competitiveness, with the big teams cashing in too much compared to the last. In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, championship-winning Flamengo earned nine times as much as Avai, which finished in 20th place.
That's why in the Codajas meetings, the other realities of Verdean soccer also participated, pushing for an equitable redistribution of revenue from private television stations to all claimants. According to Social Media Soccer, the economic plan for redistribution of TV rights according to Libra supporters is a 40% concession as a fixed share and 30% variable, plus another 30% dependent on audience. The other proposal from the best teams, proposes 50 percent fixed for all, plus 25 percent based on sports rights and another 25 percent based on audience. The Super league concept comes precisely from the idea that some teams have had to pull out of the current league and create a league that can guarantee a better economic situation. Or at least make the league more marketable to foreign countries, improving the visibility of certain matches and enhancing the brand value of certain clubs more.
The fact remains that, in any case, some clubs would like to-as in Europe-rightfully elevate themselves to better than others. And that would be fine with us Europeans, because it would mean that from our couches we could watch only and only the best of the Brazilian league; just as some clubs would like to sell only the best matches of European football to televisions around the world. No one expected that this could start from Brazil: yet, thinking as prosumers, we found ourselves in exactly the same line of thinking as Florentino Perez and Andrea Agnelli.
