‘Why we need a biennial World Cup’
KICK OFF: What will make the African Super League succeed when the European version has spectacularly collapsed?
Danny Jordaan: Because the European Super League was not football. The origin of that Super League arose out of the fact that all of those clubs each faced serious financial crises. Barcelona were almost €980-million in the red. That is why they let Lionel Messi go, even though he was prepared to take a massive pay cut. The brutal truth is that they just couldn’t afford his salary anymore. This concept of Galacticos and having the most expensive superstars in the world for Real Madrid, and the bank giving you a loan, was no longer viable. The bank would at one stage demand the loan be repaid and so Madrid (€850-million in debt), Juventus (€770-million), Tottenham Hotspur (€550-million) felt if they all came together and say: ‘people, how then do we get out of our collective debts?’, they agreed to form a closed league just exclusively for them as founder members. They were offered €5-billion to start the league and promised to get additional billions from broadcast and commercial rights to share amongst themselves.
But, surely that make business sense ....
The problem was that the league was formed outside of UEFA and it would have presented a direct challenge
