Revealed: Super League admission casts doubt on Florentino Perez’ controversial Liverpool claim
The Super League admit that they failed to factor in the possibility of viewer fatigue when calculating how much founder clubs such as Liverpool could earn from the breakaway competition, Football Insider can reveal from Brussels.
Real Madrid president and Super League architect Florentino Perez has previously cited the fact that his team and Liverpool have faced each just other nine times in history as justification for the Super League.
This was among the topics discussed last Friday (13 January) at a summit hosted in Brussels by Super League organisers A22 Sports Management.
Football Insider attended the talks, where A22 representative Antón Garcia used broadcasting figures to illustrate why the Super League’s organisers believe they can double the TV cash currently generated by the Champions League.
He told the conference that matches featuring two founder clubs – the 12 teams who originally signed up for the Super League – generate three times as many viewers than when a founder meets a non-founder.
It was claimed that the effect is amplified even more in matches between two non-founders.
Garcia also explained that there is a linear effect between audience numbers and money generated by TV deals, with a 1 per cent increase in viewers leading to a 0.5 per cent increase in broadcast cash.
Citing this data, he claimed there is “no such thing as too much football” in the eyes of viewers.
But the likes of Marc Watson, founder and CEO of sports media company Eleven, believe that there is “real value in scarcity” and that more matches between elite sides would not lead to exponential revenue growth.
Garcia admitted at the conference: “We don’t know what happens if you increase the number of games [between founder clubs]. We didn’t directly capture that effect. I think it’s an open question.”
Liverpool have previously stated that their stance towards the Super League had not changed since their April 2021 withdrawal.
That, however, was before Fenway Sports Group announced that they were seeking external investment in the club, with the option of a full takeover still on the table.
Significantly, Barcelona president Joan Laporta recently claimed that all the members of the so-called ‘Big Six’ remain interested in the rebel competition.
The Reds’ Super League fate also likely hinges on whether an independent regulator, for which the government is expected to outline a remit by the end of the month, has the power to veto English clubs’ attempts to join up.
In other news, Liverpool have “concrete” interest in signing Ruben Neves and are biding time for late January swoop.