Paris Saint-Germain President Nasser Al-Khelaifi recently proclaimed that the Champions League final should be more like the Super Bowl. While the sentiment makes sense on some levels, it also totally ignores a reality UEFA contrived to create.
Let’s start off with some truth. The Champions League final in 2021 was watched by 700 million viewers. This year’s Super Bowl only mustered 112 million viewers. Big soccer matches almost always crush football in viewership metrics.
Al-Khelaifi told The Athletic he believes the Super Bowl feels bigger than the Champions League final despite those numbers. That is actually a pretty fair assessment. But there is also a good reason for it.
The Super Bowl is a massive blowoff event for the football season. We only get five months of pigskin action each year and once it’s gone, it doesn’t come back until next season. Soccer literally never stops. Between international play, cash-grab friendlies overseas and non-European leagues, there isn’t a break.
No one will buy the Champions League final as a major spectacle because there is nothing to miss. The sport never disappears. Soccer is the perfect example of what happens when you grub for money. Everything becomes devalued in the process.
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The Champions League final doesn’t need to be spectacle
With all this talk of turning the Champions League final into the second coming of the Super Bowl, PSG’s boss never explains why he thinks it’s needed. That’s because it is not. No one is calling for changes apart from those making money on the event.
Look no further than last year when the Champions league rolled out a bunch of proposed tweaks that fans never wanted. The World Cup seems hellbent on destroying itself in search of extra money. Soccer doesn’t seem to understand people like the sport for what it is.
The Champions League final doesn’t need to be a spectacle akin to the Super Bowl. The latter already does it a million times better than the former ever could. And if UEFA really wants to make the tournament matter, the solution is simple. Reduce the number of teams and games currently consumed by continental competitions.
Take the Europa League, for example. Instead of having it be a carbon copy of the Champions League with lesser clubs, switch it back to the original UEFA Cup format of a straight knockout tournament. The Conference League can go kick rocks.
And for the love of god, don’t cram more unworthy teams into the Champions League. If Manchester United and the like can’t qualify based on merit, then they shouldn’t be in at all. UEFA really must stop trying to fix something that isn’t broken.
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