CHELSEA vs PSG (Séan Garnier) , Amazing SKILLS vs supporters, Champions league
Photo Gareth Bale of Real Madrid taking a penalty kick against Manchester United during an August 2014 match in the International Champions Cup that drew more than 100,000 fans in Ann Arbor, Mich. Credit Jeff Kowalsky/European Pressphoto Agency
LONDON The American promoter Charlie Stillitano could hardly have chosen a worse time to push for change in European soccer.
Stillitano, the chairman of Relevant Sports, runs summer tournaments called the International Champions Cup. It features elite soccer teams from Europe playing one another during their off-seasons in three different countries: the United States, Australia and China. Its novelty factor has drawn sold-out crowds and drummed up television and sponsorship money for, in effect, watching half-fit star players getting into shape for the coming season.
Europes best are coming, is the slogan on its website. Relevant Sports claims to have revolutionized the international soccer landscape by transforming the standard European club preseason tour into something remarkable: a competitive, world-class tournament.
Those words are like something from an old-school boxing promoter: The tournament features the heavyweights of the game, but it fails to mention that the teams are nowhere close to their peak when it comes to performance.
Last week, Stillitano met in London with executives of five English clubs: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United. On satellite radio, Stillitano later talked about how those teams are the elite of the Champions League and, in his view, deserve permanent roles in the tournament and far more money.
Lets call it the money pot created by soccer and the fandom around the world, Stillitano said on a show on Sirius XM. Who has had more of an integral role, Manchester United or Leicester?
He acknowledged that Leicester Citys rise out of nowhere to lead the English Premier League this season is a wonderful, wonderful story. But, the promoter said, you have to look at it from Manchester Uniteds or Chelseas perspective.
Those teams are having a bad season (or several, in Manchesters case). They might not qualify for a place in the next Champions League and that, according to Stillitano, should not be allowed to happen. Essentially, he would want a tournament without relegation for the biggest clubs.
I guess they dont have a birthright to be in it every year, he said, but its the age-old argument U.S. sports franchises versus what they have in Europe. There are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful elements to relegation and promotion, and there are good arguments for a closed system.
Is Stillitano really Silvio Berlusconi in disguise?
Nearly 30 years ago, when Berlusconis team, A.C. Milan, was ruling Europe, the Italian politician and club owner attempted to lead a breakaway of Europes richer clubs and close the door to any upstart from gate-crashing what is now the Champions League.
The word champion has become a misnomer. Nowadays, four clubs from England, Spain, Germany and sometimes Italy qualify some, seemingly perennially for the UEFA Champions League. The fact that A.C. Milan struggles now in Italy, or that both Manchester teams and Chelsea are suffering below-par seasons in England, is no reason to exclude them from the financial spoils of top European competition, according to the Berlusconi/Stillitano theory.
Over the weekend, Leicesters Italian coach, Claudio Ranieri, described that as anti-competitive, a proposal by the elite, for the elite.
You are afraid, Ranieri said. You are not strong. You should ask why is little Leicester doing better than us? Instead, you want to change the system because this year you are weak.
Beyond that, Stillitanos International Champions Cup is in danger this year of being pushed aside on two fronts. Starting in June, the Copa Amrica Centenario, a special edition of the South American continental championship, will be played in 10 American cities to mark the events 100th anniversary.
The top South American players who normally would take part in the off-season tours by the big European clubs will instead be playing in the United States for their national teams.
In addition, the majority of the best European players will also be in action in June and July, when their national teams play in an expanded Euro 2016 tournament in France.
Barcelona is the champion of champions in world soccer at the moment, but it wont be traveling to Australia, China or the United States to play in the world-class I.C.C. this summer.
How could Barcelona take part? Its top three stars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Surez will be playing for their countries at the expanded Copa Amrica, while much of the rest of the team will be trying to defend Spains title at the Euro.
Barcelona will have a presence in the United States this summer. It will hold summer camps for children in nine cities as it increases its awareness abroad, the clubs president, Josep Bartomeu, told me on the same day in another London hotel just a few hundred yards from where Stillitano met with the club officials.
Bartomeu said then that his club, like all the rest, cannot ignore the rising popularity of soccer in the United States. But equally important, the club the reigning Spanish, European and Club World Cup champion appreciates that athletes do have a breaking point.
The off-season is when Messi, Neymar and their teammates can finally rest and recuperate and spend time with their families after a grueling nine-month season or even undergo the surgeries needed to repair the damage taken from chasing so many trophies.
The schedules are too crowded already without further revolutionizing the international soccer landscape.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/sports/soccer/champions-league-permanent-spot.html
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