Sleepwalking to a Super League
Was the European Super League really a shocking break from football's traditions-or simply the next step in a journey that had been unfolding for decades?
In Sleepwalking to a Super League, Kristian Russell challenges one of modern football's biggest assumptions. Tracing the evolution of European club football from the creation of the European Cup in 1955 through the birth of the UEFA Champions League and its continual expansion, this book argues that European football has been moving towards a super league for more than thirty years.
Far from being a story that began in 2021, the transformation of the game can be traced through television money, the Bosman ruling, the rise of the Premier League, the growing influence of Europe's biggest clubs, and UEFA's repeated reforms designed to protect them.
Drawing on football history rather than nostalgia, this book explores:
- How the European Cup was created to answer one simple sporting question: who is the best club in Europe?
- Why the UEFA Champions League has gradually shifted power towards a handful of elite clubs and leagues.
- The hidden impact of the Bosman ruling and the abolition of foreign-player restrictions.
- How television, commercial interests and politics have reshaped European football.
- Whether the failed European Super League was really the future-or whether it has already arrived in another form.
Combining historical research, analysis and opinion, Sleepwalking to a Super League offers a thought-provoking examination of the forces that have transformed the world's biggest club competition. Whether you agree with its conclusions or not, it will challenge the way you think about the history-and the future-of European football.
