Football Blog: Super Teams Not Super Leagues

The Status Quo

Even though Bayern Munich may have suffered a rare defeat last weekend, they are still comfortably at the top of the table and if they continue to keep Borussia Dortmund at arm’s length, it means a tenth successive Bundesliga crown is just around the corner.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Bayern?

When Bayern Munich lose a Bundesliga fixture, you can hear betting slips being torn up across the continent and with the Allianz Arena outfit usually being as safe as houses, they are always one of the more popular teams to place on a weekend accumulator.

However, that popularity is starting to have a negative effect on the German game as a whole and although the Bundesliga is known to be a league which generates rather exciting football, the eventual outcome is always the same.

An outcome that sees Bayern Munich crowned as Bundesliga champions at the end of each season – or at least this has been the case in each of the last nine seasons and for as good as the highest level of German football is, familiarity has a habit of breeding contempt.

Which leads to many asking one pertinent question, just how do you solve a problem like Bayern Munich and if last year’s ill-fated European Super League was not the answer, could it be the solution further down the line?

A One-Horse Race

Of course, one must remember that like Bayern Munich, PSG were also unwilling to break away from their domestic leagues last season and join the planned landgrab of European football by Florentino Perez and his cohorts.

Then again, why would either of these two outfits want to throw away what they already have and with life being so good for the two 2020 Champions League finalists, mixing it with the best each week is not part of their modus operandi.

Because ultimately it all comes down to optics and on one hand, both Bayern and PSG can be viewed as perpetual winners back home (bar the odd Lille-sized blip for Mauricio Pochettino at the end of the previous campaign), or they can risk that image by finishing mid-table in a Super League.

Which leaves us in the current state of play, one where these two giants are too big for their own domestic leagues but are unwilling to do anything that risks their own status as kings of their respective footballing monarchies.

While even though PSG did lose out in the race for Ligue 1 honours last season, they certainly made up for that during the summer and with the arrival of Lionel Messi to the French capital, it meant that was second best was no longer on the agenda.

With the Parisians already 11 points clear at the top this season, the second half of this campaign is nothing more than a procession and after also going 11 games unbeaten, the runaway leaders will look to make it 12 unbeaten against Brest this weekend.

What Is The Fix?

Although both the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 resemble one-horse races at the best of times, the issue of dominance is not on show in just Germany and France and with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City running roughshod on the Premier League, all eyes will be on the visit of Chelsea this weekend.

With a 10-point gap over the Blues already in their pocket, all City need to do is avoid defeat at the Etihad and if Thomas Tuchel’s men fail to exact revenge for their Stamford Bridge reverse earlier this season, then their hopes of winning this season’s Premier League will be all but finished.

Potential jubilation for City but a likely feeling of malaise for those who follow English football’s top tier and if the Etihad outfit do retain the Premier League trophy, that will be their fourth success in just five years.

Yes, you could put it down to Guardiola being an incredible coach and his ability to make great players even better, has played a large part in City continually being at the pinnacle of the Premier League.

But for those who do not follow the blue half of Manchester, their dominance is in danger of sucking the life out of the Premier League and when interest declines, so does the competition’s ability to earn television revenue.

Which means if revenue does eventually decline because of the status quo remaining, those responsible will look elsewhere and although a European Super League did not get off the ground last year, it is always a concept that is lurking in the shadows.