Indeed - yet all the ire is directed at the usual suspects DESPITE the real issue at the heart of the matter:
https://hir.harvard.edu/is-european-football-becoming-american-soccer/amp/ (https://hir.harvard.edu/is-european-football-becoming-american-soccer/amp/)
At first glance, this Americanization of European football seems to be a benign by-product of globalization. However, the purposes of the American owners of European football clubs center mainly around financial gain, and fans are reduced to becoming customers of the product, which is the club itself. From the investors’ point of view, fans are “consuming” the product by purchasing tickets to attend matches and buying club merchandise. American owners are often criticized (https://unherd.com/2021/04/america-is-destroying-the-beautiful-game/?ref=hir.harvard.edu) for trying to replicate “American conditions on European soil” as they attempt to follow a financially-motivated agenda to recreate their successes in the National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). However, this understanding of football is strictly contrary to what European fans expect from the sport. To them, supporting their club is about loyalty and passion
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/fans-football-invented-return-means-24142900
It is an aspect of their lifelong identity, a perspective that clashes with their portrayal as the mere consumers of a product. This dissonance between fans and owners remained relatively unnoticed until 12 European clubs decided to break away from their leagues to establish the European Super League in April 2021.
https://news.sky.com/story/european-super-league-nine-rebel-clubs-accept-sanctions-and-commit-their-future-to-uefa-competitions-12299823?ref=hir.harvard.edu )
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