Stakeholders Pressure and the European Super League

Editor's note, August 2026: this article was written in April 2021, in the days immediately after the European Super League was announced. The proposal has not gone away since. In December 2023 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that UEFA and FIFA's rules requiring prior approval of new competitions breached EU competition law, and the project's backers have continued to develop revised formats. The stakeholder engagement lessons below still stand.

Stakeholders pressure and ESL: how to avoid this happening in your organisation

As the European football scene was shaken by the controversial European Super League plan, and with the countless comments on how it alienated its stakeholders, we spoke to Paul Rivers, chairman of Tractivity, to get his point of view on these events.

"They think it's all over...it is now!"

The announcement of a new European Super League managed to do what had been almost impossible for years, it united the other fourteen Premier League clubs, although you cannot help wondering what would have happened had they been on the invitation list, and it created an unlikely alliance of football fans and politicians.

All the more bizarre when you would be hard-pressed to find many positive opinions on the support from the UK government for Football Clubs during the Pandemic.

Less than 48 hours later, after political pressure, fan protests and condemnation from football's own governing bodies and broadcasters, all six English clubs had withdrawn and the competition did not launch.

What became apparent is that the owners of the six English clubs, most of whom are based outside the UK, went ahead without consulting the people the decision would most affect. Whatever the commercial logic, the proposal did not survive contact with the clubs' own stakeholders.

They totally and utterly forgot to consider all other parties who would be affected by this move – in other words they completely ignored their various cohorts of Stakeholders.

Now, this is not to denigrate fans as stakeholders – we have depressingly seen during COVID how empty football feels without fans - and it is heartwarming to see how even the fans of teams planning to break away voiced their opposition to the move.

That is to say that stakeholders DO matter, all of them. And the respective club owners have most certainly learnt it the hard way.

Where it went wrong

A stakeholder is a term to designate any individual, group or organisation that has an interest or is impacted by a business or organisation.

The clubs have clearly failed in engaging stakeholder groups and, at the very least, the following were NOT consulted:

The fans
Regulatory bodies
Employees – not even the very players on whose abilities these clubs depend on – and probably the most expensive assets in the business
Competitors – after all, competition is nothing without competitors, and the competitor Premier League clubs are also intertwined as shareholders
The rest of the football pyramid – it was blithely believed that the rest of the pyramid could be bought through some promises of more cash – recent history would make this a barely believable outcome

And of course, there may be many more categories of stakeholders that would be affected.

If you take the not unreasonable view that stakeholders mattered to the economic interests of the DD you really couldn’t imagine a worse way of consulting that stakeholder base – or indeed not doing so.

Stakeholder buy-in is crucial for the success of any project or consultation, and consultation is based on core principles (the Gunning Principles). As our friends at the Consultation Institute have put, straight to the point:

Social media post from the Consultation Institute on the importance of stakeholder buy-in in consultation.

Stakeholder engagement & football

Football at the top is big business, and the need to work and engage with stakeholders has become crystal clear – so how could the clubs involved have done this better?

In a nutshell:

Stakeholder mapping to identify all key stakeholders who should be consulted
Clear communication & consultation with representatives of those affected, supporting proper stakeholder engagement
Active stakeholder collaboration, supported by an engagement plan, and proper evaluation of the outcomes of the process
A considered decision based on all the evidence, stakeholder feedback and submissions

Ultimately, the owners will probably walk away unbowed, and it remains to be seen what the legacy effect will be across the industry in years to come.

As the excellent online magazine The Athletic so eloquently put it: ‘Reprieve falls a long way short of redemption’.

Ensure your organisation doesn't make the same mistake

Spend time identifying your stakeholders across all levels of interest and influence, and get to know them. Learn their needs, issues and motivations so you can develop an effective communication strategy.

A carefully planned stakeholder engagement strategy will give you the chance to build a good relationship that will be reflected in the success of your project.

We at Tractivity are all about supporting organisations to deliver better outcomes, with stakeholder management and engagement software used by 112+ named UK clients across eight sectors.

Frequently asked questions

What does the European Super League collapse teach us about stakeholder management? The collapse of the European Super League within 48 hours of its announcement is one of the most prominent real-world examples of what happens when an organisation fails to consult its stakeholders. The clubs involved assumed financial power would prevail and completely ignored the interests of fans, regulatory bodies, players, competitors, and the wider football pyramid. The result was coordinated opposition from every stakeholder group simultaneously, demonstrating that stakeholder buy-in is not optional; it is fundamental to the success of any major project or decision.

Which stakeholder groups did the European Super League clubs fail to consult? The clubs failed to consult at least five key stakeholder groups: fans, who are the economic lifeblood of the clubs; regulatory bodies responsible for the governance of football; employees and players, the most expensive assets in the business; competitor clubs in the Premier League, who are simultaneously competitors and shareholders in the league; and the rest of the football pyramid, whose existence depends on a connected, competitive structure. Failing to consult any one of these groups would have been a significant oversight; failing to consult all of them was catastrophic.

What are the Gunning Principles and why are they relevant to stakeholder consultation? The Gunning Principles are the core principles that underpin legitimate public consultation. They establish that consultation must take place when proposals are still at a formative stage, that sufficient information must be provided to allow informed responses, that adequate time must be given for responses, and that the results of consultation must be conscientiously taken into account. The European Super League announcement violated all of these principles. The decision was presented as final rather than consultative, leaving no room for genuine stakeholder input.

How could the European Super League clubs have managed their stakeholders better? A proper stakeholder management approach would have included four key stages: stakeholder mapping to identify all groups who should be consulted; clear communication and consultation with representatives of those affected; active stakeholder collaboration supported by a formal engagement plan and proper evaluation of outcomes; and a considered decision based on all evidence, stakeholder feedback, and submissions. Had any of these stages been followed, the outcome would almost certainly have been different.

What is stakeholder buy-in and why is it critical to project success? Stakeholder buy-in is the active support and acceptance of a project or decision by those who are affected by or have an interest in it. It is critical because without it, even well-funded and strategically sound projects can be derailed by opposition from key groups. The ESL collapse demonstrates that financial power alone cannot substitute for genuine consultation; stakeholders across all levels of interest and influence must be identified, engaged, and heard before major decisions are made.

How do you avoid making the same stakeholder management mistakes as the ESL clubs? Start by spending time identifying all your stakeholders across every level of interest and influence, and getting to know their needs, issues, and motivations. Use stakeholder mapping to ensure no group is overlooked, develop a clear communication strategy tailored to each group, and create a formal engagement plan that supports genuine two-way consultation. A carefully planned stakeholder engagement strategy builds the relationships and trust that give any project the best possible chance of success. Tractivity is purpose-built to support organisations in delivering better stakeholder engagement outcomes.