The Star League, the Gold League and the Blue League. Get familiar with those three names. These are the new names that the European competitions will have if the Super League is established, after this Thursday's ruling by the CJEU.
If the main argument criticized by detractors was its closed, NBA-style nature, the company A22 Sports Management quickly presented, after the favorable ruling, a new competition format with 64 teams (in the embryo there were 12 founders plus two guests). with three champions and with playoffs, promotions and relegations.
“There will be no permanent members,” Berndt Reichart, CEO of A22, was quick to point out. Another point to gain followers of the Super League is that the matches will be played during the week, without interfering with the usual functioning of the national leagues.
The format is divided into three divisions: the so-called Star League, Gold League and Blue League. In the first two, 16 teams will participate in each, the third will consist of 32 members. All teams will play a minimum of 14 games, seven at home and seven away. The champions will play 19 games, including the grand final. In the current Champions League a team could be eliminated after only six games (three at home) while in the one that will debut in the 24-25 season the minimum is 8 games (four at home). The difference in ticketing income is evident.
In the Star League, two groups of eight teams will be formed that will play two rounds. The first four of each group will go to the quarterfinals to determine who is the European champion. It is the same operation that the Gold League will have, with the addition that, in addition to the winner, the finalist will also have promotion as a prize, which will occupy the space of the two worst teams in the Star League, which will go down to their lower league.
The Super League will also have a women's tournament, with 32 teams, divided into two leagues that will repeat the same principles of the Star and the Gold League.
Instead, the Blue League will be men's only. It will be played by 32 teams that will be divided into four groups of 8. The first two will go to the next phase in search of the final that will decide the winner and the other team that goes up to the Gold League.
At the end of each season, the merits harvested in the national leagues will be those that allow up to 20 teams in this Blue League to be renewed, which is where there will be the most new faces. This is where the revelation champions would come in.
