This week in sports – European Soccer “Super League” hangs in the balance

BY MARCEL MARIAK

Basketball – Kyle Lowry: Champion, All-Star, DOCTOR???

“It ain’t official yet, but when it’s official I will not respond to anything other than Dr. Lowry,” commented a proud Kyle Lowry at a post-game press conference after defeating the Brooklyn Nets. His remark was based on an announcement by Nova Scotia’s Acadia University that the Raptors point guard would be one of seven people being awarded an honorary doctorate.

Dr. Ricketts, the president and vice-chancellor of Acadia University explained that the institution is honouring Kyle Lowry for how he rallied Canadians during the Raptors’ 2019 championship victory and his role in founding the Lowry Love Foundation with his wife, Ayahna Cornish-Lowry.

Although Kyle isn’t a doctor yet the convocation will be held virtually on May 9^th the basketball star has immediately started enjoying his new title. When asked what kind of doctor he would be, Lowry replied that he would become the “Doctor of Greatness,” even going so far as to jokingly state that he might replace Alex McKechnie, the Raptors’ VP of Player Health and Performance.

With all of the recent Raptors’ madness involving injuries, health issues, and circulating rumours about a potential Lowry trade, it will be incredibly refreshing to have some light-hearted fun and imagine that the Raptors will have a doctor on the court leading the team (does this mean no more injuries??).

Soccer – Futbol Fan Nightmare: European Super League project crashes!

On April 18^th, twelve top European soccer clubs made dreams come true for soccer fans around the world when they stated that they would be breaking away from UEFA-governed leagues to start their own competition. They announced the creation of a “European Super League”, where the best teams from the continent would go head-to-head regularly. Gone were the days of waiting for six-months to see two mega-clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid compete. Now, these types of showdowns would occur every week — a soccer fanatic’s paradise.

The 12 teams that announced the league on Sunday were as follows:

• Arsenal (English Premier League)
• Chelsea (English Premier League)
• Liverpool (English Premier League)
• Manchester City (English Premier League)
• Manchester United (English Premier League)
• Tottenham Hotspur (English Premier League)
• Atletico Madrid (Spanish LaLiga)
• Real Madrid (Spanish LaLiga)
• Barcelona (Spanish LaLiga)
• AC Milan (Italian Serie A)
• Inter Milan (Italian Serie A)
• Juventus (Italian Serie A)

Despite the joy of soccer fans around the world, the Super League received harsh backlash from UEFA, with the organization stating that the league was a “cynical idea,” and based on self-interest. UEFA even went so far as to threaten to ban participating clubs from performing in UEFA-governed competitions. Despite being harsh, this criticism was unsurprising. After all, an independent league, separate from UEFA and featuring some of the world’s best teams, would directly compete with and likely cripple the UEFA Champions League — a competition whose main selling-point is putting the globe’s greatest clubs head-to-head.

Unfortunately, the elation of soccer fans around the world dissipated as quickly as it appeared. With growing tensions between UEFA and the Super League and incessant threats from the former organization clubs began to crack under the pressure. The formation of the Super League took a crushing blow when on April 20^th, the six English Premier League clubs backed out of the Super League. The next day, the majority of the remaining Super League clubs also withdrew from the project. The two remaining teams, Real Madrid and Barcelona, have released no statement but the writing is on the wall.

With this sad development, chances of fans ever witnessing the inaugural game of the European Super League have all but gone down the drain. As it stands, the only realistic way for the Super League project to come to fruition would be if a deal was reached between the Super League and UEFA. The settlement would have to balance the interests of both organizations allowing the Super League to perform and be profitable while ensuring the economic stability of UEFA and its competitions, a nearly impossible outcome.