Saturday, July 24, 2021

European Super League 2021-22

Update May 28, 2022: Final Standings are below.

Earlier this year, some of the the richest clubs of European football announced (and then stepped back) a closed European Super League. They have previously made noise about permanent spots in the UEFA Champions League, as well. If there were a Super League, I would prefer it to be open, with promotion and relegation with the domestic leagues.

Since there are too many "big" clubs for one twenty-team league, I created a twenty-team Super League and a second division with forty teams, split into East and West Leagues. To pick which teams are placed in which leagues, I used the UEFA Club Coefficients from the end of the 2014-15 season. Since then, each season, teams were relegated from the Super League to Division 2, replaced by the East and West champions. Beginning with this season, the two second-place teams of Division 2 will also be promoted to the Super League. Four teams from each Division 2 league will be relegated, replaced by the eight teams that progress the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. (Ideally, this would just be the final Champions League teams, with the relegated teams automatically qualified for the next season's Champions League so they have the potential for promotion as soon as possible.)

After the previous season, Ajax and Borussia Dortmund were relegated from the Super League to Division 2 West. Salzburg were relegated from the Super League to Division League East. Galatasaray, Sevilla, and RB Leipzig were promoted from Division 2 to the Super League. Schalke 04, Basel 1893, Wolverhampton Wanderers, İstanbul Başakşehir, Fiorentina, and Copenhagen were relegated to their respective domestic leagues. Borussia Mönchengladbach, Granada, Molde, and Rangers were promoted to Division 2 West. Berner Young Boys and Crvena zvezda were promoted to Division 2 East. AC Milan were moved from West to East.

Here is a map of the sixty teams in the international leagues. Click the rectangle tab thing in the upper left to get to the list where you can deselect the separate divisions.

Below are the final standings.

The standings include only games against teams in a team's division (Super League or Division 2). The first tiebreaker is the number of games played. The second tiebreaker is the UEFA club coefficient rankings.

The teams that will be promoted from the domestic leagues for the 2022-23 season are the eight teams (that aren't in these international leagues) who progress the furthest in the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League. These teams are Sporting Portugal, Real Betis, Real Sociadad, Sheriff Tiraspol, West Ham United, Feyenoord, Leicester City, and PSV Eindhoven.