![]() Those two forces were bashing up against each other here, and this was a chance to go behind those closed doors.” We’re clinging to the values of the working class people’s game of the past while reluctantly accepting the inevitability of the present that this is entertainment business. ![]() ![]() “Football is in a bit of an identity crisis right now. This is a $40 billion-a-year industry where most of the time the decisions are made behind closed doors by men in suits and we hear about it afterward and are left to speculate at how we got to those decisions. Rarely do we get that opportunity to lift the hood up and to look at the machinery at work. It was clearly going to have repercussions far outside the sport extending into economics, culture and politics. “It was a coup d’état attempt on the highest offices of power within the biggest sports industry in the world. “When the story broke in April 2021, it was shocking,” said Zimbalist. He does so with remarkable access to the major players in the saga, including Aleksander Čeferin, the leader of the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA) Andrea Agnelli, the scion of one of Italy’s most famous families and the then-head of the Italian team Juventus Florentino Pérez, the longtime president of Real Madrid Javier Tebas, the truth-telling president of La Liga, and all sorts of various other characters, including politicians and top soccer reporters. Zimbalist, who along with his brother, Michael, directed the sensational “The Two Escobars” in 2010 for ESPN’s “30 for 30,” has taken what it is essentially a sports business story and made it a compelling piece of filmmaking. (And the saga may not be entirely over yet.) ![]() Had it been successful, it would have ended the Champions League’s significance. The Super League nearly launched in 2021 and would have featured the likes of Real Madrid, Liverpool, Juventus and others competing in a mostly-exclusive competition. ![]() That contrast and push and pull is exceptionally told by executive producer and director Jeff Zimbalist in Apple TV’s recently released four-part docuseries, “Super League: The War for Football.” The film focuses on the creation - and ultimate failure - of a proposed “Super League” competition among Europe’s most popular teams. ![]()
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