Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has suggested that backers of a European Super League are "detached from the real footballing world" and says he loves the "power to the people" dynamic which brought down the first iteration of the proposal.
New plans for a Super League were announced on Thursday with backing from Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, just hours after a European High Court ruling said FIFA and UEFA had "abused a dominant position" in their treatment of clubs who formed the initial 12-team breakaway competition in April 2021.
But the new proposal quickly lost momentum, with each of the Premier League's so-called 'Big Six' clubs all distancing themselves from it by Friday lunchtime.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United were all involved in the original Super League plot 32 months ago but quickly backed out after fierce protests from supporters, and widespread condemnation from figures ranging from the then-Prime Minister to the Football Association (FA) president Prince William.
Postecoglou was in charge of Japanese club Yokohama F. Marinos at the time and, reflecting on fans' role in the aborted plan, he said: "I love the fact that [it was] 'power to the people', mate. It’s good that people still have a voice. That’s what life is all about. It was great.
"Maybe [the proposal] surprised some people. It didn’t surprise me.
"I often think these decisions are made in a room with some people who are fairly detached from what the real footballing world is about.
"They think it’s a great idea and then they walk outside that room and they’re faced with reality.
"The one thing that whole period showed us, because we were just coming out of Covid at the time, was that without fans you’re struggling.
"You’re struggling for anything. It was still being shown on TV but no one can tell me it was the same product.
"We were trying to artificially create atmospheres so it felt like a real football game. It’s kind of a throwaway term that ‘without the fans, football is nothing’, but it does ring true in many respects.
"You’d like to think before they make any of these decisions or ideas come up again, they get a better feeling for what the people who are most important to the game are feeling. Not just the supporters. But even the players."
The Australian described himself as "conservative and a traditionalist" when it comes to making changes to the game but insisted he was not "a fatalist" about football's future.
"Ultimately if it’s destroyed or broken, and no one turns up," he said. "People are going to find something else to do.
"I’m not an expert on the subject and I understand that progress is inevitable one way or another as the game grows and the interest grows.
"But I think you’ve got to take all factors into account and not be dismissive of something that doesn’t come down to just numbers."
He added: "Tradition is not always going to win. We know that, that’s not how it works - sometimes the game does need to move on to keep up with the pace.
"I often think these decisions are made in a room with some people who are fairly detached from what the real footballing world is about"
"You should test the temperature of the room before you make those kinds of decisions and I don’t think often that is taken into account.
"Any idea that comes down to numbers in our game where there is so much investment and emotional attachment is always going to struggle to get up."
Postecoglou, whose Spurs squad has been decimated by injuries since the start of winter, is concerned about the impact on player welfare and the quality of the product of adding more and more competitions.
This week, FIFA announced that the Club World Cup would be expanded to 32 teams from 2025.
"That’s my biggest concern at the moment: the saturation of the product we have will deteriorate because we’re putting so many demands on players," Postecoglou said ahead of Saturday's visit of Everton. "Ultimately, performances will suffer.
"Ultimately, you’ll get more players missing out because of injury or fatigue. We keep coming up with competitions that we think are going to be great. For the most part, money-spinners.
"Which I understand because that is kind of what grows the game but if the punters don’t like what they see and don’t turn up, it ain’t going to work."
