- FootBiz
- Posts
- FootBiz newsletter #107: Mourinho returns, Chelsea sweat points deduction and cross-border leagues
FootBiz newsletter #107: Mourinho returns, Chelsea sweat points deduction and cross-border leagues
Plus: Man City and PSG to launch teams in NBA Europe
Ed Malyon & Matt Hughes
September 19, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
Quite a packed newsletter today, with a lot of interesting stuff below the paywall about Manchester City and PSG joining the NBA (yes, really) as well as some testy legal fights and a precedent that points to a potential points deduction for Chelsea for their historic transgressions.
But up top today I wanted to talk about the shifting tectonic plates of domestic league football, triggered (as in sparked, not sent into an emotional spiral) by an interview with Club Brugge president Bart Verhaeghe.
It is an interesting time for clubs like his, and by that I mean leading clubs from second-tier European leagues. They benefit hugely from UEFA competitions like the Champions League — making €60m from their CL run alone last year while their domestic rivals average around €25m revenue all-in per year — but struggle to compete on that stage when they come into contact with Premier League juggernauts and the cream of the other top leagues.
And they aren’t alone, of course. Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, FC Copenhagen, Galatasaray and other champions of those leagues (note: Club Brugge came second to this week’s CL darlings Union Saint-Gilloise last season) are allowed a seat at the big table but they’re only really allowed to order from the kids menu.
Which is why Verhaeghe, in a very long and rather odd interview with Belgian newspaper HLN, raised the interesting possibility of combing with the Eredivisie once again.
“We must also dare to think positively again about a BeNeLiga,” he said.
“We, as a smaller country, just like the Netherlands and Portugal, must be aware that the five big leagues are increasingly pulling away. And then you shouldn’t be shouting for more solidarity money, but critically question your own raison d’être and think about good alternatives.”
Verhaeghe is one of Belgian football’s most influential figures
Club are understood to be one of the teams still leaving a light on for the zombie Super League project, which lobby group A22 is persisting with despite all logic and sentiment.
But the BeNeLiga project has never got off the ground before because of similar technical impossibilities that go beyond physical logistics.
For one, clubs like Club Brugge would need to accept that their chances of qualifying for European competitions would go down. After all, there is no way that UEFA would allow the Dutch league (six European places this season) and the Belgian league (five European places) to keep all eleven in a combined competition. And if they did (which they wouldn’t) then what sort of league rewards the team finishing tenth with continental competition? Not a good one.
The clubs at the top see the value in setting up more high-octane(?) clashes between the biggest brands in each country. Essentially, Club and Anderlecht would much rather be playing league fixtures against Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord than making trips to Dender and La Louviere and they’re not particularly trying to hide it.
Deloitte were tasked with sketching out the feasibility of the project around five years ago, and promised significantly increased broadcast revenue for clubs if they were to make the leap.
Their proposal called for an 18-team league with eight Belgian and ten Dutch clubs (the imbalance justified by the Netherlands’ bigger population) and relegation/promotion to a second tier where the Belgian and Dutch leagues would continue in parallel. The reality of this meant that for your Denders and La Louvieres, there would no longer be games against the likes of Club Brugge, Anderlecht and Standard Liege, the matches where they can reasonably expect to sell out their stadiums, and instead would be reduced to playing each other and scrapping for a chance to get promoted to face the big boys.
Whatever promise there is of increased revenue, it would have to be mind-bendingly rich to convince the turkeys to vote for Christmas in such a way.
Those votes would be a problem, and particularly so in the Netherlands where any change to the league requires 15 of the 18 clubs to vote in favour. One former Eredivisie owner who was party to the discussions at the time suggested to FootBiz that even a simple majority would be too much to ask for a project that would cast aside so many clubs.
A non-starter, then, even there’s no doubt that broadcasters would prefer the BeNeLiga product. With the next domestic TV rights deals in each territory appearing likely go down once again, though, this likely isn’t the last we’ve heard of mergers or new competitions.
Feyenoord would be a potential beneficiary of such a proposal
And while Verhaeghe appears to be wasting his time in urging teams to dust off the defibrillators and attempt to bring this cross-border project back to life, I do at least admire the creativity of any club, league or governing body trying to solve their issues.
They just need to remember that their issues (not being able to compete with the megaclubs on a continental level) are actually the same as the issues being experienced by the clubs they’re trying to leave behind (not being able to complete with the megaclubs on a domestic level).
The solution to their problem actually deepens the issue of the others in this case.
At some point soon, though, it does seem as if a cross-border league will happen somewhere. For commercial or competitive reasons.
A recent story in The Athletic discussed the increasing possibility of a MLS-Liga MX merger, where the two leagues appear to solve problems for each other.
Major League Soccer’s struggles for domestic and international relevance persist, but it remains a commercial juggernaut with sky-high valuations for even the smaller franchises (Columbus Crew: $950m 🤯).
Liga MX has a huge fanbase both north and south of the border (it’s the most popular league in the US) and that passionate football culture that MLS dreams of having, as well as huge brands who draw crowds. In many ways, this is the cross-border marriage that makes the most sense of any in football.
A recent sign of not just the approximation between the leagues — beyond the expanded Leagues Cup tournament that they now play together every year — but the closeness of the relationship was Liga MX president Mikel Arriola declining to say that Mexican clubs would be following La Liga’s example and playing league games on US soil. Instead, Arriola underlined that any decision on that “would be made together with MLS.”
With the leagues getting closer together, and without the concerns over continental qualification that we’ve seen in Europe (CONCACAF would kill their Champions Cup both financially and competitively if they limited Mexican or American participation) there are fewer obstacles in North America.
As ever with big changes like this, they would just need to be something that brings everyone along on the ride. Not just a money-spinner for the chosen few like Verhaeghe’s.
A novel concept in football, I know.
Table of Contents
4,455 words below the paywall today. Almost worth subscribing for.
