it became a premium competition and it is sold like a premium competition. i for one would be ok to a return of the original champions cup format - all champions to battle it out in a pyramid. but we already know that there is no going back to that since money took over.
Yup and just because it did in a commercial sense doesn't mean you have to concede the ideal in favour of what will bring in most consumers. Think we would agree on that anyway. You wouldn't want it governed such that garnering the most fan interest is a first priority, because that'd mean a fuckton of clickbait, restructuring of TV deals in a way that will make it a caricature of what it has been. The model the way it is with UEFA coefficients and some kind of system in place that dictates which teams get into which pot is a sensible one, though not without its flaws. But at least it doesn't mean you literally get just the games between big sides. Because that just works to flatten out the landscape in a way that no game is a breather for a given side. Even in America NBA or NFL you have to play the Browns or the Kings. Just allow it.
Either way, the biggest point of contention isn't the format of the Super League and the scrapping of domestic football models + relegation of La Liga and Premiership to the status of Championship qualification. That's somewhat debatable and there is an argument it's all just sort of "national pride", in a sense that folk would rather have a champion of England rather than a team that qualifies to ESL from England.
The biggest problem, for me, is simply that in the proposal that the league is governed by its founders. Which is simply total nonsense as that way they gain total control over each respective federation and the entire structure of the international calendar.
And that simply cannot be the case as leads to pathology and looking out for own over collective interest all the time.
No matter how much ESL proponents want to ignore it or argue UEFA are corrupt, it's simply not an alternative.
