Murdoch preparing a football dream league

American billionaire creating a summer competition of elite teams. Manchester and Bayern expected to play there.

American media giant News Corporation, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, is preparing a unique project for a summer football competition. According to the British daily The Guardian, it is the so-called Dream League – a league of dreams in which sixteen of the world’s best clubs are to take part. Among the invited are teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich. The entire project is still in its early stages. The main motivation for the clubs is to penetrate even further into non-European football markets, as the matches are expected to be played in the USA, Africa, and Asia. And what does magnate Murdoch gain? The broadcasting revenues from the matches, which will be carried by his television network across the world.

Formula 1 in football
According to The Guardian, Murdoch’s companies have already approached several cities to gauge interest in the project. “These are cities from Los Angeles to Shanghai. The plan is to make football like Formula 1,” an unnamed source told the paper. Formula 1 thrives mainly on its global reach, as the races are held in North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and also the Middle East. Something similar is meant to be offered to the world by football through the dream league during the off-season – that is, in the summer months. “This plan looks attractive, it could generate significant revenues and make football even more popular,” football agent Jozef Tokos told the Economic Daily. He recalled that in the past there had already been plans to create a unique competition – but they all ended unsuccessfully.

Crowded calendar
The big drawback in preparing such post-season tournaments is the overloaded calendar of clubs and national teams. “The best footballers play up to 70 competitive matches per season, they play an enormous amount of games. Therefore it is difficult to say if there is still space for such a project,” thinks Tokos. But the fact remains that for several years now, big clubs have been traveling around the world during the off-season. For example, Manchester City already played two matches in the USA this summer, in a few days they will start a tour in Thailand, Malaysia, and India, and will return once more to America. And every top club has similar marketing trips with exhibition matches. “They must be paid better by the organizer of the Dream League than what they can earn through their own exhibition tours,” added Tokos.