The Beautiful Race: Football at 300km/h. Motor racing, but done through football, the slogan is clear, but the intent is not. What the hell do football and racing even have in common? Apart from both being sports, probably nothing, except the thing that keeps the world spinning: money.
Superleague Formula was an open wheeler racing series (something like Formula 1) in which each car was sponsored by a football club. Yep. Imagine a Formula 1 team, but with the name, the badge and the colours of a football club, that's exactly what Superleague Formula was about. The racing series was announced in 2005, when it received the approval from FIA, world racing's governing body, but only started in 2008.
 |
| As crazy as it sounds... Liverpool FC's racing car. From sofoot.com |
The first season of this weird marriage between such different sports was composed of six rounds of two races each, and the list of football clubs that have taken part in this competition is honestly incredible: AC Milan and AS Roma from Italy, Tottenham and Liverpool from England, Sevilla and Atlético Madrid from Spain, Flamengo and Corinthians from Brazil, and then Galatasaray, PSV, Anderlecht, Olympiacos, Basel, Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Rangers, and even Al Ain from the United Arab Emirates and Beijing Guoan from China.
And it was the chinese club that won the first title: italian driver Davide Rigon, who in his career also competed in GP2 Series and was Ferrari's simulator driver, won three races and the championship ahead of PSV Eindhoven's Yelmer Buurman and A.C. Milan's Robert Doornbos, who actually competed in the real Formula 1 without much success.
 |
| Beijing Guoan's driver Davide Rigon. From autohebdo.fr |
Beijing Guoan and Borussia Dortmund didn't compete in the 2009 season, when Sporting CP, Midtjylland and Olympique Lyonnais joined the series. That year Liverpool earned the title with spanish driver Adrian Vallés, despite only conquering one race, showing how competitive the field actually was. Tottenham and FC Basel completed the podium.
A year later Girondins de Bordeaux joined, Beijing Guoan came back and a "Team China" appeared, a sign that the racing series was starting to change direction. A record 12 weekends and a total of 36 races were held in 2010, and once again Davide Rigon won the championship, this time driving for Anderlecht's racing team. The podium was, again, completed by Tottenham and FC Basel, in the same order as the year prior. This year, Tottenham missed out on the championship by just two points: so close, yet so far.
I have to be honest, a Spurs racing car doesn't look half bad
In 2011 the fourth and final season of Superleague Formula was held. As we said, Team China was a sign of the change that was going on in the racing series: drivers started competing in their national colours rather than the football club's colours. Eight of the fourteen announced entries had no links with football teams anymore.
The final season was a complete failure: of the eight weekends that were supposed to be held, only two actually took place in the Netherlands and in Belgium between june and july, while the rounds in Russia, China, Brazil, South Korea and New Zealand were all canceled. Australia's John martin was first in the standings, for as much as it is worth, so technically he won the last ever Superleague Formula championship, despite the organizers attempting (and failing) to rebrand it to "Nations Cup".
 |
| The Czech team was one of the few still sponsored by a football club, in this instance Sparta Prague |
After the Chinese rounds were canceled, the were no reports on wether the 2012 season would even take place. All the drivers obviously jumped ship to other more stable racing series and no new announcement was ever made, meaning that the Superleague Formula was discontinued after just four seasons. Actually, three and a half. Or not even half...
Despite Superleague Formula's story being particularly short, its weirdness has left a legacy that will long be remembered by football fans who also like motor racing and vice versa. The series is gone, but the fever-dreamish images of formula cars with A.C. Milan and Liverpool's badges racing around a circuit will forever stay on the internet to puzzle the future generations.
One last gift: a Flamengo, Corinthians and AC Milan pile up. Yeah, I will never ever have another chance to say this sentence again. Enjoy:
Comments
Post a Comment