James Corden “Genuinely Heartbroken” By Super League Plan — Watch

Denise Petski
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

James Corden opened his Late Late Show Monday with an impassioned monologue, slamming proposals by 12 major European soccer clubs, including Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, to create a breakaway Super League.

“I’m heartbroken by it, genuinely heartbroken by it. I’m heartbroken because the owners of these teams have displayed the worst kind of greed I have ever seen in sport,” Corden said.

More from Deadline

London-born Corden explained the historical significance of British football teams, saying they are established institutions with working-class roots , unlike U.S. sport franchises. He also compared the situation to an imagined scenario where A-list actors such as Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Saoirse Ronan and Viola Davies broke away from the Oscars.

“It’s hard to express how much communities rely on football, not just financially, which is considerable, but football is a focal point of a towns hopes and dreams,” he said.

“These dreams, they’ve just been shattered not just in Britain, across Europe. And the reason the dreams have been shattered and discarded is so that a group of billionaires can buy themselves a bigger boat or a second boat.

“Football is a working-class game where anyone can beat anyone on their day and it’s that that makes it incredible, it’s that that’s made it a global force,” he continued.

Corden added that the Super League would prevent an incredible and improbable victory like Leicester City’s Premier League title win in 2016.

He added: “And if this happens, and unfortunately I really do think it will, I don’t want to be overdramatic, but I do think it’s the end of the sport that we love.”

He closed with an impassioned plea: “Don’t ever forget that it was them, those owners, that took something so pure and so beautiful and they beat the love and the joy out of it and they did it for money, they just did it for money, and it’s disgusting.”

You can watch Corden’s entire monologue above.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.