Twelve major European clubs of football made their launch “in August” Superliga, a match that will clash with the Champions League current, a declaration of war to which UEFA pledged to respond this Sunday with tough measures against those clubs and their players.
Twelve of the main European clubs announce that they have entered into an agreement to create a new league, the Super League, to be run by their founding clubs. AC Milan Arsenal Atletico Madrid Chelsea FC Barcelona Inter Milan Juventus Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Real Madrid Y Tottenham they have joined as founding clubs, ”a statement posted on social networks.
“The opening season will start as soon as possible.”, add the text without setting a precise timetable.
Official announcement: The main European football clubs announce the new Super League.#Real Madrid
– Real Madrid CF (@realmadrid) April 18, 2021
This project, explain its promoters, is intended to “generate additional resources for the entire football pyramid”
In exchange for their efforts, the founding clubs receive a one-time payment of the order from 3,500 million euros ($ 4.19 billion), intended exclusively for investments in infrastructure and to offset the impact of the Covid-19 crisis, “the statement added.
If that figure is confirmed, it would be much higher income that UEFA clubs obtain for all their club competitions (Champions League, Europa League, European Supercup), which 3,200 million euros ($ 3.88 billion) in television revenues in the 2018-2019 campaign, before the pandemic seriously hit the European sports rights market.
The first president of The Super League is Spanish Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid.
“We are going to help football at all levels, to bring it to the place it deserves. Football is the only global sport. Our responsibility as big clubs is meet the expectations of fansPerez said, quoted in the statement.
Competition almost closed
The ‘beautiful sport’ in Europe thus sees its future disrupted, since the Superliga contradicts current philosophy of redistribution of television resources between the Champions League and the national leagues. The clubs promoting the new league are striving to an almost closed competition system, similar to the North American Basketball (NBA) or American Football (NFL) championships.
According to the initiators, the Super League would operate with a size of one regular season with 20 teams, 15 of them called “founders’ clubs”, which are classified by subject area each year, and five others enjoy invitations “through a system based on his performance in the previous season.”
At the end of this first stage, which was to begin in August, there would be a ‘play-offs’ at the end of the season, until May, to decide the champion.
Now it remains to be seen what reaction UEFA will give, very vehemently against the secession project, and FIFA.
The European body, in a statement also signed by several national championships on its continent, threatened every ‘dissident’ club with the exclusion from national and international competitions, also warn the players of those clubs could not play for their respective national teams
It remains to be seen whether that threat is in line with European competition law, which heralds a possible legal battle.
The launch of this Super League comes when UEFA has convened its Executive Committee for Monday (7 a.m. GMT), basically intended to formalize Champions League reform for the leg that should start in 2024.