Twelve great European clubs of football made official the launch “in August” of his Superliga, A competition that will clash with the Champions League current, which is a declaration of war to which UEFA promised this Sunday to respond with harsh measures against these clubs and their players.
“Twelve of the most important European clubs announce that they have reached an agreement to create a new competition, The Super League, governed by their founding clubs. AC Milan, Arsenal, Athletic Madrid, Chelsea, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid i Tottenham they have joined as founding clubs, ”reads a statement released on social media.
“The inaugural season will begin as soon as possible”, Add text, without setting a precise calendar.
Official Communiqué: The main European football clubs announce the new Super League.#RealMadrid
– Real Madrid CF (@realmadrid) April 18, 2021
This project, say its promoters, is intended for “Generate additional resources for all football pyramids”.
“In return for their commitment, the founding clubs will receive a one – time payment of the order of 3.5 billion euros ($ 4.190 million), intended solely for infrastructure investments and to offset the impact of the covid-19 crisis, “the statement added.
If this figure is confirmed it would be much higher income to which the clubs obtain from the UEFA by the set of their competitions of clubs (Champions League, Europa League, Supercopa of Europe), that generated 3.2 billion euros ($ 3.88 billion) in television revenue in the 2018-2019 campaign, before the pandemic severely affected the European sports rights market.
The first president of The Super League is the Spaniard Florentino Pérez, President of Real Madrid.
“We will help football at all levels, to get it to the place it deserves. Football is the only global sport. Our responsibility as big clubs is meet the expectations of fans“Perez was quoted as saying in a statement.
League almost closed
The ‘king sport’ in Europe thus sees its future convulsed, as the Superleague comes into opposition with current philosophy of redistribution of television resources between the Champions and national leagues. Clubs promoting the new competition aspire to an almost closed league system, Comparable to the American Basketball (NBA) or American Football (NFL) championships.
According to its promoters, the Super League would operate in a one-man format regular season with 20 teams, Fifteen of them called “founding clubs,” classified ex officio each year, and five enjoying invitations “Through a system based on their performance in the previous season.”
At the end of this first phase, which would begin in August, there would be a ‘playoffs’ at the end of the season, until May, to decide the champion.
It remains to be seen what response 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, on Sunday threatened any ‘dissident’ club with the exclusion from national and international competitions, Warning in addition to the players of these clubs they could not play with their respective national teams.
It remains to be seen whether this threat is in line with European competition law, which portends a possible legal battle.
The launch of this Super League comes when UEFA has convened its Executive Committee on Monday (07:00 GMT), intended in principle to formalize the reform of the Champions League for the stage to begin in 2024.