LONDON —
A group of 12 of Europe’s elite clubs on Sunday opened a rift in continental soccer by announcing that they will leave the Champions League to create a separate tournament, a so-called Super League, defying threats of legal action by UEFA.
The clubs involved in the project to give up the current structures – with the veiled objective of attracting more income and power – include Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United.
Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea, Milan, Inter, Juventus, Manchester City and Tottenham are also among the founders. The organizers of the Super League hope to add three more clubs.
No club from the German or French leagues has embarked so far.
The owners of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are also owners of United States franchises that play in closed leagues — a model that they intend to transfer to Europe.
“By bringing together the best clubs and players in the world to play against each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring top-level competition and facilities, and greater financial support for the football pyramid. football in general,” said Joel Glazer, co-owner of Manchester United and vice president of the Super League.
The president of Real Madrid Florentino Pérez would be the founding president of the Super League, which intends to play its inaugural season “as soon as possible.”
“We are going to help football at all levels to take its rightful place in the world,” Pérez said. “Football is the only global sport in the world with more than 4 billion followers and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to the wishes of the fans.”
Although their intention is to play in midweek and stay in their domestic leagues, the rebel clubs have been warned by those competitions and UEFA that this will not be possible.
The European Super League plans, initially leaked in January, pose a greater threat just as UEFA was due to announce the new Champions League format.
The Champions League will increase from 32 to 36 teams, fulfilling the desire of the European heavyweights to play more lucrative continental matches. But the clubs remain frustrated because UEFA does not give up more control in the sale of audiovisual rights.
In any case, the board of the European Club Association and the UEFA competitions committee approved on Friday to expand the Champions League from 2024. The UEFA executive committee plans to ratify the change in format on Monday.
The rebel clubs are members of the Association, which has an agreement with UEFA, signed in 2019 and which commits all its members to continue in the Champions League and other European competitions until the 2023-24 season.
UEFA announced on Sunday that it is “aware that some English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce the creation of a so-called European Super League.”
They called it a “cynical project, a project that is based on the self-interest of a few clubs,” UEFA said in a joint statement with the leagues and federations of England, Spain and Italy.
UEFA, the leagues and the federations also threatened to take “all measures at our disposal, at all levels, both judicial and sporting, to prevent this from happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit; “It can’t be any other way.”
“As already announced by FIFA and the six federations, the affected clubs will not be able to play in any other competitions at national, European or world level, and their players could be deprived of the opportunity to represent their national teams.”
Although FIFA made a statement in January, warning that players participating in the Super League will not be able to be called up for the World Cup, the parent entity of soccer has not denied that its president, Gianni Infantino, has held talks with leaders, including them Perez.
In a statement released after the announcement of the founding of the Super League, FIFA expressed its disapproval of what it called a “closed European separatist league.”
“FIFA always stands for unity in world football and calls on all parties involved in heated debates to engage in calm, constructive and balanced dialogue for the good of the game and in a spirit of solidarity and fair play,” he added.
For its part, the English Premier League said the plan “undermines the appeal” of football.
“Fans of any club in England and across Europe can dream that their team can climb to the top and face the best,” the English league said. “We believe that the concept of the European Super League will destroy this dream.”
In a previous proposal, the creation of the annual tournament with 20 teams will have 15 as permanent members, according to the details to which the AP had access. The other five will vary each season, but the qualifying format has not yet been defined.
Under this plan, each of the 15 founding members will receive a portion of the 3.5 billion euros ($4.2 billion) that will be invested in the start of the tournament. The money will be distributed across four levels of clubs, with the top six pocketing 350 million euros ($420 million).
The competition will begin with two groups of 10 teams, with the top four of each advancing to the quarterfinals. This will guarantee that each team plays 18 Super League games per season, in contrast to the minimum of 10 that is expected in the new group stage of the Champions League.
The new Super League proposal aims to generate 4,000 million euros (4,860 million dollars) in audiovisual rights. In contrast, UEFA received a total of 3.25 billion euros combined from the sale of the rights to the Champions League, the Europa League and the Super Cup.
