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Breaking: Football giants confirm rebel Super League in seismic shift
Max Laughton and Zac Rayson from Fox Sports
April 19th, 2021 10:10 am
A dozen of the world’s top football clubs have agreed to create a breakaway Super League which would up-end the entire sport.
Six clubs from England (Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham), three from Spain (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) and three from Italy (Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan) have released a joint statement announcing the new competition, which is likely to begin in 2022.
The new 20-team competition – with two groups of ten playing in a group stage before a knockout tournament – stands as a direct rival to the UEFA Champions League, but not traditional domestic leagues.
Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, named the inaugural chairman of the Super League, said in the joint statement:
“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”
Manchester United co-owner Joel Glazer said: “By bringing together the world’s greatest clubs and players to play each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring world-class competition and facilities, and increased financial support for the wider football pyramid.”
The move has sparked outrage in the football community, with the threat of clubs being banned from their domestic leagues and players banned from representing their countries.
“The clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams,” UEFA said in a statement.
The Premier League, meanwhile claimed the a European Super League would have a deeply damaging impact on the immediate and future prospects of the Premier League and its clubs.
“Fans of any club in England and across Europe can currently dream that their team may climb to the top and play against the best. We believe that the concept of a European Super League would destroy this dream,” the Premier League said in a statement.
The FA then declared a closed league would “attack the principles of open competition and sporting merit” and repeated a threat by FIFA that players who participate in such a competition could be banned from representing their countries at international level.
“We would not provide permission to any competition that would be damaging to English football, and will take any legal and/or regulatory action necessary to protect the broader interests of the game,” said the FA.
The bombshell announcement came on the same day UEFA were expected to confirm changes to the Champions League format from 2024.
Europe’s premier club competition is expected to be expanded from 32 to 36 clubs with a minimum of 10 games for each team.
Those changes were seen as a measure to dissuade a breakaway and appease the continent’s biggest clubs, who are seeking greater revenue from more matches against each other.
However, the 12 breakaway clubs have been lured by a 3.5 billion euro ($4.2 billion, £3 billion) pot just to sign up to the competition.
The dozen clubs have been trying to grab other big teams, such as Germany’s Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund and France’s Paris Saint-Germain, to join as ‘Founding Members’ – with the statement saying: “It is anticipated that a further three clubs will join ahead of the inaugural season, which is intended to commence as soon as practicable.”
The founding clubs will receive a share of “a one-time payment of the order of 3.5 billion euros”, the statement claimed, while they have promised to reinvest money into smaller clubs who are not included in the competition.
The statement read: “The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues.
“These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs.”
Nevertheless, it is an extremely lucrative move for the clubs involved, who have faced significant financial losses due to COVID-19. If that 3.5 billion euro ($A5.425bn) figure is divided by 15 founding clubs, it would equate to around $A360 million per club.
COMPETITION FORMAT
The joint statement says:
“20 participating clubs with 15 Founding Clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.
“Midweek fixtures with all participating clubs continuing to compete in their respective national leagues, preserving the traditional domestic match calendar which remains at the heart of the club game.
“An August start with clubs participating in two groups of ten, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth will then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions.
“A two-leg knockout format will be used to reach the final at the end of May, which will be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/footba...s/news-story/31e1ef3f479953ac64c44920ea697636
Max Laughton and Zac Rayson from Fox Sports
April 19th, 2021 10:10 am
A dozen of the world’s top football clubs have agreed to create a breakaway Super League which would up-end the entire sport.
Six clubs from England (Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham), three from Spain (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) and three from Italy (Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan) have released a joint statement announcing the new competition, which is likely to begin in 2022.
The new 20-team competition – with two groups of ten playing in a group stage before a knockout tournament – stands as a direct rival to the UEFA Champions League, but not traditional domestic leagues.
Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, named the inaugural chairman of the Super League, said in the joint statement:
“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”
Manchester United co-owner Joel Glazer said: “By bringing together the world’s greatest clubs and players to play each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring world-class competition and facilities, and increased financial support for the wider football pyramid.”
The move has sparked outrage in the football community, with the threat of clubs being banned from their domestic leagues and players banned from representing their countries.
“The clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams,” UEFA said in a statement.
The Premier League, meanwhile claimed the a European Super League would have a deeply damaging impact on the immediate and future prospects of the Premier League and its clubs.
“Fans of any club in England and across Europe can currently dream that their team may climb to the top and play against the best. We believe that the concept of a European Super League would destroy this dream,” the Premier League said in a statement.
The FA then declared a closed league would “attack the principles of open competition and sporting merit” and repeated a threat by FIFA that players who participate in such a competition could be banned from representing their countries at international level.
“We would not provide permission to any competition that would be damaging to English football, and will take any legal and/or regulatory action necessary to protect the broader interests of the game,” said the FA.
The bombshell announcement came on the same day UEFA were expected to confirm changes to the Champions League format from 2024.
Europe’s premier club competition is expected to be expanded from 32 to 36 clubs with a minimum of 10 games for each team.
Those changes were seen as a measure to dissuade a breakaway and appease the continent’s biggest clubs, who are seeking greater revenue from more matches against each other.
However, the 12 breakaway clubs have been lured by a 3.5 billion euro ($4.2 billion, £3 billion) pot just to sign up to the competition.
The dozen clubs have been trying to grab other big teams, such as Germany’s Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund and France’s Paris Saint-Germain, to join as ‘Founding Members’ – with the statement saying: “It is anticipated that a further three clubs will join ahead of the inaugural season, which is intended to commence as soon as practicable.”
The founding clubs will receive a share of “a one-time payment of the order of 3.5 billion euros”, the statement claimed, while they have promised to reinvest money into smaller clubs who are not included in the competition.
The statement read: “The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues.
“These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs.”
Nevertheless, it is an extremely lucrative move for the clubs involved, who have faced significant financial losses due to COVID-19. If that 3.5 billion euro ($A5.425bn) figure is divided by 15 founding clubs, it would equate to around $A360 million per club.
COMPETITION FORMAT
The joint statement says:
“20 participating clubs with 15 Founding Clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.
“Midweek fixtures with all participating clubs continuing to compete in their respective national leagues, preserving the traditional domestic match calendar which remains at the heart of the club game.
“An August start with clubs participating in two groups of ten, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth will then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions.
“A two-leg knockout format will be used to reach the final at the end of May, which will be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/footba...s/news-story/31e1ef3f479953ac64c44920ea697636
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