Breakaway Super League announced in storm of criticism

Reuters: Twelve of Europe’s top football clubs launched a breakaway Super League on Sunday, launching what is certain to be a bitter battle for control of the game and its lucrative revenue.

The move sets up a rival to UEFA’s established Champions League competition and was condemned by football authorities and political leaders.

Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus are among the leading members of the new league but UEFA has threatened to ban them from domestic and international competition and vowed to fight the move.

French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson both issued statements condemning a breakaway and supporting UEFA’s position.

As well as United, Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have signed up to the plans.

Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain join Real. AC Milan and Inter Milan make up the trio from Italy along with Juventus.

The Super League said that they aimed to have 15 founding members and a 20-team league with five other clubs qualifying each season.

The clubs would share a fund of 3.5 billion euros to spend on infrastructure projects and to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The money would not be available to spend on players.

The League said they will make ‘solidarity payments’ to the rest of European football which will exceed those currently offered by UEFA and which “are expected to be in excess of 10 billion euros” over the 23-year commitment period the clubs have entered into.

No German or French clubs have yet to be associated with the breakaway.

World football’s governing body FIFA expressed its “disapproval to a ‘closed European breakaway league’ outside of the international football structures”.

But noticeably there was no mention of a previous threat from FIFA to ban any players taking part in a breakaway from participating in World Cups. The announcement came just hours before UEFA signed off on its own plans for an expanded and restructured 36-team Champions League on Monday.

UEFA issued a strong statement jointly with English, Spanish and Italian leagues and football federations, saying they were ready to use “all measures” to confront any breakaway and saying any participating clubs would be banned from domestic leagues, such as the Premier League.