FANS’ UPROAR AT EURO BREAKAWAY
CIVIL war has broken out within European football after a dramatic power grab by the biggest clubs.
The Premier League’s Big Six – Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea – have been involved in a plot which threatens to blow football apart.
Fans are in uproar, outraged by what they see as blatant greed, while football’s governing bodies have expressed their anger and the Government condemned the plan as a “closed shop.”
The timing is perhaps the worst thing about the plot because UEFA were due to announce their new-look 36-team Champions League today.
It has been clear for weeks that not everyone was on board as rows have broken out between Europe’s top clubs and UEFA.
Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli is the driving force of the breakaway as he is also chairman of the influential European Club Association.
Last month, the ECA caused UEFA to postpone another announcement over their plans for a post-2024 breakaway European league.
Now they have blown UEFA out of the water again, and do not expect them to back down or show any sort of remorse for doing so.
They knew exactly what they were doing because as the weeks and months have gone by, they have become increasingly annoyed by UEFA trying to rush ahead amid fears there would be a public announcement of an agreement, even though there was no such thing.
What Agnelli (right) has failed to do so far is publicly explain why the big clubs feel they have been driven to this. They believe if the fans truly understood, then their accusations of greed would be turned on UEFA rather than the clubs.
The row centres on the clubs wanting a greater share of the commercial rights, the TV deal and they believe UEFA should primarily be the competition’s regulator not the commercial partner.
The clubs are annoyed that UEFA take such a huge slice of profits when it is the clubs, on the back of a crippling pandemic, who are taking all of the risk by buying the players, putting on the games and selling the tickets.
They have backed down from initial plans to include more clubs based on coefficients – qualifying by previous European success – and also reaching the next year’s Champions League merely by getting through the knock-out stage.
But they feel as if UEFA are not meeting them halfway, they are not involving them in discussions, and yet want to pocket all of the rewards. In their eyes, it is UEFA being greedy.
The clubs have yet to reach agreement with UEFA on Financial Fair Play, the domestic and international match calendar as well as fixtures for the Europa League and European Conference League, and other issues.
But now the ECA and the super clubs appear to have lost the PR battle.
The Football Supporters Association said: “The motivation behind this so-called Super League is not furthering sporting merit or nurturing the world’s game – it is motivated by nothing but cynical greed.”