Latest plans for European Premier are slammed by fans group

Reports of plans to launch a European Premier League involving Liverpool and Manchester United are "the last nail in the coffin of the idea that football can be relied upon to regulate itself ", a leading fans' group has said.

The Premier League giants are reportedly involved in talks over the creation of a new competition, which it is claimed has the backing of FIFA.

The news comes just over a week after Project Big Picture proposals emerged, which were developed by Liverpool and Manchester United and publicly endorsed by EFL chairman Rick Parry.

The proposals were rejected at a Premier League clubs meeting last week, and described as "a distraction at best" by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden from the pressing need for the Premier League and EFL to agree a financial rescue package amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Kevin Miles, the chief executive of the Football Supporters' Association, said :" The latest reports of plots, allegedly involving Manchester United and Liverpool, to create a European Super League, expose the myth that billionaire owners care about the English football pyramid, or indeed any thing other than their own greed.

"This has to be the last nail in the coffin of the idea that football can be relied upon to regulate itself: these billionaire owners are out of control.

"Football in all its forms in the UK, from grassroots to the top tier, occupies far too important a place in our society, our culture and our communities to be jeopardised by an even greater concentration of wealth in the hands of half a dozen big clubs.

"Decisive action is now needed to protect the game we love.

"We have already been promised by government a fan-led review of the governance and regulation of football: That process needs to start as a matter of urgency before the superrich custodians of the biggest clubs can do any more damage."