Elite clubs threaten to exit Champions

A group of elite clubs split European soccer on Sunday with plans to walk away from the Champions League to create a breakaway competition, drawing an angry response and the threat of legal action from UEFA.

The moves to quit the existing structures in an apparent grab for more money and power include Real Madrid, Barcelona, the American owners of Liverpool and Manchester United, Juventus and AC

Milan. No German or French clubs have signed up.

The Super League plans, which were first leaked in January, have escalated into a greater threat to implement them on the eve of UEFA’s planned announcement of a new format for the Champions League. While the long-standing existing competition that grew from the European Cup would increase to 36 teams and add more games as desired by the wealthiest clubs, they remained frustrated that UEFA would not grant more control of the sale of television and commercial rights.

Still, the European Club Association’s board, which is led by Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, and the UEFA clubs’ competitions committee on Friday had signed up to expanding the Champions League from 2024 — ahead of ratification by the UEFA executive committee, including Agnelli, on Monday.

The rebel clubs are all members of the ECA which has a working agreement with UEFA, signed in 2019, which commits all its members to take part in and respect the Champions League and other European competitions through the 2023-24 season.

Now UEFA has announced it has “learned that a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce their creation of a closed, so-called Super League.” The plan was called a “cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs” in a statement from UEFA jointly with the leagues and national governing bodies from England, Spain and Italy.