LEADER: SUPER LEAGUE ON ‘STANDBY’
The Super League is far from dead and its clubs have not given up on the idea of the breakaway competition despite having to shelve the project just a few days after it was announced, Real Madrid President Florentino Perez said.
Perez, who would have been the new league’s founding chairman, said the clubs behind the Super League will continue working on a way to make the competition work, even if changes have to be made to its format.
He said the Super League is on “standby” and the group is open to discussing ideas with European soccer’s governing body and other entities to help the game amid the coronavirus pandemic. Perez said he was certain that a “very similar” competition would soon be created.
“We are going to keep working,” Perez told Spanish radio network SER in an interview early today local time. “We are looking for ways of getting this done. It would be a shame not to get it done.”
The Super League was announced Sunday but essentially folded after the English clubs involved in the project pulled out Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Atletico Madrid and the three Italian clubs in the project — Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan — also opted out. That left Real Madrid and Barcelona as the only clubs still officially in the new league.
Perez said no one was really leaving, though.
“They haven’t left,” he said. “We are all still together, thinking of ways of making this happen.”
Two of England’s Super League rebels issued apologies — on camera from Liverpool owner John Henry and in a letter from Manchester
United co-owner Joel Glazer — but they couldn’t placate anger that their clubs tried to split to form a largely closed European competition.
“I’m sorry, and I alone am responsible for the unnecessary negativity brought forward over the past couple of days,” Henry told Liverpool fans in a video message.
About 10 hours after Henry’s message was posted, Glazer wrote: “In seeking to create a more stable foundation for the game, we failed to show enough respect for its deep-rooted traditions — promotion, relegation, the pyramid — and for that we are sorry.”
More England
Two of the other rebel teams, Manchester City and Tottenham, fell behind Wednesday but recovered to register vital wins and leave them in good spirits for their next match — their meeting at Wembley Stadium for the
League Cup final Sunday.
City fought back from conceding a goal after just 20 seconds to beat Aston Villa 2-1 and move within eight points of a third league title in four years.
Tottenham, under interim manager Ryan Mason, needed a 90th-minute penalty from Son Heung-min to clinch a 2-1 victory over Southampton and close to within two points of fourthplace Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification.
Olympic draws
The United States will face rival Sweden as it pushes to become the first women’s team to win the World Cup and Olympic gold back to back. The Americans, ranked No. 1 in the FIFA soccer rankings, learned their Group G will include No. 5 Sweden, No. 9 Australia and No. 22 New Zealand.