‘YOU’RE KILL LING THE DREAM’

FOOTBALL VENTS ITS ANGER OVER PLANS FOR EURO SUPER LEAGUE

THE widespread condemnation of the proposed European Super League has come from all corners of the game with chairmen, players and managers taking aim.

Anger was the overriding response in the wake of six Premier League sides – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – confirming they are part of an initial group of 12 clubs seeking to establish a new 20-team continental competition ‘as soon as practicable’.

AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid have also signed up as founding clubs, with three more expected to follow.

Senior figures and players at the teams involved have largely evaded offering their views on something which the likes of United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said was sprung on him on Sunday.

Those from other clubs have been quicker to make their feelings clear.

Leeds midfielder Mateusz Klich tweeted an image of a banner which read: ‘Created by the poor, stolen by the rich’, while the club’s owner Andrea Radrizzani spoke out.

He tweeted: ‘Absolutely against the sporting spirit, the dream of millions of fans to conquer the champions on the field, with planning, vision, work. Kill dreams of players and fans. The teams are fans and WE are custodians of the club.’

Former Football Association and Manchester City chairman David Bernstein said he is ‘really ashamed’ of the six Premier League clubs, while Aston Villa chief executive Christian Purslow branded the Super League a ‘grotesque concept’.

Ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who is now Fifa’s chief of global football development, says the move goes against everything football is based upon.

He said: ‘Football has to stay united – that is the most important thing – and based on sporting merits and overall to respect the history of European football. I believe personally that this idea will not go far.’

England legend Gary Lineker – who starred for two of the breakaway clubs in Spurs and Barcelona – also believes fan power can stop the plan, tweeting: ‘Football is nothing without its fans. We’ve seen that clearly over the last 12 months.

‘If fans stand as one against this anti-football pyramid scheme, it can be stopped in its tracks.’

Lineker’s ex-England team-mate David Seaman described the plan as a ‘disgrace’, while Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl said he foresaw ‘war’ and reiterated his stance against the move.

He said: ‘It’s a big threat, what I see coming up, war, if you want, from the big clubs. We will see what the future brings but it’s a big threat and we have to fight against it.’

The League Managers’ Association

If fans stand as one against this it can be stopped in its tracks

said it will fully support any ‘appropriate measures’ taken against the breakaway clubs, saying in a statement: ‘We believe that any such league would be catastrophically destabilising to the entire European football pyramid, with deep and far-reaching consequences.’

And former Germany star Bastian Schweinsteiger, who played for one team involved and one side who rejected the breakaway – United and Bayern Munich – added his voice to the condemnation.

‘If the #SuperLeague will be realized, it will destroy football with its national leagues as we know it and this is a very sad thought to me.’

All this happened on the day Uefa confirmed its revamped – and controversial – Champions League, which is to kick off in 2024.

The format will see 36 teams contest an extended first phase in which teams play ten rivals of varying strengths with an overall league table determining who progresses.

The top eight head to the knockout stages with the next 16 facing playoffs to join them.