Juve’s place at the top table is under threat as Agnelli shrugs off storm
IT HAS been a week Juventus chief Andrea Agnelli won’t forget in a hurry. Last Sunday evening he emerged as a prime instigator behind the doomed European Super League, promoting a shiny new competition for the continent’s ‘elite’ clubs, including Juve, and fellow Italian giants AC and Inter Milan.
By Wednesday morning the whole project was collapsing around him as the other clubs on board ducked out amid a massive backlash from their rival domestic clubs, media commentators and fans.
The Italian press went on the offensive from the off. ‘The ESL will KILL football,’ screamed daily Tuttosport, while the Gazzetta dello Sport spoke for all in their Monday morning splash: ‘Super League? Super No!’
The Italian trio were part of the so-called ‘dirty dozen’ with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham, plus Spanish giants Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid the others.
But having seen the English ‘big six’ jump ship one-by-one amid a relentless wave of vitriol and scorn on Tuesday night, Agnelli must have realised the game was up. Inter announced their withdrawal on Wednesday morning, with Milan soon following, leaving Agnelli accepting the inevitable. ‘To be frank and honest no, evidently that is not the case,’ he admitted when asked if the ESL was still viable on Wednesday. Having quit his roles as chairman of the European Club Association and a place on Uefa’s executive committee to become the ESL’s chairman last weekend, the 44-year-old copped a full-on broadside from Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin. Yet Agnelli, who claimed other clubs were ready to join the ESL revolution before the English exodus, shrugged off the storm. ‘I remain convinced of the beauty of that project,’ he told Reuters, a view echoed by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who on a Wednesday Spanish radio interview called those thinking the project was finished ‘completely wrong’.
So, Agnelli is being seen as the main ESL bad boy, although each club that signed on, seduced by the promise of a bumper £300million injection, can’t pretend they were bullied into it. Back home, Italian football, has
‘Agnelli is being seen as the main bad boy but the clubs were not bullied into it’
taken a huge hit financially because of the Covid-19 pandemic and Juve, Inter and Milan clearly believed the ESL riches would help to cure their financial woes.
Suddenly, this idealised pathway to competing in the transfer market, keeping their star players while fighting their debts has been blocked off – and it could mean trouble ahead.
Italian FA president Gabriele Gravina says Inter, Juve and Milan will not be punished, but it has left a nasty taste among fans of the other clubs not invited to the ESL party – not least because the likes of Roma, Napoli and Atalanta have performed much better domestically than the two Milan clubs in recent years.
That is likely to change this season, with leaders Inter a step closer to the title following a 1-1 draw at Spezia on Wednesday, taking them ten points
clear of Milan, who lost 2-1 to Sassuolo. But it’s still not a great look.
As for Agnelli, he braved a fans’ protest against their ESL involvement to watch Juve move back into the top three by beating Parma 3-1.
They may have won the last nine Serie A titles but as fourth-placed Atalanta still have a game in hand, the Bianconeri are still in real danger of missing out on the existing form of ‘elite’ European competition – the good old Champions League altogether. That’s surely not what their chief had in mind last weekend.