Rebel clubs face expulsion over breakaway
➤ england’s ‘Big Six’ sign up to 15-team European Super League ➤ players could be banned from international tournaments
Europe’s richest clubs were last night threatened with expulsion from their domestic leagues and warned that players would be barred from the World Cup after they unveiled plans for a €10billion breakaway Super League.
The “Big Six” in England, comprising Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, formally confirmed that they had joined with six leading clubs in Spain and Italy over a highly selective and largely closed tournament that would effectively replace the Champions League.
The move, which represents a seismic challenge to the Premier League, the Football Association and Uefa, paves the way for the biggest shake-up of club football in a generation.
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan are also committed to joining the Super League but leading clubs in Germany and France, including Bayern Munich and Paris St-germain, have not yet signed up. A further three “founding clubs” are being sought to take the total to 15, with another five able to qualify annually for the planned 20-team annual tournament.
The proposals have sparked a furious backlash, including:
hprime Minister Boris Johnson urging football authorities to act over the “very damaging plans”.
hthe Premier League writing to its 20 clubs to urge them to walk away “before irreparable damage is done”.
hthe Football Association and Uefa warning that they would not sanction a breakaway, meaning that players and clubs could no longer compete in official competitions. hretired players, led by Gary Neville, calling out the “impostor” owners of their former clubs and advocating points deductions. hfan groups lining up in opposition to a plan that they said was motivated by “cynical greed”.
JP Morgan is understood to be underwriting the project, which will provide founding clubs with €3.5billion for infrastructure and to offset the impact of the pandemic. The league will be owned by the 15 founders, who will put in €2 million and potentially a further €8million.
The first chairman will be Real
Madrid president Florentino Perez and the three American owners of English football’s most successful clubs – John W Henry at Liverpool, Joel Glazer at Manchester United and Stan Kroenke at Arsenal – are all expected to be confirmed as vicechairmen. Sir Alex Ferguson, who is a Manchester United director, has already spoken out to stress that he is not involved in “a move away from 70 years” of European club history.
The breakdown in relations between Uefa and the leading English, Spanish and Italian clubs centres on the ownership of media and sponsorship rights to the Champions League. There is a strong feeling that Uefa enjoys excessive control and financial reward from the competition, even though the clubs are driving revenue and taking all the financial risk on player wages and transfer fees.
The rebel clubs still want to continue playing in domestic competition and the plans, which they want to introduce “as soon as possible”, would relate to midweek European competition. They want matches played according to two groups of 10 clubs, with the top four then qualifying for the knockout phase. “The founding clubs have the objective of improving the quality and intensity” of matches and “a format for top clubs and players to compete on a regular basis,” said the statement.
The move comes just as a 36-team Champions League format was due to be announced by Uefa today, before coming into force in 2024.
That format had been designed to resist persistent proposals for a new Super League. A meeting of the umbrella European Club Association was held on Friday but there was a major split over the potential benefits of the idea. And, with a meeting of the Uefa executive committee today and then its congress due to be held tomorrow, the need for decisions has become urgent.
After a frantic weekend of emergency meetings, football’s major governing bodies issued a series of statements.
A Premier League spokesperson said: “The Premier League condemns any proposal that attacks the principles of open competition and sporting merit which are at the heart of the domestic and European football pyramid.”
In his letter to Premier League clubs, chief executive Richard Masters highlighted Rule L9 which forbids clubs from entering other competitions.
“I cannot envisage any scenario where such permission would be granted,” he wrote. “We call upon any club contemplating associating themselves or joining this venture to walk away immediately before irreparable damage is done.”
A joint statement by the FA, Uefa and the Premier League said that they were “united in our efforts to stop this cynical project” which is “founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever”. They also stressed that they were ready to take legal action to block any proposals. “This persistent selfinterest of a few has been going on for too long – enough is enough,” said the statement.
The ECA, the body which represents 246 leading clubs in Europe, joined in condemnation of the plan even though its chairman Andrea Agnelli is also the president of Juventus. The ECA held an emergency meeting last night, attended by Bayern and PSG but not the “rebel 12”, after which they issued a statement reiterating commitment to revamping the Champions League. Agnelli is expected to resign his role.
The Daily Telegraph revealed last year how Liverpool and Manchester United were seeking to overhaul the domestic football structure, with their “Project Big Picture” proposals that were eventually rejected by a majority of Premier League clubs.
Neville, the former Manchester United captain, warned that fans would disown their clubs and accused the billionaire owners of being motivated by greed. “It’s a criminal act against supporters in this country,” said Neville, a Sky Sports pundit. “They’ve got no loyalty to this country and these leagues. They are impostors. They are nothing to do with football in this country. The fans need protecting. Enough is enough. I love Manchester United [but] this is disowning your own club stuff.
“They should be punished heavily. Massive fines, points deduction, take the titles off them. Relegate United, Liverpool and Arsenal. The timing is hideous. What world are these people living in to think that they can bring this forward at this moment?
“They will back track down because they are bottle merchants. They did the same with Project Big Picture. They chickened out of that one week later.”
The Prime Minister said that he supported football in trying to block the plans. “They would strike at the heart of the domestic game, and will concern fans across the country,” said Johnson.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden stressed the financial link from the Premier League down to grass roots and warned of the dangers of a “closed shop” in Europe. “I’d be bitterly disappointed to see any action that destroys that,” Dowden said.
Christian Seifert, the chief executive of the Bundesliga, warned that it would “irreparably damage the national leagues as the basis of European professional football.”
La Liga president Javier Tebas said that the “gurus of the Super League Powerpoint” were “leaving the darkness of the bar at 5am, drunk on selfishness and a lack of solidarity”.