A huge revelation on Sunday rocked European football. Late on Sunday night, 12 European elite clubs announced that they will be joining European Super League. This news wasn’t taken well by various governing bodies like UEFA, Premier League, La Liga, and FIFA.
Manchester United, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City, Barcelona, Juventus, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspurs, Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Atletico Madrid are clubs that have signed up for this breakaway league. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund from Germany have reportedly declined the offer, while Paris Saint-Germain has also been against this league.
This breakaway league will have no relegation or promotion and is only for the European elites, this was in the eyes of a lot of people disgraceful and not the right way to go about it. There will be 15 founding members and five teams will join on invitation. Right now, 12 founding members have joined the Super League.
Andrea Angelli, president of Juventus, reportedly would be one of the Vice-Chairmen of the breakaway league. He was also on the chair of the European Clubs Association (ECA), but joining Super League has made sure that he will be expelled.
According to multiple reports, the fund backing of the European super league is in excess of $10billion. Several reports suggest that each of the founding clubs is being promised $425 million $ for signing up to this league. The founding clubs will reportedly receive a staggering amount of $3.5billion for the infrastructure and also to offset the impact of covid. JP Morgan will reportedly facilitate the initial funding for the tournament. UEFA has strongly condemned this new breakaway league as they believe that football will lose competitive edge if this idea goes ahead.
In an official statement on Sunday, UEFA said, “We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit, it cannot be any other way.”
If this breakaway league actually goes through it will be a big loss to the whole 150-year-old Football pyramid. Leagues like Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A will also lose competitive edge. All the footballing bodies like FIFA and UEFA are United in Fight against the European Super League. They have made it pretty clear that teams who participate in the breakaway competition will not be allowed to play in the domestic and continental leagues.
The players also may pay a price for playing in the super league as reports have suggested that FIFA and UEFA will ban them from representing their countries. UEFA is pretty sure that this competition won’t go through but official statements from clubs suggest that it is just a matter of time that this new league becomes a reality.