Hours after UEFA threatened heavy penalties, 12 major European clubs announced on Sunday evening the launch of the separatist Super League, led by Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid.
The move, which has faced sharp criticism from football authorities, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron, aims to compete with the UEFA Champions League.
The organization called the Super League said in a statement that among the six founding clubs of the English Premier League - Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, in addition to Spain's Real Madrid and Barcelona, Inter, Juventus and Milan.
The statement added that the league aims to start its competitions "as quickly as possible" and the founding clubs will receive 3.5 billion dollars "to support plans for investment in infrastructure and face the repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic."
Additional information:
Florentino Perez will be the president of this tournament, and in principle any club that accepts to participate in the tournament will get $ 355 million pic.twitter.com/wDeYbYHFkK
- EPLWORLD (@EPLworld) April 18, 2021
Viva refuses
For its part, FIFA announced that it refused to establish a tournament called the European Super League outside the framework of international football.
"According to this background, FIFA can only express its rejection of the establishment of a closed, separatist European League outside the framework of international football," FIFA said in a statement.