Superlega, the announcement of 12 clubs
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April 19, 2021 Twelve of the main European teams say goodbye to the Champions League and have their own European championship.
For Italy there are Juventus, Milan and Inter, in addition to the English Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, and the Spanish Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
For now, PSG and Bayern Munich are not participating in the project, while Lyon and Borussia Dortmund, considered among the eligible teams, have not expressed themselves.
A competition with 20 teams of which 15 fixed and 5 selected among others. This is the initial formation of the competition desired in particular by the president of Real Madrid, and the next president of the SuperLeaga, Florentino Perez: "We will help football at every level and we will lead it to occupy the place it rightfully deserves in the world. the only truly global sport with more than four billion fans and the responsibility of us big clubs is to respond to their wishes ".
The SuperLeague of the richest teams
The SuperLega's plans, which were first leaked in January, have become a reality on the eve of the announcement by UEFA, in today's Executive Committee, of a new format for the Champions League with 36 teams. According to Uefa sources, it is precisely the fact that the European association does not want to grant greater control over the sale of television and commercial rights.
The Super League was born with the opposition of a piece of Europe, from the English premier Boris Johnson ("it would be harmful to football), to the French president Emmanuel Macron (with the Elysée that" supports the position of French clubs, which refused to participate in the project that jeopardizes the principle of solidarity and meritocracy in sport ").
Fifa contrary, but invites clubs to dialogue
Fifa's rejection of the newborn tournament arrives by return of post. The International Federation accuses the founding clubs of the Superleague of not wanting to participate in "solidarity in football" and "a model of equitable redistribution that can help develop football as a sport, particularly globally" and speaks of a "European separatist league" closed". Fifa, however, says it is open to dialogue even if the Super League goes against all the principles of the international federation.
Uefa: "whoever enters is out of everything"
UEFA has thus responded harshly to the rumors, threatening to exclude clubs from any competition and to ban players from responding to national team calls. "We will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project - we read in a joint note together with the FIGC, Lega Serie A, Liga, Premier League and the federations of Spain and England - we will take into consideration all the measures at our disposal, at all the levels, both judicial and sporting, in order to prevent this from happening (we are talking about possible claims for damages for 50 billion, ed). This persistent personal interest of a few has been going on for too long. When it is too much is too much ". Then the attack: "As previously announced by FIFA and the six Federations,Affected clubs will be banned from playing in any other competition at national, European or world level, and their players may be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams. "
The Serie A reaction to the indiscretions was also immediate, so much so that an emergency Council was convened at noon. Uefa's threats could prove excessive. Juventus, in the note with which it confirmed that it had joined the Super League project, specifies that: "the founding clubs will continue to participate in their respective national competitions and, until the actual start of the Super League, Juventus believes it will participate in the European competitions in which is entitled to access ".
The Eca versus the Super League
"The ECA, as a body representing 246 leading clubs across Europe, reaffirms its declared commitment to work on the development of the competition model with Uefa for the cycle that begins in 2024 and which is strongly opposed to the closed Superlega project. ", reads a note. The president of the ECA, Andrea Agnelli, number one of Juventus, has announced his resignation and the exit of Juve from the ECA.