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European Super League, recalculating: clubs resign, fans protest and the initial foam loses strength

2021-04-20T22:32:18.523Z


Manchester City and Chelsea consider abandoning the project; Barcelona objects. PSG and Bayern Munich warned that they will not join.


04/20/2021 17:04

  • Clarín.com

  • sports

Updated 04/20/2021 17:06

The European midnight on Sunday broke with an unexpected bomb for world football, the kind that have been threatening to detonate for a long time but the day of the explosion never comes.

Everything was broken, the newspapers, the leaders, the federations, the teams and the fans agreed.

But from saying to fact there is a long way to go.

And that in a few hours it was mutating from the initial furious clean and jerk in which the European Super League was established as a new disruptive order to the decline of several clubs and the statements of central football players against such a change.

What on Monday was controversial and crossed darts between leaders, on Tuesday was translated into concrete facts.

Manchester City informed the organizers of the new European Soccer Super League that it has no intention of continuing to be part of the project, according to British media.

Thus the English team follows in the footsteps of Chelsea, which also prepares the legal procedures to withdraw from the continental league that at first promoted twelve of the most powerful clubs on the continent.

With those two resignations, four Premier League teams remain committed to the project: Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham.

The Brighton players wear T-shirts in favor of the fans and against the Super League in the warm-up for the match against Chelsea.

Photo: Reuter

According to the British radio station Talksport, the 12 founding clubs of the Super League plan to talk in the next few hours to decide which path they will follow from now on.

Do they advance despite everything, is the project diluted or do they sit down to negotiate with UEFA?

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated at a press conference his opposition to an initiative that "does not favor the interest of fans or promote the interest of football."

Johnson said he is willing to legislate to block the project, although he assured that his first option is to support the Premier League and the English federation (FA) to find a solution "for themselves."

Although some protagonists of the teams involved, such as Zinedine Zidane, DT of Real Madrid, or Andrea Pirlo, of Juventus, opted for evasive opinions, there were many relevant voices that in the last hours came out at the crossroads of an initiative that disrupts values sport basics.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was a central spokesperson against the Super League.

And although he preferred not to deepen his opinion until he had "all the information" on the matter, he was critical of the spirit of the project.

Soccer "is not a sport when the relationship between effort and success, between effort and reward, does not exist. It is not a sport when success is guaranteed in advance. It is not a sport when it does not matter if you lose," he said. 

A sign with the message "Give back to our Arsenal" posted outside the club's Emirates Stadium in London.

Photo: EFE

And he continued: "It is not fair when a team fights, fights and fights, reaches the top, but cannot qualify because success was already guaranteed for a few other clubs."

One of the figures on his team, Kevin De Bruyne, was the first star of the teams involved to come out to oppose the Super League. 

The midfielder, who recalled his beginnings in the Belgian and German leagues, assured that he always played to win everything and that the keyword for this is "compete".

"With everything that has happened these days, the most important thing is that we are together and try to find a solution. We know that this is a business and that I am part of it, but I am also still the little boy who just wanted to play football. "he said on social media.

In this context, hundreds of fans from different English clubs gathered on the outskirts of Stamford Bridge against the European Super League project, this Tuesday before the match between Chelsea and Brighton.

"RIP Football 1863-2021", "Created by the poor, stolen by the rich" or "Abramovich (owner of Chelsea) makes the right decision" were some of the many messages displayed by the fans who, before this cause, left to one side their football rivalry.

Both Leeds United fans and footballers and DT Marcelo Bielsa expressed their stance against the new tournament.

Photo: AFP

"I don't know anything, if I've been stuck on the bus for 45 minutes waiting to get into the stadium. The only thing I know is that I'm in a super competitive club and that I trust them," Chelsea German coach Thomas Tuchel told Sky Sports .

"We have given everything in the Champions League, in the FA Cup, we have left our soul in the field. I do not know enough about the subject and I trust that the club will make the decisions that go with competitive sport," he added.

To this objection that two of the English teams put, Barcelona joins, which makes their participation in the Super League subject to approval by the members' assembly.

This was decided by the board of directors chaired by Joan Laporta, who signed on Saturday, shortly before the final of the Copa del Rey, the document to join the new competition, although clarifying this exception.

In the document, Barcelona added a clause according to which it reserves the possibility that the agreement be validated in the assembly of compromisario partners.

In this way, if the representation of the members decides that the Barça club does not take part in the new competition, the club should withdraw.

For their part, Atlético de Madrid fans grouped in the club's International Union of Peñas, an organization that groups more than 300 clubs out of the 845 that are registered in the rojiblanco club, released a statement in which they expressed their concern about the participation in the Super League.

The 12 teams of the European Super League;

some have already warned that they will not be there.

This association of supporters declared "against any project that is forged behind the backs of the fans", demanded "that the representatives of the fans be listened to" and asked that "any new competition" be organized "based on the principles of solidarity and sporting merit ".

Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Juventus, Milan and Inter are the European clubs that this Sunday announced themselves as promoters of a Super League chaired by Real Madrid's boss, Florentino Perez.

In the initial sketch, these teams would have their participation in the tournament assured without depending on the sporting results and, most importantly, they would receive economic income a priori much higher than what they currently receive for participating in the Champions League.

In his postulates in favor of the creation of this new contest, Florentino Pérez argued before the press that the 12 clubs involved in the Super League lost 5,000 million euros in the last year and a half marked by the coronavirus pandemic.

He also warned about a presumed loss of interest in many matches between large and small teams that no longer generate the same attention as before in competitions such as the Champions League.

"What makes money are big competitions and this is a pyramid," said the merengue boss. "If those of us at the top do not lose money we can buy players and be supportive. There are young people who are not interested in football because there are few matches quality".


UEFA and FIFA did not move a millimeter from their initial position.

The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, confirmed during the Ordinary UEFA Congress held in Montreaux (Switzerland) his firm rejection of the organization and creation of the Super League.

"FIFA is an organization built on the values ​​of sport and can only firmly disapprove of the creation of the Super League, which is a closed shop and a break with the current institutions, with the leagues, with the associations, and with UEFA. Let me show you. FIFA's full support for European football and UEFA, "he said.

In the same vein, UEFA President Alexander Ceferin addressed the 12 signing clubs of the Superliga and invited everyone to change their minds and "correct their mistake" out of respect for the fans and the history of football.

In addition, he thanked the position of some entities such as Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, who were among the possible guests to occupy the pending places, but who already warned their refusal. 

Bayern Munich made its stance against the Super League explicit as its CEO, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, was elected a member of the UEFA executive committee, replacing Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli as representative of the European Club Association (ECA).

"On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to make it explicitly clear that Bayern Munich will not participate in the Super League," Rummenigge said in a statement.

The president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, remarked that they will seek to impose the Super League although he did not set deadlines for its execution.

AFP

PSG also made its position official in a statement signed by its president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, in which they remarked: "Football is a sport for everyone and I have been constant on this point from the beginning. We must remember that as a club of football, we are a family and a community, whose hearts are our fans, and we must remember that. "

In counterpart to the cataract of opinions against the project, the organizers of the Superliga received good news from the justice system.

The Commercial Court 17 of Madrid adopted precautionary measures to prevent any action that prevents the launch of the Super League.

In this way, it prevents FIFA, UEFA and all their associated Federations or Leagues "from adopting any measure that prohibits, restricts, limits or conditions in any way, directly or indirectly, the launch of the Super League as well as any sanctioning measure. or disciplinary against the participating clubs, their players and managers ". 

Florentino Pérez remains firm. Although he navigated a speech that sought not to break definitively with UEFA, he left his particular diagnosis: "We are all ruined. We do it to save football."

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-04-20

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