Super League: Founders present paper - you want to do everything better now

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Luuk de Jong from FC Barcelona

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Daisuke Nakashima / imago images / AFLOSPORT

Led by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus, the Super League, which failed in the spring, is working on a restart.

The new soccer league will then, unlike initially planned, have no permanent members, but rather be "100 percent open".

This emerges from a concept paper that is available to “WirtschaftsWoche”.

In August, SPIEGEL reported on a new attack by the Super League and highlighted the founders' format ideas, some of which have now also been presented in the new strategy paper.

The concerns of many fans, who were a reason for the failure of the project, should flow into the new plans.

"That is why we are committed to the fact that the format of the proposed European Super League abolishes the concept of permanent members and is open to European clubs," says the paper, which is also reported in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".

Accordingly, the paper is aimed at EU MPs and the EU Commission in order to ensure acceptance for the project at the political level.

Previously, there had been political disapproval of the plans.

In a ten-page document that was available to SPIEGEL, it said in August that the negative image of the Super League had to be reversed.

The league sees itself as an alternative to the Champions League and wants to be ready as soon as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decided on the UEFA competition case.

A verdict is expected next summer.

A Super League with 20 teams and a second league with 20 teams, for which all clubs could qualify, would be possible.

The clubs should therefore not leave their national leagues.

Instead, Uefa and its Champions League are attacked with harsh words in the paper.

Criticism of Uefa, support for fans

"There is a lack of games of the highest quality, the most popular teams and players do not face each other regularly enough and the best games only take place late in the season." This generally leads to a decline in viewers and less interest among younger people.

A special focus of the Super League should therefore be given to the spectators, it says in the paper.

Fans should receive grants to travel to away games.

At the final game, 70 percent of the seats are to be reserved for the fans of the finalists.

For half of the fan tickets, the prices should be limited to a maximum.

Uefa recently reformed its Champions League format.

Here you can read more about the future mode, which will apply from 2024.

Twelve European top clubs had published their plans to found a Super League on the night of April 19.

German clubs were not among them.

Under great public pressure, nine founding members abandoned this idea again.

jan / dpa / sid