Many times announced but each time more or less denied for several years, the project of a European super league competing for the biggest European clubs continues to take shape.
The creation of a competition that would upset the football landscape took a little more depth on Tuesday with the revelations, by
Sky News,
of advanced discussions involving several English clubs on the subject.
18 clubs and a league with two-way matches?
According to the media from across the Channel, Manchester United and Liverpool have started negotiations (with the organizers?) To join this future championship then placed under the auspices of Fifa.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham have also been approached to take part in a competition bringing together 18 teams (five English clubs and the rest split with France, Germany, Italy and Spain).
Once the regular season is over with two-way matches, a final tournament would see the top of the standings contested.
Sky News
says this competition will not start before 2022. Bank JP Morgan could provide funding for this super championship to the tune of $ 6 billion.
An announcement at the end of the month?
Many gray areas still surround the plan which could spell the end of the current Champions League organized by UEFA and upset the entire balance of European football based on national championships.
Will the selected teams still participate in their country's championships?
Will it be a closed league or with possible relegations?
What will be the income for the participants (the British media mentions several hundred million euros for the winning club)?
And which clubs will be invited to participate?
So many outstanding questions that could benefit from an answer before the end of the month.
Sky News
understands that an official announcement could fall before the end of the month.
Fifa denied any such project last December
Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa.
The establishment of a European super league resurfaces regularly.
Rumors are sometimes fueled by clubs who have a great leverage on UEFA to renegotiate Champions League income awarded to clubs.
In December 2019, Fifa even denied being at the origin of such a similar project in association with Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid after the revelations of the
New York Times.
"FIFA is an open, democratic organization, an organization with which we can discuss all subjects (...) We discuss with everyone, but when we have something concrete to propose, well we will do it" , had declared, without really getting wet, the boss of Fifa Gianni Infantino.
Bayern Munich, through the voice of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge speaking in
France Football,
had to delay last July, saying that the German club "was not at all interested in a closed Super League."
"If the Super League were to see the light of day, it would call into question a model which is nevertheless unanimous [...] The current format is also the format of the future.
Why change?
It's a fascinating competition, ”said the former German international.
The voice of the winners of the Champions League will continue to carry, necessarily.
But for how long?
Supported by Gafa with unlimited means who could bring the so-called “classic” broadcasters to their knees, the establishment of the Closed League and its mountains of gold promised to participants seems inevitable.
The (sad?) Meaning of history in short.
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Revelations on the new super-league wanted by Real Madrid