A sort of football Brexit, fireworks from across the Channel.
Late Tuesday evening, the six English clubs in turn announced that they were withdrawing from the Super League project, this private competition imagined by large formations to supplant the Champions League.
Twelve of them had announced Sunday evening their participation in this controversial project from the start, some seeing it as an attack on the values of sport and a total illustration of football business.
The organizers do not hide that their main goal is to raise more money and attract a younger audience, within this League supposed to involve 20 clubs in total (including 15 automatically qualified each year).
But they are very likely to review their ambitions.
The Parisian takes stock.
Which clubs have dissociated themselves?
In turn, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United and finally Chelsea have issued official statements announcing that they are leaving the project.
According to several journalists, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan or AC Milan could follow in the coming hours.
Remember that no French club is part of the original twelve "mutineers".
What are their motives?
"We made a mistake and we apologize for that," wrote the Arsenal club soberly in its press release.
Since Sunday evening, many fans, players, coaches, but also European football authorities and governments had been moved by this Super League, sometimes with different ulterior motives.
"It is not sport if success is guaranteed or if losing does not matter," said Pep Guardiola, the star coach of Manchester City, for example.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was angry with “greed”, “selfishness” and “spitting in the face of football lovers”, mocking the “snakes” and the “Twelve Bitches”.
These clubs and their players were threatened with exclusion from all national and international competitions.
Read alsoSuper League: Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappé ... the difficult position of football stars
On Tuesday evening, several hundred English fans had also expressed their disapproval near the Stamford Bridge stadium in Chelsea, London, failing to be able to do so in the stands due to the pandemic.
We saved football #NoToEuropeanSuperLeague pic.twitter.com/kVhUMiOp07
- Riyad.dilhan (@RiyadDilhan) April 20, 2021
At the same time, the Liverpool players posted on Twitter a joint text concluded by the club's anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone": "We don't like it, we don't want it to happen.
This is our collective position.
Our commitment to this club and its supporters is absolute and unconditional ”.
pic.twitter.com/e6oF8YyeH3
- James Milner (@JamesMilner) April 20, 2021
Is the project stillborn?
This is what many observers think.
Shortly before 2 am Wednesday, the organizers of the Super League simply announced that they would "reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project".
The word “suspension” is not used, but it looks a lot like it.
"Victory for the fans, the six English clubs withdrew from the European Super League, leaving the tournament in tatters", exclaims the British daily Daily Mirror in its electronic edition, while Tuttosport sees it as a "superleak" and " a project [which] is falling apart ”.
The president of Juventus and vice-president of the Super League, Andrea Agnelli, nevertheless assures in the Corriero dello Sport that his project can continue to function.
La prima pagina di #Tuttosport:
▪️ No!
#SuperLeague
▪️ #Chiesa, niente Parma.
Ma la #Juve ritrova # CR7
▪️ #Nicola e #Belotti: pilastri da confermare al #Toro pic.twitter.com/PPrnm3kxxx
- Tuttosport (@tuttosport) April 20, 2021
This episode could anyway leave traces, while the reform of the Champions League by 2024 was adopted on Monday.
This was not enough for the leaders of several of the biggest European clubs, who want to regain control of the tournament between them.
It is not yet known whether the six English clubs have obtained guarantees from UEFA for the future.