Twelve football clubs — Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Barcelona, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Juventus — have agreed to join a proposed breakaway football tournament called the European Super League.
While touted as a rival to the UEFA Champions League, the Super League is not being put forward as a replacement to domestic European leagues, Sky Sports News reported.
The report added that three more football clubs “could join” the first season, which is likely to come “as soon as practicable.”
A statement from the 12 clubs confirmed they would be joining the mid-week competition as Founding Clubs and that they look forward to “holding discussions with UEFA and FIFA to work together and deliver best outcomes.”
The statement noted that the new format comes as the coronavirus pandemic had “accelerated instability in the existing European football economic model” and the objective was to “create a format for top clubs and players to compete on a regular basis”.
It called a move in this direction as “strategic and sustainable”.
None of the football clubs responded to queries, as per the report.
The UEFA, in its statement, said that players and clubs participating in the proposed league would be banned from UEFA and FIFA tournaments, ANI reported.
“UEFA, the English Football Association and the Premier League, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and LaLiga, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and Lega Serie A have learned that a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce their creation of a closed, so-called Super League," UEFA said in a statement on April 18.
It added that UEFA, the English FA, RFEF, FIGC, the Premier League, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, FIFA and all its member associations would be united to stop the “cynical” Super League which it alleged is “founded on the self-interest of a few clubs”.
It further said, “All measures available, including judicial and sporting” are being considered, adding that football is “based on open competitions and sporting merit.”
“As previously announced by FIFA and the six confederations, clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams," it added.
Earlier, as per Sky Sports, FIFA criticised the Super League for not being “in accordance with the governing body’s values” and said it will do “whatever is necessary to contribute to a harmonised way forward".
Besides this, the ECA, (European Club Association) on April 18 said it "strongly opposed" the "closed Super League model" and added that it will work with the UEFA to amend the structure of European club football from 2024 onwards.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson also tweeted that the league would be "very damaging for football".
What is the Super League:
>> The league will have 20 participating clubs, with 15 Founding Clubs and room for five more to qualify based on achievements.
>> Participating clubs will continue in respective national and domestic leagues.
>> Format to hold two groups of 10 teams in home and away matches, with top three in each group automatically qualifying for quarter-finals, while fourth and fifth teams get “two-legged play-offs” for remaining quarter-final positions.
>> Higher payments in excess of 10 billion euros are expected to be generated, and each Founding Club will get 3.5 billion euros to support infrastructure investment plans and offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.