Plans for a lucrative 'Super League' announced by 12 of European football's most powerful clubs have plunged the game into crisis and sparked a furious backlash.
On Monday, it was revealed six English Premier League teams - Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur – have joined forces with Spanish giants Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid as well as Italian trio Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan to launch the lucrative closed-off competition.
The clubs plan to leave the Champions League – Europe’s current peak club competition - and start their new tournament "as soon as possible", with plans for three more founding members to join and five other clubs to be invited annually.
Their announcement has been met with widespread backlash, and accusations the "disgraceful self-serving proposal" is "purely fuelled by greed".
What’s behind the move?
It depends on who you ask.
Those behind the idea say it is for the benefit of the game and fans.
Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez, who was announced as the first Super League president, said the breakaway reflected the big clubs' wishes.
"Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires," he said.
Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, vice-chairman of the new league, said the move would also secure the long-term future of the game.
“Our 12 founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies,” he said. “We have come together at this critical moment, enabling European competition to be transformed, putting the game we love on a sustainable footing for the long-term future, substantially increasing solidarity, and giving fans and amateur players a regular flow of headline fixtures that will feed their passion for the game while providing them with engaging role models.”
Most who have condemned the proposal, backed by US investment bank JPMorgan, say it is purely about money.
Florentino Perez arrives to the Ballon d'Or award ceremony for the best European footballers of the year, in Paris, France, 3 December 2018 Source: EPA
The founding clubs will share 3.5 billion euros ($5.4 billion AUD) for infrastructure investment and to offset costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are also expected to receive a further 10 billion euros in "solidarity payments" over the life of the initial commitment - much more than in the current Champions League.
Founding clubs Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are all owned by American tycoons - who also control US baseball, basketball and American football teams competing in leagues where they cannot be relegated to lower-tier levels.
In England, Premier League spending slumped by more than two-thirds to a nine-year low of just £70 million ($125. 6 million AUD) in the January transfer window as the coronavirus crisis hit budgets.
The breakaway announcement came just hours before UEFA announced a new format for the Champions League, which itself had been conceived to placate the continent's biggest clubs.
European football's governing body is pressing ahead with the new format from 2024 onwards, which will see the number of clubs involved increase from 32 to 36 with each team guaranteed 10 games.
How would it work?
Two groups of 10 clubs will play each other home and away, with the top three qualifying for the quarter-finals. The fourth and fifth-placed teams would play off for the two remaining spots.
Then the competition would adopt the same two-leg knockout format used in the Champions League before a single-leg final in May.
The 15 eventual founders will be guaranteed to play each year in the competition, intended to take place in midweek, allowing clubs, in theory, to continue participating in domestic leagues.
But there have already been suggestions the Super League's founders could be expelled from their domestic leagues and players could be banned from representing their countries - but not without expected legal battles.
The Super League founders have urged FIFA and UEFA to agree to talks and said they wanted the breakaway league to exist alongside current European club competitions.
Barcelona's Lionel Messi during a Champions League game in February Source: AP
What’s the general response been like?
Furious.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin quickly lashed out at the breakaway plan, calling it a "disgraceful self-serving proposal from a select few clubs purely fuelled by greed".
He said European member associations were "all united against this nonsensical project" and said players involved would not be allowed to play for national teams, effectively banning them from taking part in European Championships and World Cups.
World governing body FIFA expressed its "disapproval" and called on all parties "to engage in calm, constructive and balanced dialogue", while the powerful European Club Association said it "strongly opposes" the plans.
The Premier League, the richest domestic league in Europe, issued a furious statement to say "the concept of a European Super League would destroy" the dream that any team could "climb to the top and play against the best".
Leeds United players wore protest t-shirts saying 'football is for the fans' ahead of theit English Premier League match against Liverpool on Tuesday Source: POOL Getty
England's biggest football teams have long been unhappy that broadcasting revenues are shared quite evenly among the 20 clubs in the Premier League. The system is designed to help fund teams in lower divisions that have fewer fans and weaker finances.
The Super League pot compares favourably with the huge sums the top clubs already earn from global broadcasting rights, sponsorship and other commercial revenue.
Without the big clubs in England bringing in the big bucks that can then be distributed to smaller and grassroots clubs, there are grave fears for those at the bottom of the country’s footballing pyramid, many of whom are struggling financially after COVID-19.
“It will change football in this country forever,” former Manchester United captain Gary Neville told Sky Sports this week, saying the proposal was an “attack” on the sport in Britain. “It’s difficult not to get emotional and feel sick.”
So far, only a handful of prominent players from across Europe have spoken out against the plan.
The breakaway has also caused concern in non-sporting circles, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Britain's Prince William among those to speak out against it.
“Now, more than ever, we must protect the entire football community – from the top level to the grassroots – and the values of competition and fairness at its core,” the Duke of Cambridge said in a tweet. “I share the concerns of fans about the proposed Super League and the damage it risks causing to the game we love.”
With AFP and Reuters.
