Barca, Real Madrid, Juventus trying to force through Super League
FT Desk
- 9 Oct 2022 11:21 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus are awaiting a key judgement from the European Court of Justice over UEFA's stranglehold of European club competition.
The three rebel clubs, who have been crowned European champions 21 times between them, were at the forefront of a proposed Super League last April, with Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president, its chairman.
The Premier League's supposed "big six" - Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur - pulled out nine days into the project though, with all but Barca, Real and Juve following suit.
How long will the Super League last this time? ⏱ pic.twitter.com/3B2Xp4MDuB
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) March 3, 2022
And they have never given up on the idea. Barca hold the current structure of European football, and the funnelling of resources to the Premier League, as partly responsible for their recent financial travails, and they want to take back control.
"The three rebel ESL members, along with the Spanish-registered company A22, created to run the organisation, are working on the basis that the participating clubs will be the sole shareholders, as per the Premier League breakaway from the Football League in 1992," report the Telegraph.
Nadal/Federer example
The process began last Sunday when Perez doubled down at Real's annual general meeting.
"If we look at the legends of tennis, [Rafael] Nadal and [Roger] Federer played each other 40 times in 15 years," he said. "So far, Nadal and [Novak] Djokovic have faced each other 59 times in 16 years. Is this boring?
"If [UEFA] organised tennis, we'd have only ever seen two or three matches between Nadal and Federer."
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The three European giants will sound out other clubs from around Europe as they await the decision from the European Court of Justice. The advice of the court's advocate-general will be delivered on 15 December.
AC Milan and Atletico Madrid are among those most likely to get back onboard with project, the former's sporting director Paolo Maldini admitting recently that the Serie A champions couldn't compete financially with "the last team in the Premier League."
