Super League relaunch is 'to avoid English club domination', claims dossier

Paul Macdonald

19 Oct 2022 14:37 BST
4 min read

The Super League relaunch is a direct response to the dominance of Premier League clubs on the European stage, according to reports.

Information provided to the Times suggests that one of the key drivers of the resurrection of the project, which was introduced and promptly discarded by English clubs following a fan revolt.

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The article quotes that the Premier League “is outgunning all continental leagues [and are] backed by hedge funds, public investment funds, sheikhs, [and] oligarchs.”

The dossier is the clearest signal yet that the spending by the Premier League has alerted the major clubs in Europe's top five leagues that is a situation that they are required to remedy.

It adds: "The English Premier League is turning into a global Super League [and] is outperforming its continental rivals’ combined net spending on transfers.

"This summer, EPL clubs spent €2.25 billion, more than La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 combined. “Newly-promoted Nottingham Forest’s net spend of €160 million was more than the whole of Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 (a total of 78 clubs) combined. The Premier League affords wage costs almost twice as high as its next continental rival."

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus have continued to push hard on the project despite the eventual resignation of the Premier League clubs who had agreed to be involved - namely Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal.

Their desire is greater than the Premier League rebels, who are already earning by far the most of any teams in Europe courtesy of their favourable domestic and international TV arrangements.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, in particular, has remained incessant for the need of the Super League in order to redress that balance and has been able to keep the conversation moving.

And on Wednesday, the faction, under the holding company A22 Sports Management, made a statement of intent by announcing a new CEO.

German media executive Bernd Reichart is the new man in charge. He has promised to keep an open dialogue on the future of the Super League, but also insisted that a 2024-25 relaunch was 'reasonable'.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said: "We want to reach out to stakeholders in the European football community and broaden this vision. Even fans will have a lot of sympathy for the idea. It is a blank slate. Format will never be an obstacle.

"There is a reassessment. There is a clearly stated move towards an open format and that permanent membership is off the table”, Reichart told the FT. “We want to see whether or not there is broader consensus about the problems facing European football. [2024-25 launch is a] reasonable expectation."

The original Super League project had 12 European teams with the opportunity to for more to join in a promotion/relegation format, but it seems that as part of the relaunch A22 will not rule anything out, and that all options will be entertained.

UEFA's revamped Champions League, which has a large group format and contains 36 teams for the first time, is due to launch in 2024. UEFA has previously branded the Super League 'a danger to European football."