Breakaway Super League announced in storm of criticism
Twelve of Europe's top football clubs launched a breakaway Super League on Sunday, launching what is certain to become a bitter battle for control of the overall game and its own lucrative revenue.
The move creates a rival to UEFA's established Champions League competition and was condemned by football authorities and political leaders.
Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus are among the leading members of the brand new league but UEFA has threatened to ban them from domestic and international competition and vowed to fight the move.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson both issued statements condemning a breakaway and supporting UEFA's position.
And also United, Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal (statement) and Tottenham Hotspur have registered to the plans.
Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain join Real. AC Milan and Inter Milan make up the trio from Italy along with Juventus.
The Super League said that they aimed to have 15 founding members and a 20-team league with five other clubs qualifying each season.
The clubs would share a fund of 3.5 billion euros ($4.19 billion) to spend on infrastructure projects and also to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We can help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport on the globe with an increase of than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to react to their desires," said Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, the first chairman of the Super League.
No German or French clubs have yet to be linked to the breakaway.
World soccer's governing body FIFA expressed its "disapproval to a 'closed European breakaway league' beyond the international football structures".
But noticeably there is no mention of a previous threat from FIFA to ban any players taking part in a breakaway from participating in World Cups.
The announcement came just hours before UEFA is because of sign off on its own plans for an expanded and restructured 36-team Champions League on Monday.
UEFA issued a solid statement jointly with English, Spanish and Italian leagues and football federations, saying they were prepared to use "all measures" to confront any breakaway and saying any participating clubs would be banned from domestic leagues, such as the Premier League.
"The 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," UEFA said.
"We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who've refused to join up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to become listed on us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too much time. Enough will do."
The moves were condemned by football authorities across Europe and former players such as for example Manchester United's ex-captain Gary Neville who called it "a complete disgrace" and said the club owners were motivated by "pure greed".
Top French club Paris St Germain have not been reported to have registered to the program and President Macron also raised his voice against the breakaway.
"The president of the republic welcomes the positioning of French clubs to won't participate to a European football Super League project that threatens the principle of solidarity and sporting merit," the French presidency said in a statement delivered to Reuters.
"The French state will support all of the steps taken by the LFP, FFF, UEFA and FIFA to protect the integrity of federal competitions, whether national or European," the Elysee added, citing the national, European and globally soccer governing bodies.
UK Prime Minister Johnson also opposed the move.
"Plans for a European Super League will be very damaging for football and we support football authorities in taking action," Johnson tweeted.
"They would strike at the heart of the domestic game, and will concern fans in the united states. The clubs involved must answer to their fans and the wider footballing community before taking any more steps."
There were reports of a breakaway for several years plus they returned in January with several media reported a document had been produced outlining the plans.
In October, then Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said the club had accepted a proposal to become listed on a breakaway league.
Those reports led FIFA and UEFA to warn that they might ban any players involved with a breakaway from playing on the globe Cup or European Championship.
UEFA has proposed major changes to its Champions League which had received support from many clubs and organisation.
The changes will dsicover your competition increase to 36 from 32 teams, and an overhaul of the group stage right into a single table instead of the current sets of four clubs.
Teams would play 10 matches each in the group stage rather than the six they currently play and a playoff round would also be introduced prior to the last 16.
But while there has been a broad consensus and the ones reforms, the big clubs made a late push to have changes to the governance and control of your competition prior to making Sunday's dramatic move.
