Boris Johnson condemns plans for English clubs to join European Super League

1.1k

View
comments

The ‘greedy’ mainly-foreign billionaire founders of the proposed European Super League have today rushed to court to try to force through their £3.5billion plans despite English fans and football legends crying ‘betrayal’ and declaring war ‘for the soul of football’.

The Prime Minister has said the clubs, which include Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs, ‘must answer to their fans’ before launching the ‘very damaging’ change. 

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has laid into the club’s American owners. He said: ‘It’s pure greed, they’re impostors. The owners of Man United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City have nothing to do with football in this country.  The fans that come into this ground are the people who matter. Forget them [Glazers] they’re nothing to do with this club in terms of the actual history of the club and the long-term future. I would come down on them like a ton of bricks’.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United’s most successful manager who is still on the club’s board said: ‘Talk of a Super League is a move away from 70 years of European club football. In my time at United, we played in four Champions League finals and they were always the most special of nights.’ 

Fifa, Uefa and the Premier League have already threatened the 12 clubs – including England’s ‘Big 6’ – with expulsion from all major competitions and even promised to ban their top players from playing for their countries.

But the Super League struck the first blow this morning, revealing they have sent a letter to football’s governing bodies and have ‘filed a motion before the relevant courts’ in England, Spain and Italy to ensure the competition can start in as early as August without the ‘punitive measures’ the dozen rebel clubs have been threatened with.

A major legal battle in the High Court in London is also possible because the plan could be in breach of UK Competitions Law, experts have said.  

The Government is said to be drawing up ‘very robust’ plans to fight back, including the Home Office withdrawing policing support from matches.

There could also be attempts to sanction the owners. The American owners of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal: Joel Glazer, John W Henry and Stan Kroenke respectively are key players in the plans. They have been backed by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, Abu Dhabi-back Manchester City and Spurs, owned by British billionaire Joe Lewis. 

The most extreme change could be to change the ownership rules for clubs to mirror the German model where investors can only own 49 per cent of a club and fans own 51 per cent. This ensures supporters always have the deciding vote at board meetings. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have not signed up to the Super League. 

Boris Johnson last night condemned the six English football teams who announced they planned to join as they were threatened with being thrown out of the Premier League and European competitions. 

Tory MP Damian Collins, former Chair of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said the announcement is a ‘ploy’ to get more cash when the new Champions League deal is agreed this year because the cash is set to be shared among more clubs. He said: ‘It looks completely cynical – a negotiating ploy to get more money. This is from American club owners who have brought ideas from the NFL’.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, also a Sky Sports pundit with Mr Neville, said: ‘Manchester United’s shameless capitalism does not surprise me. United fans will agree that from day one, the Glazers have never hidden the fact they bought the club for the cash.  But John W Henry (Liverpool’s owner) is more cunning, courting fans’ groups in his early years and presenting himself as keen to engage, yet consistently failing to grasp the culture of the Kop’.

The Premier League held an emergency board meeting after the plan emerged yesterday and has written to all its 20 club. The letter from chief executive Richard Masters demanded the rebels ‘walk away immediately before irreparable damage is done’. The Times says Masters told the six rebel clubs that continuing with this breakaway, would be a direct breach of Premier League rules. Sanctions could include expulsion or points deduction. 

The Premier League held an emergency board meeting yesterday and wrote to all 20 clubs, with Richard Masters, the chief executive, calling for the rebels to ‘walk away immediately before irreparable damage is done’. In a letter seen by The Times, Masters told the clubs that forming such a breakaway would be a direct breach of Premier League rules. 

In an announcement last night, the founding members of the European Super League will be  AC Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur. 

But the top clubs in Germany and France are yet to sign up. 

The group said in a joint statement: ‘Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have today come together to announce they have agreed to establish a new mid-week competition, the Super League, governed by its founding clubs. It is anticipated that a further three clubs will join ahead of the inaugural season, which is intended to commence as soon as practicable.’

The statement added: ‘Going forward, the founding clubs look forward to holding discussions with Uefa and Fifa to work together in partnership to deliver the best outcomes for the new League and for football as a whole. The formation of the Super League comes at a time when the global pandemic has accelerated the instability in the existing European football economic model. Further, for a number of years, the founding clubs have had the objective of improving the quality and intensity of existing European competitions throughout each season, and of creating a format for top clubs and players to compete on a regular basis.’ 

Uefa, the football associations of England, Spain and Italy, plus the Premier League, LaLiga and Serie A have also spoken out against the move.

Piers Morgan wrote on Twitter: ‘Shocked & stunned by this new Super League of the ‘biggest & best’ teams in Europe. How the hell have Arsenal managed to blag our way in?’ 

He later continued: ‘If you proceed with this arrogant elitist shameful Super League nonsense – then you can stick my 4 season tickets up your Arsenal.’

Fans from all six Premier League clubs involved have criticised their clubs planned participation in the competition.  

Fans’ groups, including those linked to Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea, have voiced their opposition to the clubs joining a super league.

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST) put out a statement calling for club owners Enic to ‘distance themselves from any rebel group’.

Labour leader and Arsenal fan Sir Keir Starmer said the clubs reportedly involved ‘should rethink immediately’ and added that a non-domestic league ‘ignores’ supporters.

‘This proposal risks shutting the door on fans for good, reducing them to mere spectators and consumers,’ he said on Twitter.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust have described the proposal as ‘the death of Arsenal of a sporting institution’.   

Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker, who played for Barcelona and Tottenham said he predicts the Super League will ‘die on its preposterous and avaricious a**e’. 

Shadow sports minister Alison McGovern – a Liverpool supporter – demanded the Government ‘deliver on what they have promised: a proper, fan-led review of football governance’.

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: ‘This is greed personified, ripping the heart out of the English game, leaving clubs up and down the country to suffer after an awful year.

‘The consequences of these plans reach far and wide. The Government must step in to prevent a small number of greedy, rich owners destroying the game we all love.’    

European football is at war after 12 clubs signed up to a breakaway Super League. So is it REALLY going to happen? How will it work? When will it start? Here’s EVERYTHING you need to know on a move that could change the game forever 

So, what exactly is the European Super League? 

Well, let’s start with the simple opening paragraph of the statement that confirmed the news on Sunday night and sent shockwaves through the sport and well beyond.

‘Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have today come together to announce they have agreed to establish a new mid-week competition, the Super League, governed by its Founding Clubs.’ 

Those ‘Founding Clubs’ are, as mentioned above, led by the biggest six clubs in English football: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Add to that arguably the two biggest clubs in the world, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a third from Spain – Atletico Madrid. Then there’s Italy’s three giants: Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

But what about the rest of Europe’s big clubs?

Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain are understood to have rejected the idea, although the plan is to expand the league to 15 founding members, with a further five annual qualifiers – but no relegation for the big founding clubs, even if they finished bottom of the table. 

It is a rapidly changing situation, however, and nothing is certain yet. 

But if other giant Continental clubs want to be involved then they’d better sign up quick, because one thing’s for sure: if your name’s not down you’re not coming in. 

Sounds a bit like a snooty nightclub…

Yes, and the burly bouncer guarding the guest list is Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. The European Super League is his brainchild.

But the new league also represents an American takeover of elite European football, with Manchester United (the Glazer family), Liverpool (Fenway Sports Group, led by John W Henry) and Arsenal (Stan Kroenke) all controlled by US billionaires and venture capitalists.

One source described it as ‘a US-led operation’, adding: ‘This is down mostly to the Americans at Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal who have believed for a long time that they should be making a lot more money.

Then you have Tottenham, who have just built a big new stadium and who would no doubt benefit from infrastructure payments. Chelsea and Man City, who have been reluctant, do not really need the money but there is the obvious fear of missing out.’

What’s the reason for starting a new Super League when all these clubs already play in well-established competitions? 

Quite simply: greed. Or, as our Chief Sports Writer Martin Samuel puts it: ‘A sickening, self-serving attempted justification of what is at heart nothing but an attempted coup.’

Perez has long been jealous of the broadcasting revenue generated by the Premier League, the world’s most-watched competition, and he wants more money than the Spanish League – LaLiga – can offer. 

Major US bank JP Morgan, a former employer of Manchester United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, are debt financing the new league which will see founding clubs receive £3.03billion, which is set against future broadcast revenue. 

But if the Premier League is so successful, why do the English clubs want in?

Quite simply: greed. Not content with the enormous revenue they already generate, these clubs want to have their cake and eat it: to rake it in from the Premier League while also milking even more money from a midweek European competition.

But there’s already a midweek European competition – the Champions League. What will happen to that?

Stripped of its biggest clubs, club football’s current elite competition would wither and die.  

UEFA, who were due to announce their own proposals for a revamped Champions League on Monday, reacted with fury to the news which had broken earlier on Sunday. 

A statement, issued jointly with the three governing bodies and leagues involved, said: ‘If this were to happen, we will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever. We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening.

‘FIFA and the six Federations announced that 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.’

Does that mean that these clubs could be banned from playing in the Premier League if this goes ahead? 

Yes. The Premier League – along with all the other big domestic leagues in Europe, plus the game’s governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA – will fight tooth and nail to stop their biggest clubs so shamelessly deserting the rest. 

And there was a warning in UEFA’s statement to players of these clubs too: if you play in the European Super League then you will not be allowed to play in the World Cup or European Championship.

What have the Premier League said?

A letter sent by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters to all 20 member clubs, was also strong and laced with warning to the Big Six. 

‘We do not and cannot support such a concept,’ he wrote. ‘Premier League Rules contain a commitment amongst clubs to remain within the football pyramid and forbid any clubs from entering competitions beyond those listed in Rule L9, without Premier League Board permission. I cannot envisage any scenario where such permission would be granted.’

Do these clubs need permission from the Premier League to play in the European Super League?

Yes. The Premier League was founded in 1992 on the basis that all clubs have an equal vote on the governance of the league, and a right to equal share of the basic broadcasting revenues. The Big Six do not, to say the least, like this one bit. They feel that they are responsible for generating the vast proportion of global interest – and revenues – in the Premier League so deserve a way to generate even more cash. 

Sounds like these big clubs can forget joining a European Super League then? 

They will be lobbying hard to get their way, have no doubt about that. Somehow they are brazenly trying to convince the rest of the Premier League and English football that the European Super League would benefit everyone.

In a rare public comment, United co-chairman Joel Glazer claimed that the closed shop would provide ‘increased financial support for the wider football pyramid’. 

Just like with Project Big Picture – their failed attempt at bribing the Football League with cash to bail them out during the crippling coronavirus pandemic to let the big Six take almost complete control of English football, this new competition is motivated solely by selfishness and greed.

Is that what the experts think too? 

Just listen to Gary Neville, a Manchester United club legend and lifelong fan of the club.

‘It’s been damned, and rightly so,’ said Neville on Sky Sports. ‘I’m a Manchester United fan and I have been for 40 years of my life but I’m absolutely disgusted. I’m disgusted with Manchester United and Liverpool most.

‘Deduct them all points tomorrow, put them at the bottom of the league and take the money off them. Seriously, you have got to stamp on this. It’s criminal. It’s a criminal act against the football fans in this country, make no mistake.

‘There isn’t a football fan in this country that won’t be and shouldn’t be seething listening to this conversation and these announcements.’

Wow, that’s strong stuff. But is Neville alone?

Not at all. Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest manager in Manchester United and English football history – and still an executive at United – said that a European Super League would be a move away from 70 years of football history and insisted that the Champion League should stay as it is.

‘Talk of a Super League is a move away from 70 years of European club football,’ he told Reuters.

‘Everton are spending £500million to build a new stadium with the ambition to play in Champions League. Fans all over love the competition as it is.

‘In my time at United, we played in four Champions League finals and they were always the most special of nights.’

Pointedly, he added: ‘I am not part of the decision making process.’

Who else has spoken out?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night condemned the six English clubs. 

‘Plans for a European Super League would be very damaging for football and we support football authorities in taking action,’ said Mr Johnson on Twitter.

‘They would strike at the heart of the domestic game, and will concern fans across the country.

‘The clubs involved must answer to their fans and the wider footballing community before taking any further steps.’ 

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said any major decisions about a European league ‘should have the fans’ backing’.

‘With many fans, we are concerned that this plan could create a closed shop at the very top of our national game,’ he said.

‘Sustainability, integrity and fair competition are absolutely paramount and anything that undermines this is deeply troubling and damaging for football.’

And what are the fans saying?

Piers Morgan wrote on Twitter: ‘Shocked & stunned by this new Super League of the ‘biggest & best’ teams in Europe. How the hell have Arsenal managed to blag our way in?’

He later continued: ‘If you proceed with this arrogant elitist shameful Super League nonsense – then you can stick my 4 season tickets up your Arsenal.’ 

Labour leader and Arsenal fan Sir Keir Starmer said the clubs reportedly involved ‘should rethink immediately’ and added that a non-domestic league ‘ignores’ supporters.

‘This proposal risks shutting the door on fans for good, reducing them to mere spectators and consumers,’ he said on Twitter.

Fans’ groups, including those linked to Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea, have voiced their opposition to the clubs joining a super league.

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust (THST) put out a statement calling for club owners Enic to ‘distance themselves from any rebel group’.

What has been the reaction on social media?

The condemnation has been visceral and near universal – no mean feat on platforms that manage to divide society on nearly every issue.

‘Football supporters don’t agree on everything, but I think we can all agree that this idea of a European Super League can absolutely f**k off,’ @AnfieldRd96 wrote on Twitter.

@txmejackala added: ‘The European Super League literally epitomises what is wrong with this sport. We are seeing a vast amount of billionaires come into the sport and they want nothing, but power and control.

‘They do not care about the fans, they see them as customers and they take them for mugs.’

The readers’ comments on Sportsmail’s story revealing the plans for the European Super League were also full of anger

‘As a season ticket holder for 40 years at Man city, if they join the misnamed “super” league, I will consider my days of paying to attend days as done,’ one reader said.

Another wrote: ‘I am a Liverpool season ticket holder. I cannot speak for anyone else but his is NOT what I want. I do NOT want to watch the same teams every week. We will be barred form European competition. We will be barred from the FA and League Cup. If this goes wrong we will NOT be welcomed back. We will be a football club without a league to play in. NO! NO! NO!’

Many, however, simply scoffed at the suggestion that Tottenham were one of the biggest 12 clubs in Europe. Football fans, eh?

The world seems united in opposition to the European Super League… so is there any way the Big Six could get their way? 

The nuclear option at their disposal would be to quit the Premier League entirely. But given the billions that the league generates, that would make no sense to club owners only interested in money.

If they somehow pulled it off, when would it all start?

The ‘Founder members’ announced on Sunday night their intention to start ‘as soon as practicable’. They are targeting s start as early as the 2022/23 season.

But given the inevitable multiple legal challenges that the proposed league would face – from UEFA, the Premier League, TV broadcasters who have shelled out billions to show existing competitions – this seems the stuff of pure fantasy. 

 

New European Super League plans are CONFIRMED with Big Six all involved… but UEFA, the Premier League and others join forces to hit back at the ‘cynical project’ and vow to STOP it happening

BY MARTIN SAMUEL – CHIEF SPORTS WRITER 

The big six of English football have joined a new European Super League – scheduled to start ‘as soon as practicable’ – in a seismic move that has triggered instant war across the sport.

The decision threatens to split England football with the Premier League indicating in a letter to clubs that it would not sanction any such competition – leaving Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham no choice but to back down or break away.

The group have all agreed to be part of a predominantly closed shop league also featuring Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan. 

Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain are understood to have rejected the idea, although the plan is to expand the league to 15 founding members, with a further five annual qualifiers in what is a rapidly-changing situation.

Fans, politicians, governing bodies and some of football’s most famous names joined in condemning the staggering development, which was the brainchild of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and which was officially announced in a statement late on Sunday night.

A simple opening paragraph which shook the world of football declared: ‘Twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs have today come together to announce they have agreed to establish a new mid-week competition, the Super League, governed by its Founding Clubs.’ The bombshell press release added that the founding clubs ‘look forward’ to holding discussions with UEFA and FIFA.

Major US bank JP Morgan, former employer of Manchester United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward, are debt financing the new league which will see founding clubs receive £3.03 billion, which is set against future broadcast revenue. 

 

The statement added that the move would ‘improve the quality and intensity of existing European competitions’. In a rare public comment, United co-chairman Joel Glazer brazenly claimed that the closed shop would provide ‘increased financial support for the wider football pyramid’. 

A format was also released which said matches would take place in midweek and would not affect domestic calendars, with an August start. It was also announced that The Super League would feature two groups of 10, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group qualifying for quarter-finals. Those in fourth and fifth would play-off for the remaining positions. The knockout format would be two-legged with a final at the end of May at a neutral venue.

UEFA, who were due to announce their own proposals for a revamped Champions League on Monday, earlier reacted with fury to the news which had broken earlier on Sunday. A statement issued jointly with the three governing bodies and leagues involved, referred to a ‘closed, so-called Super League’.

It continued: ‘If this were to happen, we will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever. 

We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. As previously announced by FIFA and the six Federations, 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.

We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough.’

Meanwhile, a letter sent by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters to all 20 member clubs, took a similarly strong stance. ‘We do not and cannot support such a concept,’ he wrote. ‘Premier League Rules contain a commitment amongst Clubs to remain within the football pyramid and forbid any Clubs from entering competitions beyond those listed in Rule L9, without Premier League Board permission. 

I cannot envisage any scenario where such permission would be granted.’ The Premier League board is independent of the clubs and would not need a wider vote to reject permission to join a European Super League.

The board consists of Masters, chairman Gary Hoffman and Kevin Beeston, a non-executive director. Hoffman was complaining on Sunday that representatives of the Big Six were not returning his calls. He does not regard this latest development as more brinkmanship around football’s ongoing power struggles.

Equally furious, was UEFA president Aleksandser Ceferin who was understood to be expecting to publish a joint statement with Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli at the weekend condemning plans for the Super League.

Alarm bells started ringing on Saturday when Ceferin, who is godfather to Agnelli’s daughter, could not contact his old friend to finalise the wording. 

The new league represents an American takeover of elite European football, which will become a closed shop run by its founder members. One source described it as ‘a US-led operation’, adding: ‘This is down mostly to the Americans at Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal who have believed for a long time that they should be making a lot more money.

Then you have Tottenham, who have just built a big new stadium and who would no doubt benefit from infrastructure payments. Chelsea and Man City, who have been reluctant, do not really need the money but there is the obvious fear of missing out.’ 

The Super League statement added: ‘The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues. These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs.

‘In addition, the competition will be built on a sustainable financial foundation with all Founding Clubs signing up to a spending framework. In exchange for their commitment, Founding Clubs will receive an amount of €3.5 billion solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic.’ 

Perez is the first of the new league. with the likes of Glazer and Agnelli in vice-chairman’s roles.

Chelsea and Manchester City are thought to have been presented with the proposals as late as Friday, with Manchester City the last to sign, on Saturday.

England’s six clubs are not intending to resign from domestic football, but would need Premier League permission to join any new competitions, and the issue could be forced. There is a lot of anger among the other 14 Premier League clubs, with some even advocating excluding the breakaway clubs.

Perez said: ‘We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. 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.’

Agnelli added: ‘Our 12 Founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies.

‘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.’ 

 

Condemnations from many sources was swift and strong. ‘It’s been damned, and rightly so,’ said Gary Neville on Sky Sports.

‘I’m a Manchester United fan and I have been for 40 years of my life but I’m absolutely disgusted. I’m disgusted with Manchester United and Liverpool most.

‘Deduct them all points tomorrow, put them at the bottom of the league and take the money off them. Seriously, you have got to stamp on this. It’s criminal. It’s a criminal act against the football fans in this country, make no mistake.

‘There isn’t a football fan in this country that won’t be and shouldn’t be seething listening to this conversation and these announcements.’

Daily Mail columnist Micah Richards added: ‘What happens to the memories the fans have had over the years? Are they just forgotten about for the sake of money? That’s the way football has become now and it’s an absolute disgrace.’