The point of no return ripens in the middle of the night. The Superlega is officially announced by the 12 founding clubs in the first minutes of Monday 19 April and Juventus is at the forefront, explaining the details of the new project with a press release and above all launching the challenge for the new football. At the same time, the Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, appointed vice president of the Superlega, leaves the position of number one of the ECA (the association that brings together 248 European clubs, among which there is no longer Juve) and that of member of the UEFA Executive Committee. The world of football is hit by an earthquake, but above all a legal war is expected. “The founding clubs will continue to participate in their respective national competitions and, until the Super League is actually launched, Juventus believes it will participate in the European competitions to which it has the right to enter”, writes the Juventus club in the document. «The founding clubs wish to implement the Super League project in agreement with Fifa and Uefa – continues the Juventus press release -, taking into consideration the interests of the other stakeholders who are part of the football ecosystem. At the same time, in order to ensure the success of the project and thus give it prompt execution, the company set up for the Super League could also take legal action in order to protect its rights ».
Juve, Milan, Inter, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea speak of a “long-term project”, but obviously they cannot be certain about the times and ways even if they would like starting as early as August «At the moment the Club cannot guarantee that the project will actually be carried out – explained in the Juventus press release – nor accurately predict the relative timing. The Company therefore does not currently have all the necessary elements in order to carry out detailed assessments on the impact that the Super League may have on its financial and economic conditions and performance ». For now it is known that there will be a maximum of 15 founding clubs (20 teams will be in total) and each will pay 2 million euros, which can be increased up to 8 million, while at the start and “following the marketing of the audiovisual rights relating to the competition , the founding clubs are expected to receive a total net contribution of approximately € 3.5 billion, which will be disbursed in a single payment ».
An avalanche of money, which these clubs have been working on for some time with more or less secret meetings. One was held last January 19 in Turin, at the Juventus headquarters, with Florentino Perez (president of Real Madrid and now president of the Superlega) who came in full pandemic from Spain to meet Andrea Agnelli and fix the last points. «The 12 founding clubs represent over a billion fans all over the world – commented the Juventus number one – and a palmares of 99 continental trophies. We have come together at this critical moment to transform European competition, putting the sport we love on a long-term sustainable development path, with a greatly increased solidarity mechanism, guaranteeing supporters and fans a match program that knows how to feed. their desire for football and provide a positive and engaging example ».