ROME. False start for the Super League. A little more than 48 hours after the press release announcing its birth, it is already losing its pieces. Manchester City have formalized his exit from the Super League, while Chelsea are preparing to do so. The BBC confirmed this last night, citing sources from the two English companies.
The project thus loses two pieces out of 12, heavily affected by the protest unleashed in the United Kingdom by fans, the press and many professionals, a protest strongly supported by the government of Premier Boris Johnson. And according to rumors, two other English clubs – Arsenal and Manchester United – have decided to take a step back, giving up the Super League. United vice-president Ed Woodward, designated to be vice-president of the future Super League, has announced that he will leave the English club at the end of 2021.
Of the six Premier clubs that had initially joined the new constitution, at the moment only Liverpool and Tottenham have not yet reversed. And even Barcelona is no longer so sure of being part of it: the membership of the Catalan club is conditioned by the approval of the members, who will be called to express themselves in this regard.
The day had developed between the Uefa executive, with Ceferin who tried to extend his hand by inviting “the presidents of some clubs, mainly English”, to “change their minds”, and Florentino Perez who indicated the way “to save football “, while FIFA’s opposition was reiterated, with the president, Gianni Infantino, announcing that” the clubs will pay the consequences “. Overcome, so to speak, the shock of the press release the other night, the ball (and not only) makes a wall.
Meanwhile, a court in Madrid – reiterating what already happened years ago with the basketball Euroleague – has issued a precautionary measure that prevents Fifa, Uefa, the Spanish Liga and the national football federations from taking measures against the clubs that have joining the Super League announced. A prior request submitted last Friday by the European Superleague Company SL. The “salvific” aim of the Super League (which “could start in five months, we are ready to sit down and talk to UEFA. Their threats of exclusion are not legal anyway”, says the general secretary, Anas Laghrari) evoked by Perez is opposed by UEFA. Ceferin spoke about it openly during the Montreaux executive.
«They are trying to privatize football with the Super League – Ceferin said – But we are ready, we were waiting for them even if we didn’t know when they would arrive. Governments, fans, the media are with us. Will we let him take football? No, believe me, this is a game that we cannot lose. Football does not belong to anyone. Or rather, it belongs to everyone, because football is part of our heritage ». The intervention of the number 1 of Uefa is tough, but leaves some openings to the 12 clubs. «You have made a big mistake – the words of Ceferin – Some might say that it is greed, ignorance or other, but it doesn’t matter, you still have time to change your mind. Everyone makes mistakes ».
The European football confederation will meet again on Friday with the issue of the cities that will host the European Championship on the agenda and it is not excluded that the Super League theme may be included among the topics: exclusions from the Champions League, sanctions as announced yesterday on number one of the Danish Football Association Moller. Decidedly tough, in his speech, Infantino: «Fifa is an organization built on values, the true values of sport. We can only strongly condemn the creation of a Super League, which is something closed, which is an escape from current football institutions. There is no doubt that Fifa disapproves of this project ».
A vision opposite to that of Perez, according to which «football must evolve and this format will guarantee us much more money. The Champions League – he ruled – has now lost its appeal ». Then the attack on UEFA: “Ceferin cannot insult as he did with Agnelli, he is unpresentable”.
There is no shortage of rumors against, even among those who are in the pay of the founding clubs of the Super League, such as Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City, one of the 12, who bluntly says: “when there is no relationship between commitment and result , it is no longer sport ».
And the players are also moving: the Liverpool captain has called a meeting with his Premier League colleagues to take a united position, while the fans are on a war footing. Outside the Stamford Bridge stadium in London, those of Chelsea – another club involved in the birth of the Super League – staged a protest against “greed in football”, blocking the team bus for a few minutes.
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