The proposed new European Super League is on the verge of collapsing 48 hours after its launch following widespread reactions from global sports ruling bodies and soccer fans.
With opposition growing, all six English clubs announced their intentions to withdraw on Tuesday night, followed by three more clubs, Atlético Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan.
Barcelona are also in the process of pulling out. Juventus and Real Madrid are the only other clubs that were set to be involved, but Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, one of the driving forces behind the European Super League have indicated that with nine of the 12 clubs pulling out, the league had no future.
“I remain convinced of the beauty of that project, of the value that it would have developed to the pyramid, of the creation of the best competition in the world,” Agnelli told Reuters, “but evidently no. I don’t think that project is now still up and running.”
In a statement, the Super League said, “Given the current circumstances, we shall reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino warned the 12 breakaway clubs they “cannot be half in and half out,” referring to going about business as usual in their home countries.
UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, said in a statement: “They are back in the fold now and I know they have a lot to offer, not just to our competitions, but to the whole of the European game. The important thing now is that we move on, rebuild the unity that the game enjoyed before this and move forward together.”
The Football Association, which oversees soccer in England, said in a statement the European Super League was a “proposition that, by design, could have divided our game; but instead it has unified us all.”
The European Super League was unpopular in England, with fans from all six English clubs involved denouncing it. A YouGov survey published Monday showed 79 percent who follow the sport were opposed to the new league.
The European Super League clubs had planned to continue competing in their respective domestic leagues while skipping the Champions League in favor of a separate tournament. “The existing system does not work,” the Super League said.
The 66-year-old Champions League gathers teams from European countries and, through a nine-month competition overlapping with domestic circuits, determines the best team on the continent. The annual final attracts a global TV audience of roughly a half-billion, four times greater than the Super Bowl.
A Champions League exit by big clubs such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United, Juventus may diminish the popularity of the competition and jeopardize juicy contracts. It also would shift soccer’s economics more heavily in favor of the big clubs through global TV rights and sponsorships.
All of the founding teams were from the English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga and Italy’s Serie A.
UEFA had weighed whether to ban three clubs (Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid) from the 2020-21 Champions League semifinals, which kicks off next week.
Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez, the Super League’s chairman, had defended the breakaway plan, saying weekly matches between the world’s top clubs would be “the greatest show in the world.”
The European Super League organizers said it would have invited five additional clubs annually. The tournament was to begin in August.
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