Football: Real Madrid, Juventus and Barca not giving up on controversial Super League
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The Super League project vanished a few days after it was announced after pressure from fans and authorities.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
MADRID - The main advocates of the Super League are not giving up.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, defended the project last Sunday and was followed by his Juventus counterpart Andrea Agnelli and then Barcelona chief Joan Laporta. A court decision in 2023 will be crucial in determining the project's future.
"There are no football clubs among the ten richest entities in the world, we must be doing something very wrong in old Europe," Perez explained.
Perez led a group of 12 major European clubs into the Super League project in April 2021 but it vanished a few days after it was announced after pressure from fans and authorities. The only clubs that have tried to keep alive a league that would be direct competition for the Champions League are Real, Barcelona and Juventus.
The Super League project came back to life in July, when litigation for an alleged abuse of a dominant position by Uefa was brought to the European Union Court of Justice, at the request of a Madrid judge to whom the Super League chiefs turned.
Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin responded to Perez. "Once again he has shown that his idea is to close everything off, without games against smaller teams," he told a news conference in Rome.
On Thursday, in a letter to shareholders, Agnelli, reaffirmed his "commitment" to the project and proposed "establishing a direct link with sponsors who dare to take business risks, and control of economic resources."
On the same day, Barcelona presented their accounts and Eduard Romeu, their financial vice-president, said "considering the Super League again would be positive."
That was followed by a Laporta interview with Sonora, reported by Marca, on Sunday. "A Super League would be an improved Champions League, with a better format, it would surely be the most attractive competition in the world," said the Barcelona president.
However, Laporta said he would prefer not to have a closed format for the competition. "We have to have an open Super League, where there's meritocracy," he said.
The judicial process continues, which may be key in the conflict's ultimate resolution. The final decision is expected near the beginning of 2023. AFP
