European Super League is neither open nor fair, says La Liga head Javier Tebas

BRUSSELS –

A new breakaway European football competition

that was proposed in December would not really be open to outsiders and would cut the revenues of non-elite clubs by more than half, one of the Super League’s biggest critics insisted on Jan 16.

Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish league, said that La Liga and other domestic leagues would lose 50 to 55 per cent of their revenues from a mid-week Super League competition, according to a 2022 study by KPMG.

“With the new model, it’s even worse,” the 61-year-old told a small group of reporters.

European football’s governing body Uefa currently provides 96 spots in the group phases of its competitions based almost exclusively on performance in domestic leagues.

The latest Super League proposal envisages three tiers, but gives only 20 spots to its third-tier league based on domestic performance, with just two teams promoted per year to the second or top tiers.

“It does not fulfil European sports law... It really is closed,” Tebas, who is a lawyer, added.

He said this was far less open than a 2019 idea to offer access to all tiers of a three-tier European league, but which European clubs widely rejected.

The new proposal by promoter A22 is a revision of one made in 2021, when 12 major clubs proposed a breakaway league with no relegation for core members.

That new plan emerged on Dec 21, the day the European Court of Justice delivered a verdict that gave hope to both sides, by ruling against the principle of governing bodies Uefa and Fifa restricting a new league, but not necessarily saying such a league must be approved.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, an ardent Super League supporter, said that the ruling marked a “before and after” for football.

Tebas said that he had not seen European clubs warming to the idea of the league, noting some of the biggest, such as Manchester City and Bayern Munich, had publicly come out against it.

“You don’t always need to be worried, but you must be busy,” he said. REUTERS