There has been widespread outrage across the footballing world today as a new European Super League has been announced which will involve 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs including Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham.
The Premier League’s so-called ‘top six’ will be joined by AC Milan, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid to establish the new midweek competition that has received a £4.6 billion debt financing package.
This morning, it has been announced that all of the Premier League clubs involved in the proposed competition have now left the European Club Association and Manchester United’s Ed Woodward has stood down from his position at UEFA.
UEFA released a joint statement on Sunday with the football leagues of England, Spain and Italy condemning the proposal and declared that all clubs involved in the competition would be banned from playing at any domestic level and the club’s players would also be banned from representing their countries at any tournament.
Read more: Football fans finally return for semi-final in test event at Wembley
The ESL would feature 20 teams in total including the 12 founding, three unnamed teams and five sides who would qualify each year based on their domestic success.
Pundits, journalists, ex players and even the Prime Minister Boris Johnson have spoken out against the ESL but the reaction was summed up eloquently by former Manchester United player Gary Neville.
Speaking on Sky Sports, he said the proposal was an “absolute joke” and pointed out that many of the teams involved could not even be considered Europe’s elite.
Bayern Munich and PSG were the most notable clubs not involved in the competition but there has been rumours that the two could eventually join the ESL.
Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund have declared they will not be joining the ESL and the club’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has declared the club would be more interested in joining the new format of the UEFA Champions League.
It appears that the 12 clubs will be moving forward with the planned ESL but with such a backlash at the announcement, nothing is set in stone yet.
