BEVERLY HILLS, April 18, (THEWILL) – Earlier this year, talks about some of Europe’s biggest football clubs’ decision to constitute a league of their own gained momentum but was met with criticisms and threats of sanction by world governing body FIFA. After going quiet for a while to make it seem dead, there are indications that the plans are still afoot.
Reports monitored by THEWILL believe that several of these clubs in Europe have gone as far as reaching an agreement to form such a new super league. It was a decision arrived at after months of secret talks, even with the real possibility of attracting punitive measures from FIFA.
THEWILL reported in January the stern reaction of the Gianni Infantino-led body to the conversation around such a league. In collaboration with its six confederations, of UEFA, AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and OFC, FIFA announced its decision to ban any player from competing in any of their major international tournaments who joins and decides to play for this league.
That announcement was founded on FIFA’s rationale that a competition like a new Super League carried with it the significant potential to ignite such an unprecedented change to the domestic, European and global league structures as to make them inoperable in the form in which they currently operate.
This had ultimately failed to deter Europe’s elite clubs as La Liga’s Barcelona and Real Madrid are reportedly among the teams committed to the new league. Those two are joined by Italian giants Juventus, Inter and AC Milan and five of the biggest clubs in England: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
As a clear signal of disapproval, UEFA released a joint-statement along with the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and more to say that those involved would be banned from their domestic leagues and other European competitions. The statement linked back to FIFA to threaten players who join the new league with FIFA’s ban from representing their national teams as a whole.
For now, there are as many as 15 clubs in talks to join the proposed 20-team league, which is stylised to feature 15 permanent clubs that cannot be relegated as part of a new competitive format. Though still being done covertly, there is already a $6 billion (£4.3 billion) fund backing the project, which is scheduled to begin in the 2023-2024 season.
Based on the information available, the involved clubs read out as some of the highest-valued clubs in the world, as highlighted above. Yet, there are some big names absent because Bundesliga bigshots Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund and France Ligue 1’s giants Paris Saint-Germain have reportedly not been convinced even after being invited formally to jump in.
Bayern is actually the only UEFA Champions League winner since 2005 not to be included.
This new information about the clubs’ reaching an agreement to commence a new league coincides with the move by UEFA to announce a plan to expand the UCL to a 36-team format from the current format of 32 teams.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
