BEVERLY HILLS, April 20, (THEWILL) – English Premier League club Manchester City have formally become the first club to officially confirm their withdrawal from the new European Super League.
Indications that the new League was heading for tempestuous waters came in on Tuesday evening as some clubs, like City for instance, reported to be reconsidering their membership of the founding 12 member-group, who agreed with the formation of the new League as conceived and announced on Sunday night.
Now, City has come out clearly and made their departure official via a statement published on their website. In part, the message read: “Manchester City Football Club can confirm that it has formally enacted the procedures to withdraw from the group developing plans for a European Super League.”
From the moment it became public, the project drew the ire of fans, players, coaches, federations and national governments. The condemnation was near universal and never let up until City’s statement was released.
Sunday’s announcement detailed how the Premier League’s ‘big six’ would be founder members of the Super League alongside Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Milan and Inter, who will feature in a close-shop format of football competition which, alone violated European football’s traditions of fair competition – an observation made by critics, including City manager Pep Guardiola himself.
Closely following City’s publication is a similar and expected statement from London’s EPL side Chelsea, who are just as ready to back out of the new League.
It appears that one of the immediate casualties of the selfish decisions by the clubs to form the league has already fallen. Manchester United Executive Vice-chairman, Ed Woodward, resigned from his post on Tuesday.
The club quickly claimed his decision was not directly related to the apparently doomed Super League project, but it is difficult to look at it any other way.
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.
