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Twelve European Clubs Announce Launch of Disputed Super League
Twelve of Europe’s most powerful clubs announced the launch of a breakaway European Super League on Monday in a potentially seismic shift in the way football is run but faced accusations of greed and cynicism.
Six Premier League teams — Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Tottenham — are involved, alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan.
The ESL said the founding clubs had agreed to create a “new midweek competition” but would continue to “compete in their respective national leagues”.
It said it hoped the inaugural edition would start “as soon as practicable”.
Three more founding clubs would be announced, the ESL said in a statement, with a further five places up for grabs through a qualifying system each year.
Crucially, the 15 initial members would be guaranteed qualification every season.
Clubs would be split into two groups of ten, playing each other home and away. The top three in each group would qualify for the quarter-finals and the teams in fourth and fifth would play a two-legged play-off for the two remaining spots.
Then the competition would adopt the same two-leg knockout format used in the Champions League before a single-leg final in May.
In terms of the financial draw for clubs, organisers said they would receive “solidarity payments” that would be “substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition”.
For signing up to the new league, “Founding Clubs will receive an amount of 3.5 billion euros solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic,” the statement added.
– ‘Cynical project’ –
The ESL clubs were accused of greed, criticised by the leaders of Britain and France, and threatened with international exile.
Despite their pledge to continue playing in their domestic leagues, European football’s governing body UEFA and the three countries’ football authorities warned the clubs would be barred from their national competitions and the Champions League.
“We… will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever,” read a joint statement.
UEFA also threatened that players from the participating clubs “could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the clubs “must answer to their fans and the wider footballing community before taking any further steps”.
With no French team among the initial ESL clubs, President Emmanuel Macron said the plans risked “threatening the principle of solidarity and sporting merit”.
The ESL announcement was timed to pre-empt UEFA’s own scheduled unveiling of reforms to the Champions League on Monday, with an expansion to 36 teams from 32 and two ‘wildcard’ slots expected to be among the plans. There would be a minimum of 10 games for each team.
FIFA expressed its “disapproval” at the Super League plans and called on all parties “to engage in calm, constructive and balanced dialogue for the good of the game.”
The Premier League, the richest in Europe, issued a furious statement.
“Fans of any club in England and across Europe can currently dream that their team may climb to the top and play against the best,” it said.
“We believe that the concept of a European Super League would destroy this dream.”
Arsenal, who currently sit ninth in the Premier League, well off the qualification spots for Europe, hinted at the obstacles ahead, saying “there’s lots more to do to bring the competition to life”.
The European Club Association (ECA) said it “strongly opposes” the Super League.
Juventus, whose president Andrea Agnelli was also chief of the ECA, said the club and its boss had left the body.
The club warned that it “cannot assure that the project will be eventually successfully launched”.
Juventus are facing a battle to finish in the Serie A top four this season and seven-time European champions AC Milan have not played in the Champions League since 2014.
Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez, who was announced as the first ESL president, said the breakaway reflected the big clubs’ wishes.
“Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires,” he said.
Manchester United’s American co-chairman Joel Glazer, who will be a vice-chairman of the Super League, said it “will open a new chapter for European football”.
The clubs also said a women’s version of the competition will be created.
– German, French clubs on sidelines –
French and German clubs, including reigning European champions Bayern Munich and last season, ‘s beaten Champions League finalists Paris Saint-Germain, were not among the initial ESL clubs.
“We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this,” UEFA said.
La Liga president Javier Tebas compared the ESL clubs to drunks leaving a bar at 5:00am “intoxicated with selfishness and a lack of solidarity”.
German Football League boss Christian Seifert said the breakaway could “irreparably damage the national leagues”.
The announcement was also condemned by some supporters’ groups, with Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly tweeting it was “appalled”.
Tension escalated at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday as impeached Speaker Mudashiru Obasa made a dramatic return to reclaim his position.
Accompanied by heavily armed men, Obasa stormed the Assembly complex in a bold move that has thrown the State’s legislature into turmoil.
In a stunning turn of events, security details assigned to the substantive Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mojisola Meranda, were abruptly withdrawn on Thursday morning, clearing the path for Obasa’s controversial comeback.
Sources revealed that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) ordered the withdrawal of all security operatives attached to Meranda, leaving her exposed in the midst of an intensifying power struggle.
The Speaker’s Special Adviser on Information, Mr. Victor Ganzallo, expressed concern over the security vacuum created by the withdrawal of personnel.
“In the early hours of Thursday, we woke up to the startling news that all security details assigned to Madam Speaker, Mojisola Meranda, had been withdrawn.
This includes the police and DSS officers, leaving her exposed to threats amid the ongoing speakership crisis,” Ganzallo stated.
He further called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as the State’s Chief Security Officer, to intervene urgently to prevent a complete breakdown of law and order within the Assembly.
“The withdrawal of security personnel has left the Assembly naked and vulnerable at a critical time. Urgent action is needed to restore order,” he pleaded.
With the speakership battle taking a dramatic new turn, political watchers are keenly observing how the crisis will unfold in the coming days.
Pope Francis showed further improvement on Wednesday, the Vatican said, although it cautioned that “the prognosis remains reserved” for the 88-year-old fighting pneumonia.
“The clinical conditions of the Holy Father in the last 24 hours have shown a further, slight improvement,” said the Vatican in its nightly bulletin on the health of the pontiff, who has been in hospital since February 14.
“Although a slight improvement is being recorded, the prognosis remains reserved,” it said.
The Argentine pope was originally admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital with breathing difficulties and bronchitis, but his condition subsequently deteriorated, sparking widespread concern among Catholics.
Respiratory attacks he suffered at the weekend that required high levels of oxygen and blood transfusions have not been repeated, according to the Vatican, although he continues to receive oxygen and do breathing exercises.
On Wednesday, the Vatican said a CT scan performed Tuesday showed “normal progression of the pulmonary inflammatory condition” while blood tests on Wednesday confirmed the improvement.
It also said that a mild renal insufficiency detected at the weekend “had resolved.”
As Catholics across the globe pray for Francis, doctors have warned the path to recovery could be long, with the Jesuit pontiff likely staying in hospital beyond this week.
Despite his critical condition, the leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Catholics has kept up with Church matters from his hospital suite, according to the Vatican.
Now on his 13th day in the hospital, the Pope Wednesday was “sitting in a chair, and continuing with the treatment as normal”, a Vatican source said.
The Vatican said he received the Eucharist in the morning and spent his afternoon working.The current hospitalisation is Francis’s fourth and longest.
The pope, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, has suffered increasing health problems in recent years.
He is prone to bronchitis and suffers from hip and knee pain, which has made him reliant on a wheelchair.
Pilgrims and faithful have been flocking to the Vatican and the Gemelli to pray for Francis, with a fresh round of prayers held in St Peter’s Square later Wednesday evening.
US President, Donald Trump, has unveiled plans to sell new “gold card” residency permits for a price of $5 million each, saying Russian oligarchs may be eligible.
Trump said sales of the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit.
“We’re going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card, this is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
The Republican president, who has made the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants a priority of his second term, said the new card would be a route to highly prized US citizenship.
“A lot of people are going to want to be in this country, and they’ll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies,” Trump said.
“It’ll be people with money.”Sales of the cards would start in about two weeks, Trump added.
“We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards. We have it all worked out from a legal standpoint,” Trump added.
The billionaire former real estate tycoon said that all applicants for the new gold cards would be carefully vetted.
But asked if wealthy Russians would also be able to apply, Trump said it is a possibility.
“Possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It’s possible,” Trump said.
“They’re not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they can. I think they can afford $5 million.”
A number of Russian oligarchs have been hit by western sanctions since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
Trump has caused shock in European capitals by suddenly opening negotiations with Russia to end the war, amid fears that he could be willing to sell Ukraine short.
The US president told reporters that lifting sanctions on Russia was possible “at some point” but was not currently on the table.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, standing at Trump’s side in the Oval Office, said of the gold cards that “we can use that money to reduce our deficit.”
Trump, who has branded a series of hotels and casinos in a long business career, even suggested the new cards could also be named after him.
“Somebody said, ‘Can we call it the Trump gold card?’ I said, ‘If it helps, use the name Trump,’” he said.
AFP
