Barcelona president Joan Laporta has claimed that the Super League plot remains alive and that Premier League clubs "are still in favour" of the project.
Liverpool and eight others from the dozen clubs that attempted to launch a breakaway European Super League last year renounced their intentions within 48 hours of the proposal back in April after a fierce backlash from fans and the wider football family. The clubs had resigned their membership of the European Clubs Association before rejoining in the weeks that followed the breakdown of the plot, pledging their commitment to UEFA and its European competitions.
Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea were the Premier League clubs to be involved in the project, while Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan all joined them in eventually rejecting the idea of a controversial breakaway competition.
For Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona, however, their desire to see the project become a reality remained undiminished and they have since been involved in a legal battle in the European courts with UEFA, with the three clubs trying to end what they see as a monopoly on competition by European football's governing body. Paving the way to another tilt at launching the ESL in the future is very much at the forefront of their minds, even if it has been met with widespread condemnation by both UEFA and Spain's La Liga.
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Liverpool principal owner John Henry recorded a video apology to Liverpool fans in the aftermath of the ESL plot collapse, and the club and owners Fenway Sports Group have attempted to move past it during the past 12 months, publicly renouncing the idea and working with Liverpool fan groups including Spirit of Shankly, Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association, Kop Outs, Spion Kop 1906, Official Liverpool Supporters Clubs, Liverpool Women’s Supporters Committee and faith and ethnic groups to create a Supporters Board that would have to give consent for any such ESL move to happen in the future for the club. It would be binding and written into the articles of association at the club and would mean that fan approval would be needed for any such move in the future.
Other clubs have also tried to move past it with more fan representation at board level, but despite this Barcelona president Laporta, whose club have been in financial disarray after years of financial recklessness was exposed by the pandemic, has claimed that the idea remains and that English clubs still have a desire to take part.
In an interview with Spanish radio station RAC 1, Laporta said: "There are many English clubs in favour of the project, but they do not expose themselves because they are awaiting the judgments of the courts.
"It is an open Super League, no longer closed, it has evolved. It will surely be the most attractive league in the world. I believe that in the end we will be able to establish a constructive dialogue with UEFA and that an improved Champions League can be created. It cannot be that state clubs go hand in hand with UEFA to do what they want and be the masters of European football. It is clear that for the survival of the clubs we cannot allow it."
Laporta, in an interview with Mundo Deportivo at the weekend, added: "We are still here with Juventus, Real Madrid and other teams waiting. English clubs are still waiting, whether Manchester, Liverpool or the Germans too.
"They are waiting to see if it will be a new competition format or if it will be an improved Champions League. But we are here and we win in each of the legal proceedings that have been initiated. We are now waiting for the verdict of the European Court and we hope that it will rule by the end of the year."
Liverpool's stance on the ESL has remained unchanged. It is something where they have actively tried to put measures in place to take it off the agenda altogether, or at least not without approval and consent from supporters.
One person who doesn't believe English teams will be present for the next attempt to launch a European Super League is La Liga president Javier Tebas, a fierce critic of the plans and the rebel clubs continued desire to breakaway into a new competition.
Tebas told reporters: "The organizers of the tournament - with reference to Real, Barcelona and Juventus - are working on another project because what they have achieved has already failed at the competition level. They already know that the British will not be there and are devising another project that will once again fail. It is a more continental project without the English teams, not only against UEFA, but against the Premier League."
Laporta, as with Florentino Perez at Real Madrid and Andrea Agnelli at Juventus, will be aware that without the presence of Premier League teams then an ESL competition has no chance of success, with the plot itself having been hinged on the power of English football's top teams and the money that they would have generated from media rights. Liverpool, now back in the ECA fold, have mechanisms in place now that makes their stance clear, despite Laporta's claims.
