Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has called on the government to ‘accelerate’ the fan led review recommendations as plans for the European Super League resurface again. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus are all reportedly looking to push through the plans for a second time after the initial idea fell through almost 12 months ago.
Six clubs from the Premier League – Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur – were all originally behind the idea, but pulled out due to the heavy backlash it received.
The Magpies' new owners have been vocal about their aim of qualifying for the Champions League but should the plans on this occasion be successful, it puts Newcastle United’s ambitions of competing with the elite European football clubs in doubt – particularly if the league decides against allowing anyone other than the 12 original teams into the competition. The Magpies are now the richest club in world football and will be looking to break into the Premier League’s ‘big six’ in the coming years.
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As a result of Bury FC’s collapse, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on football finances, and the six breakaway teams to the Super League, the fan led review was put forward to the government in order to safeguard the future of English football. And speaking on Twitter, Neville has called on it to be fast tracked through parliament so football in this country is protected.
He said: “The ESL is back on the table. Real, Barca and Juve are pushing. It’s critical we accelerate the Fan Led Review recommendations through Parliament with Legislation to protect English football and allow any new proposals to be viewed with independence.”
UEFA president Alexander Ceferin has also hit out at the rekindling of the plans and was particularly critical of the timing due to the current events taking place between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit, he said: "I am tired of talking about this nonsense.
"First they try to launch during a pandemic, now we hear that they are trying to launch in the middle of a war. Do I have to speak more about these people? They obviously live in a parallel world. While we are saving players together with other stakeholders, while we are working to help in a terrible situation they work on a project like that.
"Honestly speaking, they can pay whoever they want to write that this is a nice project, that they are full of solidarity and give some charity to small clubs. This is a complete nonsense and everybody except them knows it. One of them even called me after and apologised. Now they go again. To them fans are customers, for us fans are fans. It is interesting that they are criticising UEFA and ECA, one of them (Agnelli) was chairman of the ECA. Fans aren't important to them as fans launched a petition, they don't care about that.
"Let me just say that they can play their own competition, nobody forbids them that. But if they play their own competition they cannot play our competition. It is completely different thing. We are discussing with all our stakeholders, we are discussing with the leagues, we are discussing with the clubs, the ECA. It is not 'Super League-ish', it is everything but the Super League.
"We have not clarified the final decision, but for anyone to compare the reform of the Champions League to the Super League is not serious. We have 32 teams in the Champions League now and the plan is to have 36. It will be more places for smaller and mid-sized teams."
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