Backers of the doomed European Super League have today announced plan to launch a new version of the ill-fated project which caused widespread condemnation two years ago.
As reported by the Telegraph , A22, a sister company of the European Super League (ESL) has announced in various European newspapers a multi-division competition which will see teams play a minimum of 14 games a season. The competition will see 60-80 teams involved, and unlike ESL, it will have no permanent members.
Six of Nottingham Forest's Premier League rivals were involved in the original plan back in 2021. Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham, all withdrew their involvement within days of the announcement following widespread condemnation from fans and pundits.
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It is now claimed by A22 that there has been ‘detailed conversations’ with European clubs around the financial problems facing them, leading to the plans for the new competition. There are no details in the plans as to how the 60-80 teams would be chosen and how they would drop in and out of the competition. The announcement comes as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, the three remaining ESL clubs, continue their legal battle with UEFA.
President of La Liga Javier Tebas has already responded to the new proposals, saying that the backers are just trying to disguise a new Super League. “The Super League is the wolf, who today disguises himself as a granny to try to fool European football, but his nose and his teeth are very big,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Four divisions in Europe? Of course the [top division] for them [the founding clubs], as in the 2019 plan. Governance of the clubs? Of course only from the big ones."
There have already been changes to the Champions League format which will come into effect in 2024. The ‘Swiss model’ will see 36 teams in a single division playing a total of 10 group games.
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