ECA criticizes “alternative reality”
The sports project developer “A22”, which is driving the implementation of the Super League plans, has presented further details for a possible alternative to the well-known European Cup competitions. “A European football league should be an open competition with 60 to 80 teams in several divisions, with revenues spread across the pyramid,” the agency said on Thursday. Participation is based on the sporting performance achieved over the course of the season.
There shouldn’t be any permanent members, “qualification through national performance gives clubs access to European competition and thus maintains the dynamics at national level,” it said. At least 14 guaranteed European games are under discussion. The ten principles presented include the following: “A new European competition must claim to be the most exciting sporting event in the world.”
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Almost two years ago, twelve top clubs caused a stir with the publication of their Super League plans. The project would have been in direct competition with the Champions League. But after massive protests from other clubs, associations and fans, nine of the twelve clubs withdrew within hours – Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin remained. UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin declared the project “dead” at the time. The efforts of “A22” announced last October are considered a new attempt.
These 12 top clubs planned the Super League
According to the announcement, “A22” boss Bernd Reichart has now spoken to “around 50 European football clubs and other stakeholders from football”. Details and names were not given. The dispute over an alternative to the UEFA competitions is currently with the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). A verdict is expected in the coming months.
“It is the clubs that bear the entrepreneurial risk in football. But when it comes to important decisions, they are too often forced to sit idly by and watch from the sidelines as the sporting and financial foundations melt away from under their hands,” said Reichart. “Our talks have also made it clear that clubs often find it impossible to speak out publicly against a system that uses the threat of sanctions to thwart opposition.”
The European club association ECA shortly afterwards criticized the “alternative reality” of “A22” and reiterated its long-standing opposition to the European Super League and any breakaway projects. “This is just another deliberately distorted and misleading attempt to destabilize the constructive work that is currently taking place between the real stakeholders in football to move things forward in the best interest of European club football,” the statement said. The Champions League reform 2024 is already a “real change”. “We have evolved, when will A22 do it?”
ECA statement on latest breakaway ‘European Super League’ – a rehashed idea already proposed, discussed and comprehensively rejected by all stakeholders.https://t.co/2Dt8Fcxtf7#WeAreECA #HeartofFootball
— ECA (@ECAEurope) February 9, 2023
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