The basics? A group of 12 clubs from across Europe’s biggest leagues announced plans to form a new competition called the Super League. The league, should it be established, would offer permanent spots to some of the world’s biggest clubs and play matches midweek, while allowing the involved clubs to remain in their domestic competitions. This plan is currently opposed by FIFA and UEFA, the governing bodies for international and European soccer, respectively.
What is the Super League?
The Super League is a long-discussed idea for a closed competition that would feature Europe’s biggest clubs. Over the years, there have been many different theoretical proposals for what that league would look like. On Sunday, 12 clubs announced their intention to break away from Europe’s governing body, UEFA, and form their own league. They plan to add three more permanent members and leave five spots open in the 20-team format that European clubs could qualify for from across Europe’s domestic competitions.
Which teams are involved?
The 12 teams currently listed as founding members:
- Arsenal (currently 9th in EPL)
- Chelsea (currently 5th in EPL)
- Liverpool (currently 6th in EPL)
- Manchester City (currently 1st in EPL)
- Manchester United (currently 2nd in EPL)
- Tottenham Hotspur (currently 7th in EPL)
- Atletico Madrid (currently 1st in La Liga)
- Barcelona (currently 3rd in La Liga)
- Real Madrid (currently 2nd in La Liga)
- AC Milan (currently 2nd in Serie A)
- Inter Milan (currently 1st in Serie A)
- Juventus (currently 4th in Serie A)
In addition to these 12 teams, the founders expect to add three more permanent teams as well as five rotating teams per season from the rest of Europe through a qualification process.
Who is in charge of the Super League?
The first head of the Super League is Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who will serve as chairman. He’s supported by two vice-chairmen. Here’s the full list:
- Chairman: Florentino Perez (Real Madrid)
- Vice-chairman: Andrea Agnelli (Juventus)
- Vice-chairman: Joel Glazer (Manchester United)
What about the financial backing?
The estimated earnings for would-be fixtures signing up to the proposed Super League are at least $425 million. Each of the would-be permanent members of the proposed Super League are being promised €350 million ($425 million) to sign up, per documents obtained by the New York Times.
Here’s what the Super League had to say in their announcement:
The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues. These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10 billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the Clubs. In addition, the competition will be built on a sustainable financial foundation with all Founding Clubs signing up to a spending framework. In exchange for their commitment, Founding Clubs will receive an amount of €3.5 billion solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID pandemic.