96-Club European Super League Proposal Unveiled, but Critics Remain

Plenty of soccer fans hate the idea of the European Super League in the sport. FIFA and UEFA bitterly fought the concept. Nonetheless, the notion is back—and bigger than ever—with Tuesday’s announcement of a 96-team Unify League.

A22 Sports Management, a company originally formed to aid the development of the ESL, introduced a restructured concept for a pan-European club competition with the Unify League that expanded from a prior, planned men’s competition with 64 teams. 

The new proposal, being submitted to FIFA and UEFA for official recognition, arrives almost one year to the day from a ruling by the European Court of Justice that prior restrictions around the ESL were “unlawful.” In the proposed new structure, the 96 teams would be divided into four “leagues”: two top tiers of 16 clubs each, and two lower ones with 32 clubs each. Top-performing clubs in each league would then advance to knockout rounds, and the four-level structure contemplates annual promotion and relegation among the tiers. 

“Now is the time for all stakeholders, including UEFA and FIFA, to bring real innovation that prioritizes fan experience and affordability, player welfare, and match competitiveness,” said A22 CEO Bernd Reichart. 

The original ESL proposal died in 2021 in the face of heated public criticism across Europe, but LaLiga rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid still spent more than two years in an extended legal effort to revive it. Now in this retooled incarnation, the Unify League will be based in no small part on a direct-to-consumer streaming service, called Unify, which will offer free, ad-supported distribution of matches as well as an ad-free subscription option.

“Our extensive engagement with key stakeholders revealed a number of pressing challenges facing the sport including increasing subscription costs for fans, an overloaded player calendar, insufficient investment in women’s football, and dissatisfaction with the format and governance of the current pan-European competitions,” Reichart said. 

Rough Reaction

Though some clubs, including those two LaLiga giants, have supported the Unify League concept, the Spanish league itself had some of the most blistering initial criticism of the new concept.

“Those from A22 Sports are back with a new idea: they produce formats as if they were churros, without analyzing or studying the economic and sporting effects on the competition,” LaLiga president Javier Tebas tweeted in Spanish. “The television model they propose only favors the big clubs (and they know it…) while endangering the economic stability of the national leagues and their clubs.”