In sports, no matter how badly you lose, you can always give it another shot — at least that’s what the remaining backers of the European Super League are hoping.
Nearly a year after the initial project rose and fell in a dramatic 48 hours, the league is reportedly preparing to relaunch with changes to the format and the participants.
- Real Madrid, Juventus, and Barcelona never disavowed the original project and filed a suit against UEFA and FIFA in October on the grounds that the organizations both regulate and profit from the competitions they oversee, violating European competition law.
- La Liga’s Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid, Serie A’s Juventus, Inter Milan, and AC Milan, and the Premier League’s Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea are all reportedly prepared to join.
- A separate report denied that any Premier League clubs are involved in the relaunch.
The new Super League format reportedly eschews permanent membership for the promotion-relegation system familiar to European soccer.
UEFA President Appalled
UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin did not hold back in commenting on the reported Super League revival.
“They first launched their nonsense of an idea in the middle of a pandemic. Now … they are planning to launch another idea in the middle of a war,” he said. “These people, they obviously live in a parallel world.”
Čeferin added that “nobody forbids them to play their own competitions. But if they want to play their own competition, they cannot play in ours.”
