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09th Feb 2023

Organisers of failed European Super League announce new plans to replace Champions League

Steve Hopkins

The new proposal will not require clubs to leave their domestic competitions

New plans for a European Super League would see up to 80 teams involved but no permanent members, according to reports.

A22, the company behind the the Super League project in April 2021, have now revealed plans for a breakaway competition to challenge the Champions League.

A22 made the announcement in various European newspapers on Thursday, and say the new proposal will not require clubs to leave their domestic competitions.

The company said plans have been drawn up following conversations with clubs around the continent.

It comes amid growing concerns about the financial might of England’s Premier League, whose 20 clubs spent a combined £815million during the January window. Top clubs in Spain, Italy, France and Germany combined came to just over a quarter of that, the Mail reports.

A22 and the European Super League are likely to use the growing financial gulf between the Premier League and its counterparts as a key argument for their revised plans, the publisher suggested.

The new plans were outlined in a document called ‘Ten principles for a European football league’.

It reads: “European football is on the brink of the abyss.

“Huge imbalances have arisen across our continent and traditional European clubs, with glorious pasts, today are unable to compete.”

The new competition would comprise of several divisions and involve between 60 and 80 teams with a minimum of 14 matches per club, per season. it will have no permanent members, so it may have a promotion and relegation system between divisions.

There are no details yet on how teams would be organised, and who would be selected, but the competition would pose a threat to the Champions League.

A22 chief executive Bernd Reichart attacked UEFA once again amid the ongoing legal battle saying “the foundation on which European football is built is seriously under threat”, according to the Mail report.

“The time has come to make changes. It is the clubs that bear the entrepreneurial risk in football. But when it comes to important decisions, they are too often forced to stand idly by from the sidelines as the sporting and financial foundations run under their hands.”

LaLiga responded to the proposal with a pointed cartoon, depicting the Super League as a bid bad wolf trying to devour football.

“The Super League is a wolf disguised as grandma in the hope of tricking European football – but its teeth are very big,” they said.

Spanish league president Javier Tebas tweeted: “Four divisions? Of course the top one for them. Government by the clubs? Of course, only the big clubs.’

The tweet was accompanied by a cartoon depicting the Super League as the wolf and European Football as Red Riding Hood.

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