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Barcelona president Joan Laporta is convinced that a renewed version of the Super League can start in 2025 without English clubs. Barça, along with Real Madrid and Juventus, remain loyal to the project in the wake of the failed start-up in April 2021, when the other nine founding clubs quickly pulled out.
Vincent Van GenechtenBron: BELGIAN
In October, plans to revive the league were announced. Bernd Reichart, the CEO of A22 Sports Management, promised an “open format”. UEFA called Super League supporters “greedy” after meeting Reichart the following month.
Athanasios Rantos, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, denounced the competition format by stating that UEFA and FIFA would lawfully penalize participating clubs.
However, Laporta remains optimistic about the Super League project. The remaining teams hope that the Court of Justice will rule that any sanctions by UEFA are incompatible with EU competition law. “We will hear the verdict in March or April. I think the clubs will benefit from it,” Laporta told radio station Cadena SER on Thursday.
“We want the management to be with the teams. I hope that UEFA will still take a seat at the board table,” it continued.
Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool all pulled their tails back at the time due to the fierce public and media reaction to the plans.
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“The Super League will be a league that can rival the Premier League,” Laporta continued. “I suspect that the English teams will not participate initially, but that we will merge later.”
Laporta has a different vision than La Liga president Javier Tebas, who he says is not taking enough initiatives to help Spanish clubs compete with their English counterparts. “He should be more concerned with television subscribers and the revenue increase of Spanish football.”