Controversial football project
Super League initiators: A new attempt and “confrontational talks” with Uefa
With the former RTL Germany boss Bernd Reichart at the helm, the three top clubs Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin are making a new attempt to introduce a Super League in European football.
© Boris Breuer/A22 Sports Management/DPA
The initiators of the controversial Super League want to discuss their new plans with the European Football Union. A former media manager is supposed to help – and a certain confrontational course.
The initiators of a possible new Super League want to discuss their plans with the European Football Union next week. “I’ll be in Nyon next week to also talk to Uefa about it. That’s also my understanding of dialogue, that you also hear the other side and also have confrontational discussions, because we certainly won’t be able to agree on everything.” , said Bernd Reichart, who represents the already failed project of the top clubs Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin, in the podcast “Einfach mal Luppen” with the ex-world champion Toni Kroos and his brother Felix.
Super League: New start, new talks
Reichart described the planned talks with Uefa as a “nice signal to clubs that are currently still shying away or even fear sanctions if they enter into dialogue”. Since the new start for the Super League project in European football in mid-October, he has already had “talks with a good dozen clubs”. However, the heads of the top German clubs had once again publicly expressed their opposition.
Waiting for ECJ verdict
Reichart expects a restructuring of all European competitions in the future, but believes that a dialogue about the exact structure is necessary beforehand. “We don’t have a format that we conjure up out of the box, we want to enter into dialogue and we want to work on exactly such topics.” If Uefa is restricted in the organization of the competitions, “then someone has to reorganize the whole system,” said the former RTL boss with a view to the ECJ’s pending decision on the Super League.
The “European Super League Company” had filed a lawsuit against Uefa and Fifa with a court in Madrid, which had asked the ECJ to interpret EU law for the procedure. A verdict is expected next year. The Super League project failed in its original form in April 2021. Of the twelve clubs that initially sought a spin-off, nine withdrew within a few hours.
Bundesliga coach Baumgart: “They will find a way”
Meanwhile, Steffen Baumgart expects the controversial Super League in football to come. “The debate about the Super League is picking up speed, the debate about abolishing 50 plus 1 – we’ll discuss it all until we have it. I think it’s only a matter of time,” said the coach of Bundesliga club 1 FC Köln in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “Those who want to enforce such a league, no matter how the whole thing ends up complaining, whether Super League or otherwise, will find a way.”
Advance of the top clubs Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin
Most recently, the three top clubs Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin started a new attempt for the Superliga project. Uefa, which currently organizes the most important international club competition with the Champions League, had previously put up massive resistance. But Baumgart, who himself stands for “old-fashioned football and tradition”, is also impressed by the format of the premier class. “What I don’t like is the regulation of the competitions as a whole: A Champions League has to be a league of champions, not for places one to four in Germany, England, Spain, Italy. Then it’s a Super League in disguise,” he explained 50 year old. AS Roma won the Conference League this year because they were kicked out in the Europa League and “were allowed to continue one floor down. That doesn’t work for me.”
Two-class society in European football
With the Conference League, Uefa “gives the little ones a candy. But it confirms the two-tier society between the rich and those who don’t have a big name. Isn’t that even discriminatory?” he asked. If the European Football Union (Uefa) created this competition for the small countries, “then they must also explain that they are the ones who excluded these small countries from the Champions League. That’s how you have to put it,” said Baumgart.