Breakaway clubs face fierce backlash

European governments, game's authorities and fan groups slam launch of elite competition to rival Champions League

Twelve of Europe's top soccer clubs announced plans for a breakaway Super League on Sunday, launching what is certain to be a bitter battle for control of the game and its lucrative revenue.

The move sets up a rival to UEFA's established Champions League competition and was condemned by soccer's authorities, political leaders and fan groups.

Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus are among the leading members of the new league, which the 12 clubs said would start "as soon as practicable". However, UEFA has threatened to ban them from domestic and international competition and vowed to fight the move.

French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson both issued statements condemning a breakaway and supporting UEFA's position.

As well as United, English Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have signed up to the plans. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain join Real. AC Milan and Inter Milan make up the trio from Italy along with Juventus.

The Super League said that it aimed to have 15 founding members and a 20-team league with five other clubs qualifying each season.

The clubs say they would share a fund of 3.5 billion euros ($4.19 billion) to spend on infrastructure projects and to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires," said Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, the first chairman of the Super League.

No German or French clubs have signed up to the plans.

World soccer's governing body FIFA expressed its "disapproval to a 'closed European breakaway league' outside of the international football structures".

Noticeably, however, there was no mention of a previous threat from FIFA to ban any players taking part in a breakaway from participating in World Cups.

The announcement came just hours before UEFA signed off on its own plans for an expanded and restructured 36-team Champions League on Monday.

UEFA jointly issued a strong statement with English, Spanish and Italian leagues and soccer federations, saying they were ready to use "all measures" to confront any breakaway and saying any participating clubs would be banned from domestic competitions, such as the Premier League.

"The clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams," UEFA said.

"We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough."

The breakaway plan was condemned by soccer authorities across Europe and former players.

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville was particularly vociferous in his criticism, calling the plans "an absolute disgrace".

"I'm disgusted with Manchester United and Liverpool the most. Liverpool, they pretend－'You'll Never Walk Alone', the people's club, the fans' club'," Neville told Sky Sports.

"Manchester United, 100 years, born out of workers from around here, and they're breaking away into a league without competition that they can't be relegated from?

"I'm not against money in football but the principles and ethos are of fair competition, so that if Leicester win the league, they go into the Champions League.

"Manchester United aren't even in the Champions League. Arsenal aren't even in the Champions League－they are an absolute shambles of a football club at the moment. Tottenham aren't in the Champions League.

"Have they got a God-given right to be in there? Honestly, the time has come now to get an independent regulator and stop these clubs having the power base. Enough is enough."

Paris Saint-Germain was not reported to have signed up to the plan and France's President Macron said he "welcomes the position of French clubs to refuse to participate".

UK Prime Minister Johnson tweeted the plans "would strike at the heart of the domestic game".

He added: "The clubs involved must answer to their fans and the wider footballing community before taking any further steps."

Manchester City's Official Supporters Club was among a multitude of fan groups to denounce the plans, stating: "This proposed new competition has no sporting merit and would seem to be motivated by greed.

"Furthermore, it has been created without the knowledge or input of any supporters groups and once again shows those involved have zero regard for the game's traditions."

UEFA has proposed major changes to its Champions League which had received support from many clubs and organization.

The changes will see the competition increase to 36 from 32 teams, and an overhaul of the group stage into a single table rather than the current groups of four clubs.

Teams would play 10 matches each in the group stage rather than the six they currently play and a playoff round would also be introduced before the last 16.

But while there had been a broad consensus about those reforms, the big clubs made a late push to have changes to the governance and control of the competition before making Sunday's dramatic move.

Reuters