What Is The New European Super League Proposal And Will It Actually Happen?

60-80 teams would take part in the new proposal
11:15, 09 Feb 2023

They’re back. As we knew they would be. A new plan for the European Super League, featuring 60-80 clubs and no permanent members has now been published by A22 Sports Management - a company promoting the idea.  

A22 also backed the original idea of a closed off 12-team European Super League that fell flat on its face as fans from English teams protested against the idea until their clubs relented. In 2021, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, this was a shameless power and money grab from Europe’s biggest clubs, yet the anger and fan power shown to wrestle back control was stirring. 

This latest idea has already been dismissed by Javier Tebas, the president of La Liga, as the “latest attempt by big clubs to hijack European football”. But what actually would it look like? 

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Well details are fairly sparse at the minute but they’ve suggested that 60-80 teams would compete in what A22 describe as a “multi-divisional competition.” That means, unlike the original plans, the Super League would be based on “sporting performance” and there would be no permanent members. Access to the ESL could be granted through domestic performance and teams would play a minimum of 14 matches per season. 

Chief Executive Bernd Reichart told Die Welt that: "The foundations of European football are in danger of collapsing. It's time for a change. It is the clubs that bear the entrepreneurial risk in football.

"But when important decisions are at stake, they are too often forced to sit idly by on the sidelines as the sporting and financial foundations crumble around them."

This seems a long way from the original plans that promised the best teams playing in the best matches. In fact, it isn’t too dissimilar to the three-tiered system of European competition that UEFA currently has, stretching from the Champions League down to the Europa Conference League. 

Whether this one can garner any momentum is another matter. Fans on the continent, especially of the mega-clubs in financial difficulty, are certainly more open to the idea than fans in the UK. However, back in December, both UEFA and FIFA received considerable backing as they attempted to stop the creation of any form of ESL. 

A report released by the European Court of Justice said that the rules of football's European and world governing bodies were "compatible with EU competition law", but a final ruling is set to be made by a 15-member Grand Chamber over the coming months. The timing of this proposal, coming just before that final ruling, is surely no coincidence. 

This one is set to develop over 2023 with that final ruling set to play a decisive part. The European Super League is, for now, a proposal that will not go away. There is too much money on the line for that.

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