According to Barcelona president Joan Laporta, The ‘Big Six’ Premier League clubs who signed up for the European Super League, are still waiting to hear about the competition’s future.
The six English Clubs, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, and Manchester City pulled from the controversial project after a widespread public backlash and amid mounting pressure from the government and the football leagues.
While AC Milan, Inter, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Juventus remained committed to the concept of challenging the Champions League reforms, which have also been met with criticism.
Laporta has confirmed his commitment to the competition and backed those working to “win” further legal proceedings. The 59-year-old told Mundo Deportivo: “We are still here with Juventus, Real Madrid and other teams waiting. English clubs are still waiting, whether Manchester, Liverpool or the Germans too”.
“They are waiting to see if it will be a new competition format or if it will be an improved Champions League. But we are here and we win in each of the legal proceedings that have been initiated. We are now waiting for the verdict of the European Court and we hope that it will rule by the end of the year.”
Meanwhile, Juventus President Andrea Agnelli speaking at the FT Business of Football summit in London on 3rd March said, “To me, it is not a failure. We have been hearing projects of potential breakaway leagues ever since I was a teenager. Last year was the first time that not one, not two, not three, but 12 clubs made a very important statement that was a profound alarm to the system. Any promoter should be allowed, in a free environment, to promote a product and then if people are qualified, invited, they can freely decide without being told no by a monopolistic operator, and the only gatekeeper for the industry”.
Agnelli also said that “these 12 clubs have signed a 120 pages contract and it is still binding for 11 of them”.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, speaking at the same conference as Angelli, responded to those pushing the European super league. saying “I’m sick and tired of speaking of this non-football project, he said. “Look, first, they launched their nonsense of the idea in the middle of a pandemic. Now we are reading articles every day that they are planning to launch another idea now in the middle of a war. Do I have to speak more about those people? They live in a parallel world.”
”We are helping in a terrible situation, they are working on a project like that. They can pay whoever they want to write ‘this is a nice project, they are full of solidarity, there will be a charity to small ones.”
‘This is nonsense and everyone knows it. One of them, after it, called me and apologized – but then they go again. For them, the fans are customers. For us, the fans are fans.’