Super League news LIVE – anger and derision as new plans for football breakaway revealed

Grand new plans for a revived European Super League have been dismissed as “the twitching of the corpse” by the chief executive of the Football Supporters’ Association (FSA).

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The Independent has spoken to the Football Supporters’ Association this morning, who dismissed the Super League’s new plans as “hot air”.

“It’s not going to happen,” said the FSA’s chief executive, Kevin Miles. “This latest plan is just their way of reminding the world that they exist, they are still here. But it’s all hot air.”

The original Super League plans, involving 15 founding members including six English clubs who would have benefitted from ringfenced financial gains, was effectively killed off in court and there appears to be little momentum now for its revival.

“It’s the twitching of the corpse,” said Miles.

LaLiga’s biggest two clubs were told late last year by finance group KPMG that moving to a European Super League would bankrupt Spain’s top flight.

The report estimated the league’s value – comprised of broadcast rights, sponsorship, season tickets and other ticketing – at 3.316 billion euros (£2.85bn) in the current season.

The existence of a Super League played in midweek would slash that value by 1.662 billion euro (£1.4bn) while if LaLiga was forced to become a midweek competition the impact is forecast to be even greater – with a reduction of 1.8billion euro (£1.5bn) – a drop of 55 per cent.

The presidents of Real and Barca, Florentino Perez and Joan Laporta, remain advocates of a Super League.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas has hit out at the latest relaunch of the European Super League, depicting the organisation as a sly thief trying to steal influence and finance away from the heart of football.

Bernd Reichart, the chief executive of A22 - the company behind the ESL proposals - has released a new blueprint for the breakaway competition which would now feature 80 teams across a multi-division format.

Following the widespread condemnation by fans of the initial plans, most clubs involved in the 2019 launch quickly distanced themselves from the idea, many apologising in the process. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus have remained the driving forces behind a renewed push, however.

Now the relaunch, which includes a minimum of 14 matches per team and features 10 principles of structure derived extensive consultation with clubs, is again purporting to stop “the foundations of European football [...] collapsing.”

Tebas, though, is insistent that the group are far from the saviours of football and will instead remain self-serving - tweeting an image which showed a “Super League” wolf disguised as a grandmother and a faceless “Europe football” figure stylised as Little Red Riding Hood.

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Sky journalist Rob Harris has revealed that A22 - the group behind the European Super League - have refused to divulge which clubs back them with the new proposals.

The English clubs initially aligned with the ESL in 2019 quickly removed themselves from the conversation after outrage from supporters.

As a reminder, Uefa and Fifa have both sought to stop the European Super League from being brought into being - while the company behind the ESL say the governing bodies are abusing their position of power under competition law.

In a significant moment for the future of European football, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos told the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in December that he backed Uefa over their opposition to the Super League, after Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus brought forward a case accusing the governing body of running a “monopoly” over the sport.

The opinion comes as a major victory for Uefa ahead of the final ruling next year and, though the opinion is non-binding, it appears to end any hopes clubs pushing for a European Super League had of competing in a breakaway competition while still retaining their places in domestic leagues.

More here from that ruling:

Plans for the European Super League have been relaunched with a new multi-divisional format in an effort to revive the thwarted competition