Jamie Carragher tells Super League opponents to ‘keep banging the drum’

Jamie Carragher has told opponents of plans for a new European Super League to “keep banging the drum” to try and get them overturned.

A group of 12 leading European clubs have clubbed together to commit to a new breakaway competition that they hope will rival the Champions League.

Carragher’s former club Liverpool are one of the dozen ‘founder members’ alongside Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham.

The proposal has come in for almost universal condemnation with football supporter groups and leading figures within the game as well as a number of politicians all speaking out to vehemently oppose the venture.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and senior player James Milner expressed their displeasure on Monday night before after the Premier League game with Leeds while fellow Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville continued his loud opposition.

Carragher believes that football must continue to stand up against the move and that doing so can force a change.

“At Sky Sports yesterday I felt resigned to Super League happening,” he tweeted. “But during Monday Night Football after hearing managers, players & fans from Leeds and Liverpool I’m convinced if we all get together and forget our tribalism we can stop this. Keep banging the drum.”

Speaking ahead of the match, Carragher said: “This is not Liverpool: this is John Henry, FSG, the Glazers, Roman Abramovich, Sheikh Mansour, Daniel Levy, these are the people to blame [the club owners]. They are dragging institutions through the mud. The only reason Liverpool are in this is the fact they have won six European Cups and 20 league titles. Only one each have come through FSG. 

“But I don’t think this is going to happen. The football world, everybody is against it, Jurgen Klopp made his stance very clear, and if Liverpool lose their manager on the back of this those owners will be run out of this club in a week. It hurts me more because it’s Liverpool. They bought this club. They’ve made their money, they won the lottery with Liverpool. 

“My message to everyone is that these clubs think this is a done deal, I don’t think it is. Supporters up and down this country can stop it and I really do believe it. At the forefront of that will be Liverpool because I have seen it before.

“We have tribalism in this country, we have rivalry and that is what makes the game the way it is and that is what we love. Football fans get together – all of us in TV, pundits, players, managers get together and stop this. It can be stopped and I am convinced of it. Going forward that is what we need, marches on stadiums, supporters getting together, it should not be allowed to happen.”

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has previously spoken against the idea of a breakaway European league and told Sky Sports his views have not altered.

“It didn’t change. My opinion didn’t change,” he said ahead of the game at Leeds. “I heard the first time about it yesterday and when you are trying to prepare for a difficult game against Leeds, we got some information, not a lot, most of things you can read in newspapers or wherever.

“It is a tough one, people are not happy with that. I can understand that, but I cannot say a lot more about it because we were not involved in any processes – not the players, not me. We didn’t know about it. The facts are out there and we will have to see how it develops.”

Leeds players warmed up for the match wearing T-shirts bearing the message “Football is for the fans”.