The first objective that the Super League now sets is to convince the clubs it needs to move forward with the project, especially the ten pioneers who abandoned, nine of them in the first hours that followed UEFA’s threats. These are Atlético de Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. To them we must add Juventus, who lasted a few months with Real Madrid and Barcelona, ??until they finally also left the ship. The task seems very complicated in view of the first statements from representatives of all of them.
However, the Super League does not lose hope. Bernd Reichart, its executive director, said yesterday in several interviews that some of the clubs that had expressed their rejection through a statement had called him personally to say “here we are.” The executive pointed out that the intention of the Super League is “not to force the clubs to speak out, but to open a dialogue and begin to unite, not divide.”
Today the front that seems most difficult is that of the English league, by far the most powerful in the world. The Premier League itself issued its own global statement on Thursday completely rejecting the new competition format. Then individual communications from the clubs themselves began to arrive: Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham… Reichart was asked if any of these teams had called him to give him hope of returning to the project, he did not want to comment on the matter.
The only president of an important club that in recent hours has opened up to dialogue with the Super League is Naples, Barcelona’s rival in the Champions League round of 16. Its president, the charismatic Aurelio de Laurentiis, has come out in support of Florentino Pérez. His team coincided with Real Madrid in this last group stage of the Champions League. “We are open to participating,” the Partenopean club said in a statement. Inter have already said no and Juventus and AC Milan are silent for the moment. The Italian Federation through its president, Gabriele Gravina, announced sanctions for those who decide to join: “We are going to wait and analyze the parameters of the sentence. We were the only federation that took a very clear position: we are totally against it. There is a rule in our federation according to which, if someone joins that project, they leave the football system,” he stated.
German football is not up to the task either. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have already expressed their position alongside UEFA. “The Spanish invented the Super League to harm the Premier League. They must accept that they have lost,” says Karl Heinz Rummenigge, current representative of the European Club Association. In France, PSG is a bitter critic. “I have seen the Court’s resolution, a lot of noise has been generated. I understand that they exaggerate it and see it as a victory. We don’t see it that way at all,” says president of the Parisian team, Nasser Al Jelaifi.
