Super League: Everything football fans should know

Super League

The Super League trophy

The Super League trophy
The Super League trophy

By Muhaimin Olowoporoku

The past 24 hours would be one to remember in the history of European football as some of the biggest teams announced plans to form their own breakaway competition called the Super League.

The new league happens to be a threat to the existing UEFA Champions League. thereby leading to massive fallout among top European football stakeholders.

From big teams which have joined to German and French giants who have refused to play along, threats of sanction for clubs and players, and lawsuits against these sanctions, there are a lot of things fans should know about the Super League.

Explaining the Super League

The Super League would be another mid-week competition where top 20 European clubs would battle for the league title.

15 founding Clubs are due to compete with a qualifying mechanism for the other five teams. They would qualify based on their achievement in the previous season.

Selected teams are going to be grouped into two with home and away fixtures. The top three teams in each group qualify automatically for the quarter-finals.

Teams that finish fourth and fifth would compete afterward for the remaining quarter-final positions. Afterward, a two-leg knockout format will be played until two teams emerge for the finals.

The league also plans a women competition after the men’s competition kick-off.

12 European football top guns have already signed to the League.

They are Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Inter and Juventus.

Teams that refused to join the Super League

The Super League being in its formative stage has continued to woo other top clubs aside from the ones that have joined.

A handful of European clubs have turned the project down.

The Athletic reports that Paris Saint-Germain chiefs see joining the plan as disrespectful.

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Borussia Dortmund chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke said that his club stood with Bayern Munich in their refusal to leave the Champions League.

Porto president, Pinto da Costa, also told TVI that they had informal contacts with the Super League and made it clear they were not interested.

Pillars behind the new league

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, has been named the chairman of the Super League.

Assisting him are Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer and Juventus’ Andrea Agnelli.

They are both going to act as vice-chairmen.

JP Morgan bankrolling the new league

Top tier American bank, JP Morgan have declared readiness to bankroll the new league, Reuters report.

According to ESPN, the financial power horse would be investing about £4.3 billion in the league.

UEFA’s dangling axe

UEFA has warned clubs that have joined the new League that they face being banned from domestic and international competitions.

They made this known in a statement with Spanish, English, and Italian leagues and federations.

UEFA noted that it will consider “all measures”, including the courts and bans from domestic leagues, in opposition to plans for a breakaway competition.

Battling for soul of football

Both the Super League and UEFA have threatened to neutralise each other.

UEFA has threatened to ban the 12 clubs and players involved in the rival Super League, while the Super League threatened to sue UEFA to protect its interests.

The Super League made its stance known in a letter sent by the 12 clubs to UEFA on Monday in which they said they would take legal steps in unnamed courts to protect their interests as they set up the league.

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