‘It’s dead in the water’ | How have the newspapers reacted to new European Super League proposals?

► Subscribe to Sky Sports News: http://bit.ly/SkySportsNewsSub

Jonathan Liew and Jason Burt joined ‘Back Pages Tonight’ to discuss the European Court of Justice’s verdict in relation to the European Super League.

A22 – the organisers behind the failed European Super League have revealed plans for a new competition that features promotion and relegation.

The initial plan for a European Super League was met with widespread fury when it was announced in April 2021 and included Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City.

#SkySportsNews #SkySports #europeansuperleague

► For the latest developments on this story: https://qrcode.skysports.com/skysports/topstories

More from Sky Sports on YouTube:

► Sky Sports Retro: http://bit.ly/SkySportsRetroSub
► Sky Sports: http://bit.ly/SkySportsSub
► Sky Sports Football: http://bit.ly/SSFootballSub
► Sky Sports Boxing: http://bit.ly/SSBoxingSub
► Sky Sports F1: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyF1
► Sky Sports Cricket: http://bit.ly/SubscribeSkyCricket
► Sky Sports Golf: https://bit.ly/SubscribeSkySportsGolf

► To enquire about licensing Sky Sports News content, you can find out more here: https://www.skysports.com/more-sports/news/31754/11434270/license-sky-sports-footage

Uh we’ll bring you the rest of the papers as and when we get them here on Back Pages tonight uh let’s start off with that Super League verdict after the European court of justice rule that FIFA and UEFA acted unlawfully when blocking the formation of the breakway league in in

2021 um Jonathan I I just wonder this was the last thing that ultimately was keeping the a22 project alive the super leag project alive they needed to win this and they’ve done it how much of a surprise is that to you how much of a

Shot in the arm is it to the European Super League idea well I mean I guess that’s two separate questions I think the European Super League idea is is still I it’s hard to see it happening and you look at the the English clubs particularly but across the continent as well that have

Come out against the idea and you know like sephine says he looks forward to watching a two Club League until they get uh you know more major clubs on side until more major clubs actually come out and publicly back it uh and and you you

Get a sense that that fans are are a little bit more enthusiastic about the idea as well because I think that that’s where you know the emphasis is is going to come from uh that it’s really hard to see this this taking off I mean in terms

Of the Judgment itself it’s actually a lot more nuanced than you know one one side winning and one side losing I think there was a danger or certainly UEFA feared that the Judgment might have ruled that that basically their their kind of legislative Monopoly would have

To be broken up and and and that you know you might actually be looking at the break up you way that’s been that’s been averted and you know there is an argument that this actually strengthens UFA because uh and I’d like to feed for in the long run because there is a there

Is an argument made about sporting Merit that that these bodies exist not just to to make money or or they’re not just they’re not just a business that sport you know exists on some plane you know beyond a simple entertainment product and that bodies you know goverment

Bodies have a right to legislate those in a way that preserves sporting Merit I don’t think that has a huge amount of impact you know like I say in the short term because you know we’ve got we got the changes for the Champions League already voted through which is a kind of

A super league in in orbit name uh but I think that you know that part of it where where it safes guard safeguards uefa’s um you know claim to to adjudicate on based on sporting Merit I think that that could come in very very useful um you know further down the line

Um in in your paper Jason in the back of the telegraph um we’ve got the uh the story here that Arsenal and Liverpool are are trying to distance themselves they’re under pressure to snub the Super League we already heard that Manchester United Manchester City Tottenham Chelsea they’re pledging allegiance to the

Competitions they already currently play in I mean that will be obviously a real kind of you know it would be a boost to the confidence of UEFA who probably already feel like well actually you know you get the Premier League clubs in then this absolutely ain’t going to fly with

The European Super League is there any concern do you think for Alexander sheffron or indeed Janny Infantino I don’t think there’s any chance whatsoever that any Premier League club will be joining this this this incarnation of the European Super League absolutely no chance I don’t think any Premier League club will join

Any German club will join any French Club will join an Italian Club will join maybe even Juventus won’t won’t even get interested anymore I think it is as it as it is at the moment absolutely dead in the water I know this judgment has got very everyone very very excited

Today and I saw things being said earlier about how it was like bosma moment for football it it just isn’t and I think actually the judgment is is very interesting Jonathan’s touched upon the sort of sportting Merit argument one of the other issues that’s touched on in

The judgment is uefa’s right to still um authorize tournaments I think obviously their own rules are been questioned and un rightly so because there is a real fear about the monopolistic element and which the way that UFA and FIFA operate but I think the HSE has bolted I think

This is too late for this European Super League I think all the changes they wanted to happen have have pretty much happened and actually in the Judgment Also it talks about some of the things taking away the sort of elitist element of it uh we also know the the new

Incarnation of of the European Super League they’re talking about you know relegation all these things that the was which was the attraction before for the clubs to get involved have gone really they’re getting the money they wanted they’re getting a bigger share of the pot they’re getting even more money

We’re 18 months away from a club World Cup which is going to have 25 team is going to be expanded going to be a huge tournament the champions league is reformatted it’s even bigger next year I just don’t think there’s any any call whatsoever for for a European super

League as things stand with Arsenal and Liverpool yes there’s been pressure today and and rightly so actually I’m surprised those two clubs haven’t put out public statements in the way the other four clubs have but obviously privately they pointed to the fact that they made statements two years ago and

They they stand by those statements they’ve got no interest whatsoever in being involved in a European super league and actually to be fair to Liverpool they they have said in the past that they have now given their fans the the supporters trust the power of veto so there’s no way they can get

Involved in any form of a breakaway without the say so of their fans they’ve given that guarantee so those clubs cannot get involved um Jonathan trying to be as Fair as he possibly can be um is there anything about the new plan that a22 launched today that you actually like

Yeah I mean I I actually think at a sporting level I we haven’t seen a kind of a revenue distribution model uh and you know or any any details about that but actually up the sporting level I I actually prefer their kind of you know Star Gold blue competition to the new 36

Team champions league but I mean it is kind of a move point because as Jason said it’s not going to happen but yeah this kind of is the point what what materially is the difference between the European Super League some new body um and uh you know uefa’s 36 team expanded

Swiss model Champions League which which Awards extra play you know basically Awards extra places to the two biggest lead or the two biggest leads of the previous season and I think you know obviously there there are issues of of who owns it and and you know and the

Governance of those competitions but if you’re a fan what material diff does it make if you have a European Super League uh of like you know three divisions or you have three EUR UEFA competition s all of kind of like 36 32 teams I don’t think

It be makes a huge amount of difference and you know for all the you know U spinning this as a victory if you’re say uh you know a fan of a smaller Club who’s worried about you know growing Financial inequality in the game or in fact if you’re a Liverpool fan or a

Manchester City fan who has seen firsthand the way that UEFA have treated uh you know English fans and fans of other clubs at the last two Champions Leagues finals uh you know you’re going to you’re going to be asking well okay how hang on why why are these guys why

Are you a and why are they better and I’m not sure I’d be able to answer that for them yeah maybe maybe it’s that question of the lesser of two evils for from the fans perspective potentially what about you Jason anything that you know you look at this plan you kind of

Go actually that’s that’s relatively sound well the one the one thing that also jumps out with the plan is the promise that that the the games are going to be free to Air and but but how can that work I mean every single model in terms of uh football is is involves

Media rights deals in involves big payments of money now the only way they can make it all free to Air is to get a huge huge pot of money from somewhere the only place they can properly get that from is the Middle East maybe Saudi Arabia but obviously already Saudi

Arabia’s sort of in bed with FIFA with the club World Cup so I just don’t see that happening if there’s some sort of form of like live golf type type sort of takeover of football that’s the only thing I can see possibly challenging UEFA and feed for at this present time

But that just seems very improbable with football in the way that it wasn’t quite so improbable with golf so I just don’t I just don’t see how it works they’re offering this as a a sort of incredible sort you know carrot to the fans like we’re giving you the football back but

They’re just not doing that and I just don’t see how they even Finance it they were talk today about how they’re going to finance it they fudge fudged all of that issues obviously before they talked about the money from Morgan Stanley but that that that wasn’t confirmed today I

Just don’t see how they can in the present guise take this forward at all and obviously it will now go to Spanish courts and the legal arguments will continue there but at the moment it’s Barcelona and Real Madrid as Alexander sephine says and I just can’t see any

Other club remotely wanting to get involved they will use it probably to continue to apply pressure on FIFA and UEFA I absolutely share Jonathan’s concerns about UEFA he’s absolutely right this isn’t this isn’t a great victory for for UEFA neither should be we should be cheering that from the

Rafters UEFA aren’t AR aren’t necessarily the greatest organization in the world the way they they conduct themselves but at the same time I don’t think um you know this Breakaway this a a22 group are any good either so so I don’t think you know the future football

Yet it’s it’s going to stay as it is at the moment and there are misgivings about the expansion of of the champions league and certainly the club World Cup but we’re not we’re not sort of it’s not a great victory for football necessarily what’s happened today um just on this

Other question of of potential Saudi involvement we we were hearing Jonathan from our chief reporter car on this before and he suggested it would be uh doubtful that they would come in and fund or be part of this simply because of their relationship with FIFA right now which is obviously well very tight

How do you see it Jonathan yeah I mean so what we saw in Li golf was there was this huge kind of shock and a campaign uh to try and build up a rival tour as quickly as possible you know buy as many of the the world’s

Top golfers uh but with the the long-term endgame as we saw of coming to some kind of arrangement they know they were they they took on the PTA with the the aim ultimately of of doing a deal with it and and you know taking a basically a share of the the the power

It’s hard to see how that works in this case because obviously you know uh Infantino is very close to the Saudis uh there’s the the 2034 World Cup there is the the expanded Club World Cup and it you know it’s hard to see how you know this kind of breakaway European Super

League you know which basically consists of two clubs it’s hard to see how how that fits into that and uh you know that’s even before you get onto the the competitive element of how how you incorporate you know the likes of Newcastle or or um you know you know

Even the Saudi Arabian clubs into you know a potential league so I I think I think it’s kind of a non-starter you know there is a sort of there is a sense that maybe the you know the the a22 are basically trying to you know like like

Jason says put pressure on UFA and FIFA with a view to doing a deal further down the line um but it’s hard to see it you know how far they would get with that or what what kind of shape that deal would take there are so many other elements to

This you know the fans perspective the the expense of it all carbon footprint elements of more games across Europe um yeah player welfare as well um but but Jason just to kind of close on this topic before we take a break what do you see as the next steps in this chess game

Now because 8222 will feel they’ve got a a victory they’ll claim it’s a significant one what do you think happens next well obviously it goes to the Spanish courts um and this gives it a bit of fuel in terms of possibly winning that and I really think the only end

Game for a22 is financial financial compensation they’ll try and just get some money or Real Madrid and Barcelona will try and get some money and compensation out of UA over the kind of Monopoly they’ve basically exercised in the last few years I think there more important ramification down the line is

Obviously the Judgment saying that you know the the uh UEFA of acted in contrary to competition law and although they have changed their own rules or are changing their own rules since then it does open the way for maybe some other future um suggestion coming forward in terms of reformatting or reorganizing

Football or football across Europe but it’s just so hard now to see that being done without you know out away from UEFA because of what they’ve done with the Champions League are now doing with the champions league and will continue to do with the Champions League I just don’t

Think there will be a head of steam enough to encourage clubs to to sort of break away and do something different and I think what happened a couple of years ago with obviously the fans backlash in particular is very very raw and especially with those Premier League

Clubs who were were left pretty much shocked by what happened and again that showed how out of touch some of those those clubs were with were their own fan bases at the time