2023-12-21 14:21:00
The A22 organization proposed Thursday “a new open European competition”, with “64 clubs divided into 3 leagues” for the men’s tournament and “32 clubs divided into 2 leagues” for the women’s edition, based on the decision of European justice on the Super League. This structure created in October 2022, after the failure of a first private tournament project in April 2021, says nothing about the calendar or the level of approval among European clubs, but promises free broadcasting of its competition “on a streaming platform” called Unify, A22 advances in a press release.
A22 believes that the European Court of Justice has put an “end to UEFA’s monopoly” by invalidating its 2021 rules banning the Super League and threatening sanctions against its promoting clubs and their players, even though the European organization has completely rewritten this text in June 2022. The organization therefore details a new private project, very different from the first version of the Super League, since it will include “no permanent member” and will operate with a promotion-relegation system, also providing for “solidarity payments” of at least 400 million euros to European football.
Criteria based on “performance”
Basically, it is therefore a question of erasing the main criticisms made of the first project (being a club of the ultra-rich modeled on the model of North American private leagues) by taking up the characteristics of the “European sports model” protected by the treaties, i.e. competitions open according to sporting merit and providing for financial redistribution.
“For the first year of the competition, clubs will be selected on the basis of a set of transparent and performance-based criteria,” adds A22, specifying that the matches would be held in the middle of the week, therefore competing head-on with the three competitions. UEFA European Club Championships. Financially, A22 promises that its platform will “generate revenue through advertising, premium subscriptions, distribution partnerships, interactive services and sponsorships”, without revealing partners supporting the launch of the project.
Barcelona and Madrid, always supportive
Real Madrid and FC Barcelona affirmed on Thursday their intention to continue to defend the Super League project, a dissident of the Champions League, after the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which judged its prohibition contrary to law. “We will continue to defend a modern project, fully compatible with national competitions,” declared the president of the Madrid club, Florentino Pérez, in a speech.
“European club football will no longer be a monopoly,” he added, ensuring that European justice had “fully recognized” the “right to propose and promote European competitions which modernize” football. According to the CJEU, “the rules of Fifa and UEFA on the prior authorization of interclub football competitions, such as the Super League, violate Union law”, because they “are not governed by any criteria ensuring their transparent nature […] and non-discriminatory.
READ ALSO Super League: 9 of the 12 rebellious clubs sanctioned by UEFAHowever, she specifies that the Super League project, led by several of the richest clubs, “must not necessarily be authorized”. The CJEU emphasizes that it is ruling in general and not on this specific project. FC Barcelona said in a press release that this decision opened “the way to a new football competition at the highest level in Europe”. The economic issue is one of the main arguments of these two clubs, the last survivors of the twelve teams which launched this idea in April 2021.
The Super League project “will bring economic sustainability to all clubs”, assured Florentino Pérez, while for his Barça counterpart, Joan Laporta, it will allow “greater control over their own sustainability”. Likewise, Joan Laporta called for “an open and constructive dialogue” between “all parties”.
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