European Super League: latest reaction to breakaway football competition – live!

The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has put out a statement, accusing the club of a “betrayal” and saying “enough is enough”.

“Tottenham Hotspur was the first British club to win a European trophy,” it reads. “We blazed a trail that caught the imagination of fans everywhere. Yesterday, the current board of THFC betrayed the club, its history and the magic that makes this game so special when they put their name to a statement announcing the formation of a breakaway European Super League.

“This statement, signed by self-appointed ‘leading clubs’, was put out late on a Sunday night. It was made not only after no consultation with supporters, but in the face of clearly stated opposition to key parts of the announcement.

“We have always tried to maintain a pragmatic position of engagement with the board of THFC, even under the most trying of circumstances. But enough is enough. The current board is prepared to risk the club’s reputation and its future in the opportunistic pursuit of greed. One of England’s most famous clubs could find itself expelled from English league competition. Its players could be banned from international competition. And yet the current owners – mere custodians of a 139-year-old institution – are prepared to risk it all for avarice and self-aggrandisement.”

The THST goes on to demand the board “immediately disassociates itself from the breakaway league” or it will have “no choice” but to call for new owners.

“Morning Mike.” Morning reader David Wall. “Everyone has remarked on the greed of the people behind this, but what strikes me the more I think about it is their stupidity. You don’t announce that you’re going to carry out a coup in a few months, or even a year’s time, giving the people you’re acting against time to get their retaliation in first. You just do it when you’re ready to go. And this wasn’t a leak, it was an announcement. How did the English clubs think the Premier League was going to react? It gives the PL plenty of time to call an EGM, propose expulsion for any club acting against for a competitor league (and I’ll bet they can find the 14 clubs required to vote through new rules), and then bar the six clubs from next season. At least, that’s what the PL should do, and those clubs have made it easy for them. Like Jonathan Liew said, ‘the smartest guys in the room’.”

The Guardian’s own Jonathan Liew has written that the idea of a European Super League is one that could only have been devised by someone who truly hates football to its bones.

Who hates football so much that they want to prune it, gut it, dismember it, from the grassroots game to the World Cup. Who finds the very idea of competitive sport offensive, an unhealthy distraction from the main objective, which in a way has always been capitalism’s main objective.

More below:

On Uefa’s stance on all this: there’s an executive committee meeting today in Switzerland. Italian journo Fabrizio Romano reports Europe’s governing body is on the same page as Fifa, the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga in that teams will be banned from the Champions League and domestic leagues if they take part in the European Super League.

“Soulless”, “absolutely disgusting”, “bang out of order”… Danny Murphy and Dion Dublin didn’t hold back when airing their views on the BBC. Former Liverpool midfielder Murphy said he expected a backlash from managers and players, not least because of Uefa’s threat to ban European Super League clubs from domestic leagues. (There is also the previous threat from Fifa to ban participating players from World Cups.)

Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has also weighed in, saying the new league was all about “money and greed”.

“Let’s hope it’s stopped in its tracks,” Keane told Sky Sports. “We talk about big clubs, Bayern Munich are one of the biggest clubs in the world. At least they’ve made a stance, which is a good start.”

Arsène Wenger knew this was coming.

And here’s Jürgen Klopp talking on the subject, from more recent times, in 2019:

“For me, the Champions League is the Super League, in which you do not always end up playing against the same teams. Why should we create a system where Liverpool faces Real Madrid for 10 straight years? Who wants to see that every year?”

No need for any further explanation on this post: