Super League planning relaunch to combat 'English dominance'
By Tom Gott
The group behind the European Super League are looking to relaunch their plans to form a new competition due to fears that English teams are becoming too powerful.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham were all part of the initial launch before withdrawing in the face of major fan protest. Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Inter all backed out as well, leaving Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid as the only founding members still keen.
That trio of clubs have long refused to accept defeat in their attempts to form the Super League and The Times state that they are backing a relaunch of the proposal from leading company A22 Sports Management.
The new plans, which are looking to take shape within three years, are firmly anti-Premier League. In a presentation sent to clubs in an attempt to garner interest, the group state that the English top flight 'is outgunning all continental leagues' and that the Champions League 'is increasingly dominated by English clubs' who are 'backed by hedge funds, public investment funds, sheikhs, oligarchs'.
English clubs are blamed for the collapse of the initial plan and painted as a threat to the global game because of their financial might.
"The English Premier League (EPL) is turning into a global Super League [and] is outperforming its continental rivals’ combined net spending on transfers," the dossier reads.
"This summer, EPL clubs spent €2.25bn (about £1.9bn), more than La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 combined.
"Newly promoted Nottingham Forest’s net spend of €160m was more than the whole of Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 (a total of 78 clubs) combined. The Premier League affords wage costs almost twice as high as its next continental rival.
"On top of broadcasting [income], all big six English clubs are owned by a multibillionaire investor or a state fund."
The plans also claim that the Champions League is being dominated by English teams, despite the fact that there have been just two English winners in the past ten years.
"The Champions League is no longer a truly open European tournament," the dossier continues. "The Champions League is increasingly dominated by English clubs and few continental exceptions trying to keep up.
"Two of the past four finals have been all-English contests and only Real Madrid prevented a third all-English final in June. Over the past five years, roughly 75 per cent of Champions League semi-finalists were from England, plus the few continental exceptions Paris [Saint-Germain], [Real] Madrid and [Bayern] Munich."