Daily US Times: Six of the English Premier League clubs are among 12 clubs who have agreed to join a new European Super League (ESL). The newly joined clubs are Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham.
In a seismic move for European football, the Premier League clubs will join Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid.
The European Super League authorities said the founding clubs had agreed to establish a “new midweek competition” with teams continuing to “compete in their respective national leagues”.
ESL said the inaugural season was “intended to commence as soon as practicable” and “anticipated that a further three clubs” would join the breakaway.
It said, after the men’s tournament starts, the ESL also planned to launch a women’s competition as soon as possible.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the English Premier League and UEFA condemned the move when the news broke on Sunday.
Football’s governing body FIFA had previously said it wouldn’t recognise such a competition, and any players involved in the competetion could be denied the chance to play at a World Cup.
Europe’s governing body UEFA reiterated that warning on Sunday when it said players involved would be banned from all other competitions at domestic, world or European level and could be prevented from representing their national teams.
After the Super League was announced, FIFA expressed its “disapproval” of the proposed competition and called on “all parties involved in heated discussions to engage in calm, constructive and balanced dialogue for the good of the game”.
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