The English Premier League penalized clubs that were ready to join the Super League

Liverpool footballers in the English Premier League match Photo: AP

The English Premier League has penalized six clubs in its league that were ready to join the Football Super League in April, the media ESPN reports.

London’s Arsenal, London’s Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester’s City, Manchester’s United, Tottenham’s Hostpur and the English Premier League have agreed that all six organizations will pay the league a total of £ 22 million (approximately £ 25.5 million). euro), which will serve as payment for the settlement. All teams have also agreed that in the future, if clubs engage in similar projects and engage in unauthorized activities, they will each be penalized with £ 20 million (approximately € 23.1 million), minus 30 points in the Premier League table.

“All six clubs involved in the creation of the Super League have once again admitted that it was a mistake. The organizations have also expressed their commitment to supporting the Premier League and English football, ”said the official statement of the English Premier League. “As a gesture of goodwill, the teams have agreed to invest £ 22 million in the development of English football.”

Among the initiators of the Super League were these six English Premier League teams, as well as three clubs from Spain – Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid – and Italy – Inter Inter, AC Milan, Turin Juventus. Two days after the announcement of the creation of the Super League, all English clubs gradually withdrew from the project, thus the realization of the idea subsided. Later, both clubs in Milan and Atletico in Madrid joined the English clubs. In early May, all nine clubs agreed with UEFA on a joint fine of € 15 million and a waiver of 5% of revenue next season.

Real, Barcelona and Juventus appealed to the Madrid Commercial Court, which referred the case to the European Court of Justice. Clubs are asking the court to assess whether UEFA is abusing its “dominant position” to try to block a competing tournament. It has already been reported that 15 teams had planned to establish the European Super League, but five more would have the opportunity to qualify for the tournament every year. In the newly created league, the games would take place in the middle of the week, thus not preventing the clubs from competing in local championships.

The tournament format provides for 20 teams to be divided into two groups of ten each. The teams in the group each played two games, one at home and the other at the guests. The top three teams in each group would advance to the quarter-finals, while the fourth and fifth place winners would play two games to find out the other players in the play-offs. The playoffs are scheduled to take place in the same way as in the UEFA Champions League, where the strongest clubs in the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be determined in the sum of two matches. The European Super League final could take place in May. The 15 clubs considered to be the founders of the European Super League planned to receive € 3.5 billion in infrastructure investment plans to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The need for a newly formed league in football circles was ambiguous. UEFA has previously stated that clubs playing in the league are in danger of being disqualified from national championships as well as European and Champions League tournaments. French President Emanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also opposed the creation of the European Super League, who said that clubs were initially accountable to their fans, but only then could they make concrete decisions. Condemnation of the league’s leaders was also expressed by the leadership of the English Premier League, the Italian Football Federation, the European Football Clubs Association (ECA) and other organizations involved in the sport.