When the owners of 12 of Europe’s top football clubs announced on Sunday that they would be forming a closed-shop European Super League, they could not have expected the backlash that followed.
Such has been the adverse reaction of fans, players, league administrators and the media that the six English clubs that had agreed to join the new league with top clubs from Spain and Italy have pulled out three days after announcing they were part of the new structure.
The 12 clubs that agreed to join in the new Super League structure which would consist of 20 elite teams that would compete each year without having to qualify or face the threat of relegation. The organisers said the new league was intended to save the game as many young fans were being turned away by poor performances in games under the current structures.
The great retreat on the Super League proposal began on Tuesday evening (in Europe) when Manchester City announced in a one-line statement that it was pulling out of the agreement. Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal rapidly followed suit.
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Manchester United’s unpopular vice-chairman Ed Woodward who was one of the key organisers of the Super League plan handed in his resignation.
Liverpool, another club that was linked to the Super League plan came under pressure from the players who urged the club to pull out of the plan on social media.
Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson tweeted: “We don’t like it and we don’t want it to happen. That is our collective position.”
His manager, Jurgen Klopp, told Fox News that he and his players had been “blindsided” by his club’s administrators over its decision to join the Super League.
West London club Chelsea was reported to be following suit after fans held mass demonstrations against the move outside its Stamford Bridge headquarters. The BBC said that the club was preparing documents to withdraw from the proposed Super League.
The ABC reported that club goalkeeping legend Peter Cech pleaded with fans as they blocked the players’ bus from entering the club’s stadium to play a scheduled English Premier League game against Brighton. The start of the game was delayed because of the demonstrations.
Mr Cech who is the club’s performance and technical adviser was captured on a video posted on Twitter by BBC senior journalist Matthew Thompson shows Mr Check pleading with fans to: “Let people sort this out, but this is not the the thing. … Let the people in. Let the bus go in. Give people time.”
Meanwhile, Aleksander Ceferin, the president of UEFA, the governing body of European football, praised Manchester City’s U-turn.
“I am delighted to welcome City back to the European football family,” he said.
“They have shown great intelligence in listening to the many voices — most notably their fans — that have spelled out the vital benefits that the current system has for the whole of European football.
“It takes courage to admit a mistake, but I have never doubted that they had the ability and common sense to make that decision,” he added.
There has been no reported reaction to the English retreat from the remaining clubs that agreed to joining the Super League structure namely Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona and Italy’s Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.