The Super League project has finally died out after Uefa announced it had reached “an agreement of principles for the wellbeing of European club football” with Real Madrid and the European Football Clubs group.
In a surprise statement released the day before Uefa stages its annual congress in Brussels, the governing body said all parties had agreed a way forward “respecting the principle of sporting merit with emphasis on long-term club sustainability and the enhancement of fan experience through the use of technology”.
The development comes three-and-a-half months after Real, the sole surviving proponent of the ill-fated 12-club breakaway, announced they would seek “substantial damages” from Uefa for blocking the project. It originally fell apart within days of its launch in 2021. Uefa’s statement suggested that any legal case would also now be closed.
“This agreement of principles will also serve to resolve their legal disputes related to the European Super League, once such principles are executed and implemented,” it read.
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Real were the last Super League architect standing after Barcelona announced their withdrawal on Saturday. They had launched their legal action after the regional court of Madrid upheld a decision by the city’s commercial court that Uefa, the Spanish football federation and La Liga had practised anticompetitive behaviour and abused a dominant position in preventing the breakaway league. It is expected that Real will rejoin European Football Clubs (EFC), formerly the European Club Association. They had left in 2021 after the breakaway attempt.
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The EFC chairman, Nasser al-Khelaifi, welcomed the agreement. “Everybody has honestly done a fantastic job in good faith, and football will win after this,” he said.
It remains to be seen what shape the new agreement takes and whether A22, the company formed to drive the project, will have any future involvement in European football strategy. Uefa and the increasingly influential EFC are happy with the success of the new men’s Champions League format, which will be retained for the cycle from 2027 to 2031. Any tweaks thereafter remain unresolved.
The statement’s reference to technology was also not explained, although A22 had previously announced plans to stream Super League games free on a fan-centric platform. Uefa has secured average annual increases of more than 20 per cent in the value of Champions League rights across its five biggest European markets for the 2027-31 cycle. - Guardian
