London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Super League: Why are football's biggest clubs starting a new tournament?

Super League: Why are football's biggest clubs starting a new tournament?

A plan by some of the world's biggest football clubs to start a new European Super League (ESL), has provoked strong opposition.

The clubs involved say the ESL will benefit football as a whole, but critics say it's driven by greed.

Which teams want the Super League?


Twelve clubs have signed up - six of them from the English Premier League.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham, would join AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid.

The clubs want a new midweek competition and to continue competing in national leagues.

The ESL would have 20 teams. Of these, the 12 founding members - plus three yet to join - would be permanent and never face relegation.

Five other sides would qualify each year.

The new league would rival the current Champions League competition, one of the biggest club tournaments in football.



Why is the plan widely opposed?


The move has been condemned by fans, pundits and by most football bodies not involved.

With 15 teams in the ESL not facing qualification or relegation, critics say it will create a closed shop at the top of football.

The Premier League says it "attacks the principles of open competition and sporting merit".

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the plans threatened the pyramid structure of English football, "where funds from the globally successful Premier League flow down the leagues and into local communities".

There's also the fear that the ESL would draw huge global TV audiences away from existing leagues such as England's Premier League and Italy's Serie A.

Why do the teams want a Super League?


Money seems to be the driving force.


Football club revenues have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, with disrupted fixtures and a lack of spectators.

Big clubs have superstar players with multi-million pound salaries to be paid.

The founding clubs are being enticed with a share of a €3.5bn (£3bn) grant provided by the investment bank JP Morgan.

The ESL argues the new tournament "will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football".

How would the Super League work?


Under the proposals, the ESL would start in August each year, with plans to launch "as soon as practicable".

The 20-team league would be split into two groups of 10, playing each other home and away.

The top three in each group would qualify for the quarter-finals, with the teams in fourth and fifth playing a two-legged play-off for the two remaining spots.

From then on, it would have the same two-leg knockout format used in the Champions League, with a final in May at a neutral venue.

What's being done to stop the ESL?



Uefa, Europe's football governing body, had hoped plans for a new 36-team Champions League would head off the formation of a Super League.

Sports bodies say they will "remain united" in trying to stop the breakaway league, using legal and sporting measures if required.

Uefa's president has warned that the clubs would be banned from all other competitions at domestic and international level.

He said that players would also be prevented from representing their national teams at the World Cup.

Can the government stop English teams joining?


Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the government is "going to look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure that this doesn't go ahead in the way that it's currently being proposed".

Asked if the government could claw back coronavirus loans to the clubs, a Downing Street spokesman said it was looking at all options.

No 10 has also refused to rule out introducing legislation.

What happens next?


Much could depend on which other teams sign up.

Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris St Germain - the biggest clubs in Germany and France - have not thrown their lot in with the breakaway league.

The world governing body, Fifa, previously said it would not recognise a breakaway European league.

Fifa has expressed its "disapproval" and called on "all parties involved in heated discussions to engage in calm, constructive and balanced dialogue for the good of the game".

Meanwhile, the ESL is trying to block any sanctions Uefa or Fifa may try to enforce over the formation of the league.


"We will do whatever it takes to protect our national game" – Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×