European Super League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Spurs rejoin European Club Association
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ByEurosport
Published 16/08/2021 at 14:52 GMT
The European Club Association, which is chaired by Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, has welcomed back nine of the 12 clubs who attempted to form a breakaway European Super League back in May. Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid still remain committed to the heavily criticised project.
The so-called Premier League big six
Image credit: Getty Images
Nine of the 12 clubs who were part of the breakaway European Super League have rejoined the European Club Association (ECA).
The six English clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - are members again along with AC Milan, Inter and Atletico Madrid, but Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are refusing to give up on the breakaway league.
The plans for the Super League were revealed in April but soon came crashing down after a fierce backlash from supporters.
The ECA said in a statement: "The ECA executive board took into consideration the clubs' acknowledgement that the so-called European Super League project was not in the interests of the wider football community and their publicly communicated decisions to abandon said ESL project completely.
"The ECA board also acknowledged the clubs' stated willingness to engage actively with ECA in its collective mission to develop European club football in the open and transparent interests of all, not the few.
This decision of the ECA board marks the end of a regrettable and turbulent episode for European football and aligns with ECA's relentless focus to strengthen unity in European football.
Real, Barcelona and Juventus have taken legal steps to avoid disciplinary action from UEFA.
A commercial court in Madrid said sanctioning the three clubs would be against EU competition law and the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg is expected to make a final judgement on it next year.
The nine clubs who attempted to break away have already agreed to accept fines for their actions for a combined total of £12.7m and will give up five per cent of revenue for one season playing in Europe.
They will have to pay fines of €100m each if they seek to play in an unauthorised breakaway competition in the future.
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