Super League, a recurring dream for football's most powerful clubs
Supporters protest against Manchester United's owners, outside English Premier League club Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, north west England on April 24, 2021. Manchester United were one of six Premier League teams to sign up to the breakaway European Super League tournament. But just 48 hours later the Super League collapsed as United and the rest of the English clubs pulled out.
What you need to know:
- The first serious attempt at launching a semi-closed competition for Europe's biggest clubs is drawn up by sports marketing group Media Partners.
- Real Madrid's powerful president Florentino Perez, revives the idea of a "European Super League" that would guarantee "the best play with the best".
Lausanne, Switzerland
After the European Court of Justice ruled Uefa's ban of a Super League involving 12 of the continent's leading clubs Thursday broke EU law, AFP Sport looks at a timeline of events shaping European football dating back to the 1990s:
1998: Media Partners push Super League
The first serious attempt at launching a semi-closed competition for Europe's biggest clubs is drawn up by sports marketing group Media Partners. The idea never gets off the ground as UEFA threatens to bar players who take part from representing their countries, but it prompts European football's governing body to expand the Champions League and include a second group stage from 1999-2000, a format which lasted four seasons. The Cup Winners' Cup is scrapped and affectively absorbed by the Uefa Cup, with Lazio the last club to lift the trophy in 1999.
2009: Florentino Perez refloats the idea
Real Madrid's powerful president Florentino Perez, revives the idea of a "European Super League" that would guarantee "the best play with the best".
April 18, 2021: Dozen in bombshell announcement
Twelve clubs launch their own private competition with great fanfare, a challenge to UEFA and its flagship Champions League. The dozen involved include six Premier League sides -- Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham and the big three from both Spain (Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) and Italy (Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan). Giants Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain were among those who refused to join.
April 21, 2021: Breakaway plans crumble
After being blindsided, Uefa and Fifa promise to punish the defectors, but protests from supporters of Premier League sides push those clubs to abandon the project after just three days. Manchester City are the first club to withdraw.
May 2022: Reprisals in the offing
Uefa announces future financial sanctions against the nine clubs involved, and threatens more severe punishment for those clinging on to the plan -- Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus. The possible sanctions are challenged in civil justice cases, notably in Spain. The European Court of Justice must determine whether the measures taken by Uefa are "proportionate".
July 2022: Juve back out
Another of the founders of the Super League, Juventus, withdraw. The Italian club's chairman Andrea Agnelli, one of the breakaway competition's staunchest supporters, steps down before the end of the year amid claims of false accounting.
October 2022: Lobbying resumes
Super League promoters change tack and create an organisation called A22 Sports Management to contest UEFA's so-called "monopoly" over European competitions. Through a series of press releases, it proposes a new project comprising 60 to 80 clubs split into several divisions.
December 2023: Top court says Uefa ban broke EU law
Despite only Barcelona and Real Madrid remaining part of the Super League project, the breakaway competition is given a boost when Europe's top court rules that Uefa and Fifa broke EU law when they blocked the creation of the tournament. Real Madrid hail the ruling, saying 'European club football will no longer be a monopoly', while Super League promoters claim they envisage having 64 men's and 32 women's clubs playing in their system in the future.
