European Super League Football: 3 big ways in which Premier League will get affected by Super League

European Super League Football: After the twelve of Europe’s biggest clubs on Monday said they planned to launch a breakaway Super League which included Premier League’s “Big Six”, there has been an uproar worldwide. Furthermore, with Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Liverpool agreeing to it, it has also put fate a question mark on Premier League in general.

European Super League Football: How will it affect Premier League?

By now, the English league has become accustomed to the posturing of the Big Six. For several years, the six leading clubs have held their own talks, sometimes even scurrying into a huddle among themselves during Premier League meetings. Tensions surfaced last year over Manchester United and Liverpool’s Project Big Picture document but this latest development is the most severe threat to the hegemony of the Premier League as the dominant domestic league in world football.

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1. The Premier League’s extraordinary broadcast deals have grown due to the competitive nature of the league, which currently sees Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham all residing outside of the Champions League places. The new league will affect its broadcasting revenue.
2. Clubs outside the big six battle it out to finish in top four and secure elite European football. However, with the top six clubs virtually out of the Champions League now, the domestic performance will be irrelevant. Even if the likes of Arsenal or Liverpool finish 10th, they will still join Super League. Whereas, the likes of West Ham and Leeds if finish second will still not play the Super League. The rules on qualification for the five spare places in the Super League remain a mystery.
3. Premier League CEO Richard Masters in a letter to Premier League clubs warned that as per the rules the clubs need prior permission to enter competitions and hence they are not eligible. It will certainly decide the future of the league as a whole.

All you want to know about European Super League start date, List of confirmed teams & clubs, FIFA & UEFA sanctions

European Super League Football – Who are the 12 ‘founding members’?

Milan, Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham.

European Super League Football – What about the big German and French clubs?

German & French Clubs are yet to join the break-away Super-League. Be it last year’s Champions League & Bundesliga winner Bayern Munich or French champions Paris Saint Germain, none of them have joined the breakaway league as yet   They have said that they are currently not interesting in joining the project. PSG is currently in the semi-finals of Champions League and will play Manchester City. 

European Super League Football – Will the 12 clubs leave their domestic leagues?

At the moment they are hoping to remain playing in those competitions but the leagues have all issued strong-worded statements condemning the clubs and the new breakaway league.

European Super League Football – How much money is involved, who is funding the SUPER-LEAGUE? 

The monies projected in the European Super League is phenomenal, much more than what clubs currently make by playing Champions League or any other competition. The statement from the 12 clubs said: “Founding clubs will receive an amount of €3.5bn solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the Covid pandemic.” It added: “The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football … and [solidarity payments] are expected to be in excess of €10bn during the course of the initial commitment period of the clubs.”

European Super League Football – How would it work, what is the format of the competition?

There would be 20 participating clubs, with 15 founding clubs and a qualifying mechanism for a further five teams to qualify annually based on achievements in the prior season.

European Super League Football – Start Dates, schedules and when would matches be played?

There would be midweek fixtures with all participating clubs hoping to compete in their respective national leagues. There would be two groups of 10, playing home and away fixtures, with the top three in each group automatically qualifying for the quarter-finals. Teams finishing fourth and fifth would then compete in a two-legged play-off for the remaining quarter-final positions. A two-leg knockout format would be used to reach the final at the end of May, which would be staged as a single fixture at a neutral venue.

The clubs said in their statement that they were looking to start the competition in August.