The structure of the proposed new ‘European Super League’ is said to follow that of Euroleague basketball, meaning the continent’s 18 biggest clubs play each other home and away before an eight-team play-off tournament. .
But the invited clubs are not expected to break away from their existing domestic leagues, with such a format putting too much pressure on players in an already congested fixture schedule.
AS reports that a round-robin league structure with 16 or 18 teams, followed by play-offs, is currently being considered in ongoing discussions.
A European Super League could replace the Champions League / Vision Haas / Getty Images
The competition is said to be backed by US financial corporation JP Morgan, offering organizers €5bn in credit to get things off the ground.
Despite initial reports that the new competition was backed by FIFA, president Gianni Infantino announced last week that he was ‘not interested’ in creating a new competition for some of Europe’s elite clubs and reformatted the FIFA Club World Cup. Focusing on .
Manchester United boss Ed Woodward, meanwhile, denied any knowledge of talks about a European Super League and insisted he was only working on Champions League reforms as part of the European Club Association. .
However, in his farewell speech as Barcelona president when he announced his resignation, Josep Maria Bartomeu said the club had accepted the invitation to join the proposed competition – a decision that was confirmed and members Approval must be by vote.
?️ “I can announce that yesterday we have been approved to participate in the European Super League.” – Bartomeu
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— 90 Minutes (@90min_Football) October 27, 2020
AS notes that Real Madrid, while supporting the idea, consider talks about a European Super League at a very early stage. Despite being at least aware of the plan, Bernabeu officials are said to have nothing concrete and won’t commit to it, contrary to Bartomeu’s controversial move from Barcelona. But what, unless there is.
The 18-club format being discussed in the European Super League means that each will play at least 34 games. For the top eight, there could be up to three more play-offs, meaning the winner would play 37 games to be crowned ‘European Champion’ – the current number of games needed to win the Champions League is 13, excluding potential qualifiers. .
Although the competition will replace the Champions League, possibly ending it all together after nearly 70 years of history, this number of games is an unworkable commitment above the domestic league season, even if the participants are from the domestic cup. Start giving up.
Clubs not expected to withdraw from domestic leagues/Lawrence Griffiths/Getty Images
For example, for Liverpool or Manchester United to play in the Premier League and the 18-team European Super League, without any additional competitions, it is a minimum of 72 games.
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