Superleague suffers crushing blow with clubs agreeing to legal statutes

The Superleague has been receiving plenty of air time after both Florentino Perez and Joan Laporta used their club General Assemblys in order to promote the competition recently. During the course of the week a new management firm and CEO were appointed in order to reshape the Superleague.

Bernd Reichart has been giving interviews in recent days explaining that the Superleague was ditching their closed format looking to open more dialogue with other clubs.

However Superdeporte have carried a report from the Times, where a circular between the non-English Superleague clubs (Milan, Inter, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid) which was warning of the danger that the financial disparity between the Premier League and other European leagues.

That appears to have upset the Premier League contingent. Those clubs have now agreed to a statute with the other 14 Premier League clubs which requires them to consult fans, support the English football pyramid and only qualify for European competitions via sporting merit. It also prohibits the creation of any other competition.

While deals and agreements can be broken, it does seem the Premier League is taking decisive steps away from the Superleague. The idea that the disparity between the Premier League and the other major European leagues is damaging the football ecosystem is neither new nor false. Calling prospective partners a threat is unlikely to help persuade them into a deal though, especially when they need the Superleague far less than the others.