2021 European soccer megathread

Captain Ron · April 22, 2021

Maybe if they had a players union ...

Dutch · April 23, 2021

Barça doubling down.

“Given the public reaction that the aforementioned project has generated … there is no question FC Barcelona appreciates a much more in-depth analysis is required into the reasons that have caused this reaction,” the statement said. “Such in-depth analysis needs time and the necessary composure to avoid taking any rash action.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/apr/22/historic-opportunity-barcelona-stay-committed-to-european-super-league

Edited April 23, 2021 by Dutch

Hagbard Celine · April 23, 2021

translation: jp morgan, please bail us out

Hagbard Celine · April 23, 2021

European Super League: Project is 'on standby', says Real Madrid president Florentino Perez

Last updated on 22 April 2021.From the section European Football3325

[Image: Chelsea fans protest against their club signing up to play in the ESL]

The power of football supporters was clear on Tuesday as Chelsea fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge to protest against their club signing up to play in the ESL

The European Super League is on "standby" despite nine of the 12 founding teams withdrawing, says Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

After a furious backlash against the proposed tournament that was announced on Sunday, all six Premier League clubs involved withdrew on Tuesday.

Spanish club Atletico Madrid and Italian sides AC Milan and Inter Milan have also formally pulled out.

"We're going to continue working," said Perez. "The project is on standby."

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On Thursday night Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan raised concerns over plans to change the Champions League by adding more matches, saying it was just the "lesser of two evils" compared to the ESL.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have not withdrawn from the ESL, although Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli said the project could not now proceed.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta echoed Perez's comments, saying a new competition is required to ensure the financial health of the game.

"We will speak more about it when the time comes but for now we understand there is a need for it, even though our members will have the final say," Laporta told Catalan network TV3.

"Big clubs contribute a lot of resources and it's absolutely necessary that we have our say on the distribution of money [in European football]."

Laporta was named Barca president for a second time in March, taking the helm of a club in heavy debt.

Javier Tebas, president of Spain's La Liga, said: "If it [the Super League] was good for football, as Perez has said, they wouldn't have done it behind our backs."

On whether their would be sanctions from La Liga for the Spanish clubs, he added: "We are not talking about sanctions.

"Everyone wants to cut people's heads off. We have to have a procedure and we have to see how it looks in the end. These clubs have been sanctioned by their own fans."

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Solskjaer addresses fans' training ground protest

Speaking on the El Larguero show on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, Super League chairman Perez claimed the project was not yet dead as all 12 clubs "have not left yet".

"You cannot get out of the contract like this - they are binding contracts," he added.

When asked what the penalty was for leaving the project, Perez did not answer.

Why the ESL failed - and will clubs try again?

Perez reiterated his view that the ESL was created "to save football", having also previously said the move had been made because young people were "no longer interested in football" because of "a lot of poor quality games".

He added he was "sad and disappointed" by the reaction to the project, which the clubs have been working on "for around three years".

He accused Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and various countries' footballing authorities of "aggression" and "threats" towards the ESL.

"Maybe we didn't explain it well, but they also didn't give us an opportunity to explain it," said the 74-year-old.

"I've been in football for 20 years and I've never seen threats like this. It was like we killed someone. It was like we killed football. But we were trying to work out how to save football."

A revamped 36-team Champions League, starting in 2024, was agreed on Monday, although the ESL teams had said in its announcement of Sunday it did not think Uefa's reforms went far enough.

"The Champions League format is old and only interesting from the quarter-finals onwards," said Perez.

"This format clearly doesn't work, so we thought that we could have a format where the most important teams in Europe play against each other from the very beginning of the season.

"We worked out the numbers and felt we could make much more money, more money for all the other teams too."

Laporta said talks with domestic leagues and Uefa remain necessary, and suggested the ESL would not be a closed off competition.

"It must be an attractive competition based on sporting merits," he said.

"We also will defend national leagues and we're open to having an open dialogue with Uefa.

"We always want to improve football and have the necessary revenues to ensure football remains a spectacle. If the big clubs don't continue to have large revenues then football will suffer."

Meanwhile, Perez claimed one of English football's 'big six' - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - were reluctant about the ESL from the start.

"There was someone in the English group that didn't have much interest, I won't say who," he said.

"That began to infect others, who are also people of an age, and who are perhaps afraid because they did not understand anything of what was happening.

"We all signed a binding agreement, but I think one was never very convinced."

Analysis

Spanish football expert Guillem Balague on BBC Radio 5 Live

Perez has got a vision and apparently the rest of the world is not seeing it and that's dangerous when someone feels like that.

He kept saying, in his second appearance in a disastrous PR campaign, that he's there to save football.

He's talking about big losses - in the case of Real Madrid, they've gone from expecting to earn 900m euros (£779m) to 600m euros (£519m) in only one season, and that stops them doing a lot of their projects, like maybe signing Kylian Mbappe from Paris St-Germain.

In Spain, we are a completely different type of fan. We don't act against things we think are unfair. In England, it is more like a lifestyle. They are taking something off you and you go out to try to get it back.

Perez has been untouchable for many years. But this vision did not really have strong foundations so the media are having a bit of a laugh here.

We are all very surprised Joan Laporta and Barcelona have not come out and pushed away from this idea. But, they are so desperate for money that they think whoever comes up with the right idea, they will just join in.

We are a little bit disappointed by the leaders of the two biggest clubs in Spain.

Attempts to curtail 'big six' influence

Senior executives from the Premier League clubs who were part of the ESL are being asked to stand down from various league working groups - or face being voted out by the 14 other clubs, reports BBC sports editor Dan Roan.

In a move that suggests the 'big six' influence is set to be curtailed, the Premier League is in the process of writing to; outgoing Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and Liverpool chair Tom Werner, who sit on the league's broadcast advisory group; Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, who is on the audit and remuneration committee; and Arsenal chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and Manchester City's chief executive Ferran Soriano, who are on the league's club strategic advisory group.

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Hagbard Celine · April 23, 2021

Clubs

European Super League

Florentino Pérez: the emperor who wanted more but lost for once

The Real Madrid president had been working on his Super League project for three years but it fell apart quickly and is now threatening his legacy

[Image: Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, has seen his Super League project fall down around him.]

Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, has seen his Super League project fall down around him. Photograph: Nicolò Campo/LightRocket/Getty Images

[Image: Sid Lowe]

Sid Lowe in Madrid

@sidlowe

Thu 22 Apr 2021 13.00 EDT

Last modified on Thu 22 Apr 2021 17.21 EDT

There was a moment during the first and last television appearance Florentino Pérez made as the figurehead of a project he had been working towards for three years when he was asked how long he would be president of the super league. “Until they kick me out,” he replied. There was a laugh from president and presenter, something revealing in that reaction: this is not a man to give up power nor one easily removed, a man rarely denied. But, as it turned out, the correct answer was: about 24 hours.

A Colombian lesson from history: the super league battle is not over | Jonathan Wilson

Pérez doesn’t give many interviews – “I prefer to have informal relationships with journalists,” he said once – but the following day he spoke to L’Equipe. Asked if he feared some of the other 11 clubs involved might back out, he replied: “No.” By the time his words were published, just before 8.30pm on Tuesday, theyalready were backing out. That night Pérez didn’t turn up for a radio interview with El Larguero; he was, they said, in a meeting, trying to hold it all together.

He failed. The project is over, at least for now, although Pérez is not one to accept defeat with good grace and revenge will already be on his mind, a determination to see this through. When he did turn up at El Larguero the night after, he declined to be introduced as “president of the Super League” but still clung to the idea that this rebellion could be resurrected, even as he stood alone.

One by one they had deserted, leaving him exposed. On Wednesday morning the Juventus chairman, Andrea Agnelli, admitted defeat; the “pact of blood” in pieces. Not long after midday, Atlético Madrid crept out with a short, unapologetic statement. At the Camp Nou, there was silence. Pérez claimed no one had gone as none of the penalisations to leave had been paid, but every club bar two had made public statements stepping back. Only Barcelona and Madrid were left, beaten by what Pérez considered a betrayal, particularly from his English partners – “old people who got scared”. At 74, Pérez is older than any of them.

Quick GuideEuropean roundup: Atlético win as Bordeaux go into administration Show

Atlético Madrid stayed in control of La Liga's title race by beating struggling Huesca 2-0 at home on Thursday with goals in each half by Ángel Correa and Yannick Carrasco.

Correa scored for the third time in two games to give Atletico the lead shortly before halftime, before Marcos Llorente pounced on a loose ball and squared for Carrasco to knock it into the empty net 10 minutes from time.

Bordeaux have been placed in administration after its owners, investment management firm King Street, said they no longer wished to support the club financially, the Ligue 1 side said on Thursday.

The former French champions have been struggling financially due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the premature end to the 2019-20 season also resulted in a loss of income when the league season was cancelled.

Their problems were compounded when Spanish media rights agency Mediapro, which had won Ligue 1 TV rights for a record €780m euros per season over the 2020-2024 period, went bankrupt and missed payments last year.

In Serie A, Napoli won a 5-2 thriller against top-four rivals Lazio on Thursday to stay within touching distance of the Champions League places.

Lorenzo Insigne's penalty and a Matteo Politano strike gave the hosts a two-goal lead at the break, before Insigne netted his second and Dries Mertens struck to put the result beyond doubt.

Mertens's superb finish, a powerful shot into the top corner from the edge of the box, made him Napoli's joint-top scorer of all time in Serie A with 102 league goals, alongside Antonio Vojak.

Atalanta missed the chance to go second as Roma fought back to earn a 1-1 draw against the 10-man visitors at the Stadio Olimpico.

Gian Piero Gasperini's side went in front through Ruslan Malinovskyi in the first half but the match swung in the hosts' favour when Robin Gosens was shown a second yellow card with 20 minutes remaining, and former Atalanta player Bryan Cristante drew Roma level with a thunderous long-range strike in the 75th minute.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has signed a one-year contract extension at Milan that will keep him beyond his 40th birthday.

"Milan is the club for which Zlatan has played the most in Italy. After scoring 84 goals in 130 appearances with the Rossoneri, the Swedish striker will continue to be wearing the red and black jersey next season," the club said in a statement. Reuters

Photograph: Jose Breton/Rex Features

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What, if anything, had been achieved remains to be seen and there may still be successes, but so far none of it looks good for Madrid or the Spanish clubs they took with them. There may be punishment – rebels rarely escape that – or perhaps there will be concessions, an attempt at rapprochement. Power looks likely to have shifted towards Bayern and Paris Saint‑Germain, while a relaxation of financial fair play will serve to strengthen Manchester City, Chelsea and PSG, the clubs Madrid always felt had an unfair advantage. They are a fan‑owned club, for whom oligarchs and sheikhs and petrodollars are a threat and an obsession.

Pérez had been revealed as a failure and projected as a villain by some. Grateful Madrid supporters launched a hashtag backing him, convinced he was right then and the victim now – a freedom fighter against the corrupt cabal of Fifa, Uefa, La Liga, the RFEF and the VAR. Familiar journalists came to his aide, echoing those accusations and effusive in their adulation. But in Cádiz the team were met chants of “money-grabbers!” and “capitalists!” as if this was their decision. And the front page of Marca, rarely critical of Madrid’s president, ran: “Super ridicule: the project led by Florentino Pérez fails in 48 hours”.

[Image: Andrea Agnelli (left), Florentino Pérez (right) and what Marca made of the whole Super League fiasco.]

Andrea Agnelli (left), Florentino Pérez (right) and what Marca made of the Super League fiasco. Composite: Getty/Marca/Reuters

Pérez had gone into the interview on Monday with a presenter he knew would lend a sympathetic ear, the most significant of his sycophants. That would allow him to explain the ESL as he liked, but it had not been successful and did not adequately explain, still less convince. Ultimately, what was left was the extent of the crisis, that apocalyptic vision. He had said football was in “freefall”, at a “critical moment”, “ruined”.

The word he kept repeating was “save”: they had to save football. Above all, they had to save themselves. “If we don’t so something, we won’t last long,” he insisted. “In 2024, we’re dead.” And then they had watched the English clubs pull out – one was never really convinced, Pérez later claimed – the project fall down, so now what? Does this mean there are only three years left?

This, remember, was the only public appearance so far from any of the clubs, who were busy hiding behind statements. Pérez had at least fronted up, shown his face, but that may not have helped. Some partners could not believe it when they watched him. This was not the messaging they sought – humble, open to dialogue – and nor was it the image.

A super league, a huge global concern, and this was how it was presented to the world? Not with a press conference, a united front, but with one man offering a circular, unconvincing performance on a tacky late-night show on a cheap set? An appearance over 90 minutes for a generation you say won’t watch a full football match? A message that was a curious combination of the arrogance of power, messianic, and also the vulnerability of desperation? The ultimate, elite competition, a modern billion-dollar industry that would change the media and fan landscape and this is how you’re selling it?

It didn’t look like a strong, successful, unstoppable revolution; it looked weak, or worse, that line about kids not liking football instantly becoming a meme. The saviour, sinking. The emperor, naked.

That was a surprise: even Pérez’s critics attack him precisely for his success rather than his shortcomings; they criticise and covet his ability to control. He is seen as a brilliant businessman, a highly competent administrator. A billionaire who has built a huge empire, he is as powerful a man as there is in Spain, with unrivalled leverage in business, politics, the law and media as well as football, able to get whatever he wants from whoever he wants – and aware of that.

When he promised to force through the sale of the club’s former training ground at the turn of the century, he insisted: “Trust my powers of negotiation, in my good relationship with the mayor of Madrid and the head of town planning. My power of persuasion is infinitely higher than the outgoing board.”

‘Suffer consequences’: Uefa to discuss punishments for Super League rebels

That worked, as so much else has over wildly successful years at Madrid, made into the most powerful club on the planet, or so everyone thought. But this plan didn’t work. This project had been three years in the making but the final phases had been completed in a hurry, documents signed and promises secured under pressure. As it unravelled, much of it looks unexpectedly poorly planned, devoid of real content or unity, liable to break under pressure. Fifteen founders were in fact 12 and that coalition came apart quickly.

Things that are easily achieved and controlled in Spain proved to be more difficult elsewhere, where culture, context and power structures are different. “It wasn’t hard to persuade [the Barcelona president] Joan Laporta,” Pérez said publicly, his great rivals depicted as his dependents. He and Agnelli had thought it wasn’t hard to convince the others, too – and momentarily they had, no small feat – but the promises they made were soon broken.

The attempt to launch a breakaway league, enshrining their entitlement in perpetuity, has failed – for now at least. And that is not a feeling with which Pérez is familiar. He took the lead and risks that others didn’t, helping conduct a coup with Agnelli. Perhaps it was a miscalculation and it seems odd they did not adequately anticipate the reaction. Yet Pérez sounded baffled at the idea that anyone would not embrace this and this is a man for whom opposition, where there is any, is invariably overcome – in Spain at least, which may be part of the point.

The Fiver

Seemingly untouchable and rarely denied, whether through fear or favour, he may never have been as exposed as this. Which is not to say he is alone, without supporters, or that the pressure now will be impossible to withstand. Still less that his position is at risk like so many of those burnt by these past three days. From the outside the impression may be worse than in Spain, or at least there is a greater willingness to say so, but he remains popular among Madrid fans domestically. Pérez has won the past three elections unopposed, the latest of them not coincidentally just in time for this. The statutes, which he altered, make it virtually impossible to stand against him and if anyone did, they would surely lose.

Yet listening to him, you could hear this hurts. While some clubs could come on board and then leave the ship again and do it all in silence, pretending it never happened, Pérez can’t. For him, this was particularly significant and all the more so when he spoke up – the president and, with Agnelli, the public face of this project.

This is something he has wanted for a long time – he had talked about a super league more than a decade ago – and something he said his club needed now. That need – acute in Madrid and Catalonia; less so in England, as Pérez himself admitted – cannot be overlooked. Madrid made a small profit last year, but did so having imposed austerity and cut spending. Income was down by €300m and there were none of the huge signings that has characterised them. This league was a swift fix, a short-term solution and a long-term plan.

There was also something deeper. Pérez has always been driven by the idea of legacy, his place in the history of a club he supports – and it is often overlooked how much of a fan he is, his attitudes not an act. There is in him a sense of mission, of rescuing his club from a financial crisis to which they have now returned. “I saved Madrid, now we have to save football,” he said on Monday.

[Image: David Beckham (left) signs his contract with the Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, in July 2003.]

David Beckham (left) signs his contract with the Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, in July 2003. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

There is also a sense of emulating, even surpassing Santiago Bernabéu, something almost Freudian in it: from the stadium redevelopment to the construction of a new training ground, a project predecessors could not complete, and the galácticos policy. Luís Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham can be seen as a 21st-century Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskas, Raymond Kopa and Francisco Gento.

Bernabéu took Madrid into the European Cup, where their identity was forged, a competition they consider their own. Even as they sought to replace the Champions League with something bigger that would ultimately eclipse and end it this week, Pérez insisted they would be taking those 13 trophies with them. Bernabéu had coveted a competition broadly like this, too. “We would support without hesitation any move for a European League which, speaking personally, I am convinced one day will come,” he told English interviewers in a 1961 book that is effectively a manifesto of madridisimo. “Imagine it! Tottenham, Manchester United, Real, Barcelona, Reims, Juventus and a host more.”

Bernabéu could not make it happen. Sixty years on and for one day only, Pérez could. But then they started falling fast: Tottenham, United, even Juventus. Until in the end it was only him, the president of the biggest club in the world and a league that no longer existed.

maninblack · April 23, 2021

6 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

Gundogan stepping up to voice player concerns about these issues. they're the whole reason these leagues/competitions exist, but they seem to have the weakest voice in the room.

I don't even think it's necessarily the lesser of the two evils. Clubs need to take a giant shit on UEFA. The super league wasn't the answer but something needs to happen to get control of the game.

Hagbard Celine · April 23, 2021

Clubs

Uefa

‘Suffer consequences’: Uefa to discuss punishments for Super League rebels

President Ceferin warns clubs must ‘realise their mistake’

He says England’s ‘Big Six’ called him and admitted error

[Image: Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Tottenham and Manchester City are among the 12 rebel clubs.]

Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Tottenham and Manchester City are among the 12 rebel clubs. Photograph: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images

Ed Aarons

@ed_aarons

Thu 22 Apr 2021 08.19 EDT

Last modified on Thu 22 Apr 2021 17.30 EDT

Uefa is considering imposing sanctions on the 12 clubs involved in the failed attempt to establish a breakaway European Super League. Its president, Aleksander Ceferin, has warned they will “suffer the consequences” of “their mistake”.

Anti-Glazer protesters enter Manchester United training ground

The Guardian understands that the appetite to punish the renegade clubs – including the Premier League’s “Big Six” – is growing at European football’s governing body despite Ceferin hinting otherwise on Wednesday. In an interview with 24UR in his homeland published on Thursday the Slovenian also took aim at two of the ESL’s key architects, the Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and his Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Pérez, and said he had been shocked by their betrayal.

“We have 235 out of 247 clubs on our side … well, we had them, and now we have 244,” Ceferin said, referring to the fact that Juventus, Madrid and Barcelona have not formally abandoned the Super League. “You are with us. Yesterday I received SMS support from practically all clubs in Europe. So now we expect everyone to realise their mistake and suffer the appropriate consequences. We’ll talk about that next week.”

Uefa is believed to be exploring what punishments could be imposed. Whether that could extend to potential bans from next season’s Champions League as some have demanded remains to be seen.

The Bayern Munich chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has replaced Agnelli as representative of the European Club Association (ECA) on Uefa’s executive committee, and the Manchester United director David Gill is the only remaining committee member with links to an ESL club and he is unlikely to be asked to step down given he is also Uefa’s treasurer.