Super League backers say talks with Uefa are ongoing | OneFootball

A22 Sports Management, the company promoting the European Super League, assured AFP this Thursday that it is in "negotiations" with UEFA to create a new format for the Champions League, a proposal "categorically" denied by the European body.

"What A22 and the Super League clubs did was propose to UEFA an agreement that essentially consists of offering a free streaming platform and slightly altering the current format of the competition," said a spokesperson for A22.

In this version, far removed from the initial project of a semi-closed competition that almost imploded European football in 2021, the 36 teams currently qualified for the Champions League would be divided into two groups of 18 clubs, with the best-ranked teams facing each other in the round of 32.

"This innovative proposal is on the table. Now, if UEFA does not want to accept it for its own reasons, we cannot continue to ignore court decisions," warns A22.

Based on several legal victories, mainly the decision of May 2024 in Spain, which concluded that FIFA and UEFA "abused their dominant position", the promoters of the Super League have "the right to create a competition, and UEFA cannot prevent this," evaluates this source.

"Multiply revenues"

The interpretation, however, is debatable, since the procedure sanctioned outdated rules: UEFA rewrote its regulations in 2022, but the case has not been brought to trial since then.

The goal of A22 continues to be "to multiply football revenues, which today are far from what they should be," especially compared to the television rights of American sports, according to its spokesperson.

Renamed as "Unify League", the Super League had requested official recognition of its competition from FIFA and UEFA in December 2024. Consulted by AFP, UEFA acknowledged several "public meetings" between its Secretary-General, Theodore Theodoridis, and the co-founder of A22, Anas Laghrari, which "led to no result".

"We categorically reaffirm that there are no plans to change the format of the UEFA Champions League," the spokesperson said, adding that the new formula came into effect in the 2024-2025 season.

Super League project "is dead"

This adjustment comes after statements from Barcelona's president, Joan Laporta, a long-time supporter of the Super League project alongside Real Madrid, in which he expressed a desire for "an agreement with UEFA" for the "pacification" of European football.

Contacted by AFP, Real Madrid, whose president Florentino Pérez prioritized this initiative to "save European football," did not immediately want to comment on the matter.

In Rome, during the general assembly of the European Football Clubs Association (the EFC, former ECA), its president, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, celebrated the "return to the family" of Barça and its president, who was present in the Italian capital and with whom he chatted during a dinner and a "romantic walk".

"Joan (Laporta) is a friend, a super friend, sometimes you can disagree with a friend about how to do things (...) All the clubs are happy that he is here with us," declared "NAK", initials of the Qatari businessman.

For the president of Paris Saint-Germain, Barça's approach to the EFC and UEFA does not mean the end of the Super League project, because "it was already dead before": "We don't need other competitions. We already have the best competitions," he insisted.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.