Super League boss: plan ‘not dead’ despite legal setback

MADRID (AP) — The head of the proposed Super League says the project is still “alive and kicking” a day after the scheme to form a breakaway European soccer competition was dealt a setback by the European Union’s legal adviser.

“I should make it very clear that the Super League is not dead in the very least, it is alive and kicking,” Bernd Reichart, the chief executive of A22 Sports Management, the company sponsoring and assisting the creation of the Super League, said in Madrid on Friday.

On Thursday, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos proposed that the European Court of Justice recognize that FIFA-UEFA regulations under which Super League should be subject to prior approval were compatible with European Union competition law. Rantos said that while organizers were entitled to set up an independent competition outside UEFA and FIFA, teams and players participating in the Super League can’t also continue to play in events sanctioned by UEFA and FIFA without their blessing.

The final ruling by the Luxembourg-based court is expected next year.

“This is the non-binding opinion of the advocate general and we will keep working until the judgement is handed down,” Reichart said.

Reichart spoke at a business brunch hosted by the New Economic Forum group. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, the mastermind behind the Super League project, and Barcelona president Joan Laporta, another supporter of the project, were in attendance.

The Super League plan was launched in April 2021 with 12 teams but quickly folded amid massive public backlash and the opposition of UEFA and the national leagues. Only Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus still back the scheme to create a tournament of elite European teams to challenge UEFA’s Champions League.

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