A rebooted version of the European Super League would stream all its matches for free and introduce promotion and relegation, its creators have said, as plans were announced to revive the breakaway project.
On Thursday a judgment from the European court of justice found that Uefa’s and Fifa’s rules for authorising new international competitions had been “unlawful”. In response, the company behind the Super League – A22 Sports – released a new concept for the project.
According to the proposals, the Super League would eliminate previous criticisms of the tournament. “Solidarity, openness and meritocracy” would be “the cornerstones of the project”, A22’s chief executive, Bernd Reichart, said. To sweeten the deal further, Reichart claimed that an app – known as Unify – which would stream the Super League matches would attract billions of fans to its free services.
Sixty-four men’s teams and 32 women’s sides would be invited to join the competition. Within each league there would be different competitive tiers – star, gold and blue in the men’s, star and gold in the women’s – that would enable relegation and promotion within the competition and exit from the Super League. Under the plans, 20 sides from the men’s competition and four from the women’s would leave the competition each year, replaced by teams who had performed successfully in their domestic leagues.
Reichart did not clarify definitions of domestic league success nor the criteria by which teams would be selected for the Super League in the first place. He also said it would be “divisive” to name clubs who have expressed an interest in joining.
Matches would be played midweek, effectively in the slots reserved for Champions League and Europa League games, and clubs would remain in their domestic leagues. A22’s website said participation would be “based on sporting merit” but a club that gains entry to the competition would remain there, unless relegated from the bottom tier, regardless of how they perform in their domestic league.
Reichart said that A22 had been “reaching out to investors” to support the funding of Unify, and argued strongly that giving away some of the most lucrative broadcast rights in sport would bring about a revolution in the game.
“Free football would bring billions of users to Unify,” Reichart said. “It would be unprecedented and also very attractive to advertisers. We are following the leads of the best companies in the entertainment world.”
Clubs would play in groups of eight, home and away, bringing a minimum of 14 matches a season. Eight clubs would then go into a knockout stage in each tier, also played as a league, to determine the champions.
Free viewing of all live matches is perhaps the key dividing line in the new Super League proposals and Uefa’s plans for revamping the Champions League from next season. Under Uefa’s proposed Swiss model format, 36 men’s clubs will take part in the new Champions League, playing a minimum of eight matches before progressing to knockout stages based on their position in a unified league table.
Clubs will be able to qualify for the Champions League based on a national association’s record of European performance, with the two leagues at the top of Uefa’s seasonal coefficient charts earning an extra place for the following term.
