LaLiga have hit out at the renewed efforts to launch a European Super League, claiming the company behind it are presenting a “false” representation to try and conceal their true intentions.
Last month it was announced that a company called A22 Sports Management had taken over the reins of the idea, which flopped in April 2021 after a huge backlash. Bernd Reichart, the chief executive tasked with reviving the league, has been on a PR push, telling Mirror Football that the organisers just wanted an open dialogue with people in the game.
Reichart insisted that the format was still open to discussion and that a closed league without relegation was off the table. Along with Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the only clubs still publicly allied to the Super League.
LaLiga have slammed the proposals, accusing Reichart of misrepresenting what A22 wants to put forward. "The promoters of the Super League are now preparing a model similar to the one put forward in 2019, which is still closed or mostly closed, which will destroy the national leagues and which has already been rejected by clubs and leagues in Europe," the Spanish top flight said in a tweet on Friday.
A video from LaLiga added: "The promoters of the Super League are trying to conceal its format, claiming that they still don't have a fixed model, although it will be inclusive and open.
"We know that this is false and that they want to present a semi-closed format similar to that of 2019, which has already been rejected by the clubs and [the] European Leagues.
"This model is based on promotion and relegation between European divisions where the national leagues do not provide direct access to the top tier. On the contrary, they perpetuate the participation of a privileged few, even if they perform poorly in their domestic leagues."
Speaking with Mirror Football last month, Reichart insisted that is not the case. “We are convinced that there is quite a consensus amongst clubs that things can’t go on like this and an open dialogue of how we can do better is the right solution,” he said.
“We do not have a format that we’ve discussed now. We are talking about an open dialogue, a clean sheet (slate), but what clubs in their recent communication took off the table is a closed membership. We’re talking about openness, about the connection of the European competition with domestic leagues, of compatibility between both competitions.”
Reichart did admit that the chances of a Super League revival are contingent on a legal challenge being successful. Their case against UEFA is currently being heard at the European Court of Justice. An initial recommendation on the suggestion that UEFA’s statutes are in breach of European competition law is understood to be coming in December before a formal ruling is made in the spring.
