Big Premier League teams ‘founding members’ of breakaway league

Jack O'Toole

Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are among the clubs who have been in negotiations about a new breakaway competition from the Champions League.

The five English clubs are among the 11 so-called “founding members” in a proposal for a European Super League to start in 2021.

According to documents released by Der Spiegel on Friday, a draft of a “binding term sheet” by the firm Key Capital Partners was sent to Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez which appeared to show that the Premier League teams would be joined by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Milan as the founding members (which can not be relegated and would be part of the league for the first 20 years) with Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Marseille, Internazionale and Roma invited as “initial guests”.

The 11 founding clubs would register a company in Spain and the proposed competition would have both a group stage and a knockout round with a further a suggestion that a second league could also be created under the European Super League.

In their report, they assert that Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had ‘betrayed’ the smaller clubs around Europe by being involved in plans to undermine the Champions League, a competition that is becoming increasingly difficult to reach for teams from lesser footballing nations.

In their statement, Bayern said:

“In its current issue no. 45 dated 3 November 2018, “Der Spiegel” magazine claims that Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, as chairman of the European Club Association (ECA), had betrayed all medium-sized and smaller member clubs belonging to the ECA.

“I absolutely and clearly reject this,” Rummenigge declared. “The vote in favour of the reform agreed between UEFA and the ECA was unanimous.” Neither he nor FC Bayern Munich have ever acted to the detriment of the ECA, Rummenigge stated.

“FC Bayern is also unaware of recent plans for a so-called Super League, also reported by “Der Spiegel”, nor has FC Bayern taken part in negotiations relating to such plans. FC Bayern is also unaware of why it is listed in a document quoted in this context by “Der Spiegel”.

“Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: “FC Bayern Munich stands by its membership of the Bundesliga and, as long as I am chairman of the board of FC Bayern, also by the club competitions organised jointly by UEFA and the ECA.”

None of the other clubs involved have yet responded to the leaks at the time of writing.