Football Super League could start in autumn 2025

One of the most ambitious and controversial projects in the history of football, the Super League, apparently, is gaining a new breath. Anas Lagrari, the top manager of the A22 company, created to promote and support the project of a top tournament independent from the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), told the French publication Ouest-France that the Super League has already received preliminary consent to join the new tournament from 20 teams, is negotiating with a total of 50 clubs and plans to start in the fall of 2025.

The infamous project of the Football Super League, against which all official football structures in the world rebelled, is apparently gaining a second life. Co-founder of the A22 company (it was founded to promote the interests of the creators of the new tournament), Anas Lagrari, told the French publication Ouest-France, that “almost two dozen clubs are very, very interested in the project.” Mr. Lagrari also noted that “after December 21,” a total of negotiations are underway with 50 interested European teams. At the same time, he did not say which clubs he was talking about, but said that the Super League would be ready to start its tournament “even tomorrow,” but still plans to start no earlier than September 2025.

According to Mr. Lagrari, club leaders increasingly understand that something needs to be done about the existing imbalances in European football. “As soon as everyone realizes that it is fair to build a real pyramid, and not one in which, say, the fourth team of the Spanish championship is worth a quarter of the entire Belgian championship (in the Spanish championship in fourth place is Athletic, whose squad is valued by the Transfermarkt portal at € 243 million; the cost of all Belgian championship players is approximately €947 million— “Kommersant”), people will follow us,” said Mr. Lagrari. He added that his company is actively working to “improve football.”

December 21, 2023 was mentioned by Anas Lagrari for a reason. It was on this day that the European Court, the highest court of the European Union, made public decision in the Super League case. The creation of the latter was announced in April 2021. 12 European giant clubs joined it – English Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham, Spanish Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético, Italian Juventus, Inter and Milan. This elite, virtually closed tournament promised the teams super-profits, primarily due to the presence of a generous investor: JP Morgan agreed to allocate $6 billion for it. Meanwhile, for UEFA, the creation of the Super League threatened with colossal image and material losses, primarily due to the decrease in the commercial attractiveness of the Champions League, its main club competition and main revenue driver.

Due to extremely active opposition from UEFA, the Super League existed in its intended form for less than 48 hours. Almost all participants left under the threat of UEFA sanctions.

But Real (its president Florentino Perez is a key supporter of the creation of the Super League) and Barcelona, ​​which remained in the structure, did not escape the fight. The Spanish giants, who are the founders of A22, filed a lawsuit demanding that the demands of UEFA and the International Football Federation (FIFA), which sided with the union, be declared illegal, accusing them of violating antitrust rules and abuse of a dominant position. And they succeeded.

The European Court of Justice’s decision noted that “FIFA and UEFA’s rules requiring their consent to host international tournaments such as the Super League and prohibiting clubs from participating in such tournaments are illegal.” The court also agreed with the plaintiffs that the governing football structures abuse their dominant position by “imposing unreasonable restrictions.” The court noted that holding football competitions also has a completely commercial rationale, for example, in the form of the exercise of commercial rights, which means that this case falls under laws protecting competition. The Court considered that it was detrimental to European clubs in general that FIFA and UEFA had exclusive control over the implementation of commercial rights, which “harm[ed]clubs, interested companies, consumers and spectators by limiting their right to enjoy new, potentially innovative or interesting tournaments.” At the same time, the court did not declare that UEFA and FIFA were obliged to agree to hold the Super League, considering that this was beyond its competence. But the latter didn’t really matter.

Almost immediately after the announcement of the verdict of the European Court A22 suggested new tournament project. Its parameters were announced by A22 CEO Bernd Reichart last December.

The Super League has decided to move away from the much-criticised de facto closed league system and become open and inclusive.

The new format of the Super League involves the creation of a tournament for 64 teams at once, divided into three leagues, from the strongest to the weakest – “star”, “gold” and “blue”. 16 clubs will play in the first two, and another 32 will be in the third. Teams will compete in groups of eight each (this applies to all leagues) followed by play-offs. The matches are supposed to be held in the middle of the week, without interfering with the games of national championships, which usually take place on weekends. There is also an exchange mechanism with national leagues – clubs from them will be able to get into the “blue” league. By what scheme was not reported.

Alexander Petrov