>
‘Premier League is already a glorified Super League’: Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli launches tirade against England’s top flight insisting their £4bn revenue is a huge threat to the game… which is DOUBLE what La Liga generates!
- Juventus president Andrea Agnelli attacks the Premier League
- The Italian assures that England’s top flight is already a glorified Super League
- Agnelli remains interested in making a change in the structure of European football
Juventus president Andrea Agnelli has attacked the Premier League, claiming it is already a ‘glorified Super League’ thanks to the amount of money clubs spend.
The Italian remains a proponent of a proposed Super League, even after plans that were dogged by fans in 2021.
Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona are still holding out hope for a league that would break with UEFA’s current model, and new plans for a revised version of a Super League were revealed earlier this month.
In that model, the league would consist of 60-80 teams with promotion and relegation, with the clubs benefiting from an equal share of the revenue.
Speaking in an interview with De TelegraafAgnelli addressed the current issue of the structure of European football and launched into a tirade against the Premier League clubs, which, according to him, have already created a Super League.
Andrea Agnelli has launched an attack on the Premier League and its current financial muscle
Agnelli claims the Premier League is already a glorified Super League after raking in €4bn a year
“Only the Premier League is growing and growing and it is already a glorified Super League.” Said Agnelli
“They collect 4,000 million euros a year, Spain approximately half, Germany 1,500 million euros and the Netherlands 100 million euros. English dominance threatens European football.’
There is no doubt that the Premier League has financially eclipsed its neighboring leagues. In January, English soccer’s top flight showed its financial might by shelling out a total of £815m in transfer fees.
By comparison, the total outlay for top division clubs in Spain, Italy, France and Germany combined came in at just over a quarter of that figure.
It is those figures that worry Agnelli and he believes that clubs further down the football food chain will ultimately suffer if something doesn’t change. With the 47-year-old believing that the plans he helped create three years ago would help the current structure.
He added: ‘In 2019 we were ready, Aleksander and I. The best clubs from all the ECA subdivisions agreed to a new format. [Under pressure from medium-sized clubs] Cepherin stepped back. The clubs stood for a renewed and improved European football system.
When UEFA drew a line below that, plans emerged outside UEFA to organize a new league with all ECA clubs. Whether it finally takes off will depend on the Court of Justice of the European Communities.
Bernd Reichart, head of the A22 company, is now trying to revive the idea of a Super League
Internally, it was a war that I couldn’t win. He knew that the current system offers no future for Ajax, Anderlecht, Celtic, Benfica, Panathinaikos and Red Star Belgrade. Consequently, you do not stand still but take other paths.
UEFA’s monopoly must be broken to give the clubs a financially stable future. One they don’t fall for if they fail to qualify for European football once.
With my 13 years of football experience, I know how things work, I have picked up ideas and I say it is time for fairer leagues. Not leagues determined solely by trade, by markets where more money is spent. We should aim for a sportier democracy.’
Premier League clubs are said to be baffled by the latest plans for the European Super League hosted by A22, calling it a “reverse Brexit”.
The new format would be an open league with no permanent members and teams would be guaranteed 14 games per season.