Javier Tebas has written a scathing opinion piece for The Athletic on the latest news from the European Super League. The La Liga president has criticized ESL official Bernd Reichart, dismissed the proposed league schedule and claimed that the big clubs are only after cash.
Reichart announced on Thursday that the ESL now plans to relaunch with a total of 60-80 clubs. This structure would include three or four separate divisions. The new plan is very different from his initial proposal for a 20-team league. Fans from all over the world strongly protested the possible formation of an ESL. Although most clubs quickly moved away from the idea, ESL organizers are restructuring the scheme.
Javier Tebas to football fans about the Super League: “Don’t be fooled”
Despite the changes, Tebas warns soccer fans that the ESL and the clubs involved are hungry for money and power. “Do not be fooled. This is the latest attempt to hijack European football by the big clubs”, Tebas writes. “Using various entities over the years, the big clubs have repeatedly held the various bodies of European football hostage, securing more and more money and power for themselves.”
The president of LaLiga also brands Reichart in the face of the coup of the big European clubs. “The competition imagined by Mr. Reichart and his friends is a blow to the European soccer model and would end the national championships whatever they say, hence the unanimous opposition from the national leagues, of all sizes,” Thebes proclaimed.
“Mr. Reichart intends to give lessons to all the European leagues. Does he really believe that the league leaders are ignorant?
National leagues would collapse with ESL
Existing national leagues across Europe would also essentially fall apart according to Thebes. “This ‘open’ model of Mr. Reichart with various divisions ‘based on meritocracy’ reserves the first division for the big clubs”, affirms the president of the Spanish league.
“This First Division does not have direct access from national competitions. It is intended to transfer the ‘vertical’ model of the national leagues to Europe, which would mean the sporting and economic destruction of the domestic leagues”.
Whether or not the ESL organizers can get the league off the ground remains to be seen. However, Reichart and company are certainly doing everything they can to alter the current setup of European football.
PHOTO: IMAGO / NurPhoto
