The Premier League’s richest clubs have denied they are planning a breakaway from the Champions League or the Premier League after it was revealed they held talks with a USA company proposing major changes to European competition.
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The Sun showed United’s Ed Woodward, Liverpool’s Ian Ayre, City’s Ferran Soriano, Bruce Buck of Chelsea and Arsenal’s Ivan Gazidis emerging from the hotel, alongside a headline saying “Big Five Talks to Break Up Prem”.
The ECA represents more than 200 clubs, including top Premier League clubs likes Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, as well as European powerhouses like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.
Paul Merson says Arsenal can forget about the Premier League title if the Gunners fail to beat Swansea City on Wednesday night. “We have just gone into a new three-year cycle for Champions League and Europa League, so we can not offer any further comment at this stage”.
“A spokesman for the European Club Association said “there’s a lot of discussion around the future of European competitions at the moment” but no final decision is expected before autumn this year”.
Relevent used the meeting with the invited Premier League clubs to highlight the merits of an expanded International Champions Cup, potentially running during the season.
Relevant Sports, the sports marketing company formed by Ross that is behind the pre-season ICC, is believed to be keen to play a part in any plans to expand the Champions League and win business from Uefa’s current partner Team.
The Premier League themselves, along with La Liga, the Bundesliga and Serie A, would make every effort to stop such a tournament as it would drastically reduce their prestige of their own leagues, devastating revenue and possibly killing off smaller teams.
The meeting was called at the behest of Stephen Ross, an American billionaire who made his fortune in real estate.
Involvement in the forthcoming International Champions Cup was mentioned and changes to the Champions League format were discussed.
United and Liverpool are understood to be opposed to any changes to the current football landscape, either domestically or in Europe.
Press Association Sport understands Chelsea attended the meeting, where the ICC was the leading topic on the agenda.
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British newspapers the Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph have picked up on The Sun’s report, with The Times acknowledging the European Super Leauge “could even threaten the clubs’ participation” in the Premier League.
