The reigning European champions Bayern Munich and the team they defeated in last year’s Champions League final, Paris Saint-Germain, have issued statements opposing the creation of a European Super League.
Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Internazionale and AC Milan are the 12 founding members of a proposed separatist tournament, which was announced on Sunday.
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However, after Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig, two of the competitors in the 20-team tournament, which will have 15 permanent members and five qualifying places, expressed their opposition to its creation, Bayern announced that it would not they will join.
“FC Bayern Munich has a clear position on the Superliga issue,” a Bayern statement said.
Bayern president Herbert Hainer added: “Our members and fans reject a Superliga. As FC Bayern, our desire and goal is for European clubs to experience the wonderful and emotional Champions League competition and develop it with UEFA. FC Bayern say no to the Super League “.
CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also said: “On behalf of the board, I would like to state explicitly that FC Bayern will not participate in the Superliga.
“FC Bayern stand in solidarity with the Bundesliga. It has always been and is a great pleasure for us to be able to play and represent Germany in the Champions League.
“We all fondly remember the 2020 Champions League victory in Lisbon – don’t forget such a happy time. For FC Bayern, the Champions League is the best club competition in the world.”
PSG also disagreed with the creation of the competition.
“Paris Saint-Germain is firmly convinced that football is a game for everyone,” the club’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, said in a statement. “I was consistent in that from the beginning.
“As a football club, we are a family and a community whose fabric is our fans – I think we should not forget this. There is a clear need to advance the existing UEFA competition model, presented yesterday by UEFA [Monday] and the end of 24 months of extensive and collaborative consultations across the European football landscape.
“We believe that any proposal without UEFA’s support – an organization that has been working for the advancement of European football’s interests for almost 70 years – does not solve the problems currently facing the football community, but is instead driven by interest.
“Paris Saint-Germain will continue to work with UEFA, the European Club Association and all the football family’s stakeholders – based on the principles of good faith, dignity and respect for all.”
Many of the European Super League clubs have suggested in a statement that they will continue to play in their home leagues, but all relevant local federations have threatened to expel them if the tournament continues.
UEFA (Aleksander Ceferin) and FIFA (Gianni Infantino) presidents have sharply criticized the Super League project.