The football world was left in a frenzied mood yesterday, Sunday, April 18, 2021, when it was reported that 12 top clubs have agreed to join a new European Super League (ESL).
Amongst the 12 clubs are Premier League top six, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham. They will join AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid who also agreed to the move.
The ESL said the founding clubs had agreed to establish a “new midweek competition” with teams continuing to “compete in their respective national leagues”.
How will the competition be played:
20 clubs will participate, the 15 Founder Clubs and five additional teams will qualify annually on the basis of the previous season’s performance;
-All matches will be played midweek, all clubs will continue to compete in their respective domestic leagues, preserving the traditional fixtures that are at the heart of club life;
-The season will start in August with clubs participating in two groups of ten, playing home and away matches; the top three in each group will automatically qualify for the quarter-finals.
The teams finishing fourth and fifth will play an additional two-legged playoff.
Following this, two-legged playoffs will take place from the quarter-finals onwards, leading to the final, which will be played as a single match at the end of May at a neutral venue.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is the first chairman of the ESL while Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer will be a vice-chairman of the Super League.
