New Super League plan would have 64 teams in 3 tiers with promotion & relegation
The new plan for the European Super League has been revealed after the breakaway competition was given a boost by a court ruling on Thursday.
The European Court of Justice ruled that UEFA and FIFA were found to have acted against competition law in their blocking of the creation of a European Super League in 2021.
The binding ruling handed out marked the latest stage in a legal process initiated by the European Super League Company after clubs who participated in the breakaway plans were threatened with sanctions by the governing bodies, while they faced a barrage of overwhelming criticism.
The new format – which was revealed by A22 CEO Bernd Reichart – will see both a men’s and women’s competition, with 64 teams competing in the men’s and 32 in the women’s.
In term of the men’s competition, the 64 clubs will be split into three separate leagues – star, gold and blue – with the star league the strongest and blue the weakest.
The star and gold leagues with have 16 teams separated into two groups of eight, but the blue league will have 32 clubs, split across four groups of eight.
Each team will be guaranteed 14 matches with everyone playing their group stage opponents home and away on midweek dates between September and April.
The top four clubs in the gold and star group and the top two teams in the four blue groups will then take part in the knockout stages during the spring.
Two-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place, before the winners of each leagues will be crowned following finals at neutral grounds.
The plan – which is being led by sports consultancy firm A22 – insisted it was ‘based on sporting merit with no permanent members’.
As a result, there is promotion and relegation with the bottom team in both groups of the star league being relegated and replaced by the two finalists in the gold league.
This is the same for the blue league finalists, who will replace the teams that finish bottom of each gold group.
There is an even bigger turnover from the blue league, with 20 clubs to leave the competition each season and be replaced by 20 others based on their domestic performances.
The initial year of the competition will see clubs in all league selected based upon ‘an index of transparent, performance-based criteria’.
All games will be streamed free to air, with the aim of bringing in increased revenue through advertising.
The Women’s Super League will run concurrently, although only 32 clubs will be part of the competition.
They will be split across 16 in each of the star and gold leagues, with two groups of eight in both divisions.
This will follow a similar pattern with 14 group games, before two-legged knockout stages until champions of both star and gold divisions are confirmed.
Speaking at a presentation unveiling the new plans Reichart – who is also the Super League’s CEO – said: ‘There is big news today: Football is free. Free from the monopoly of UEFA, free to pursue the best ideas without fear of sanctions and under our proposal, free viewing of all live matches.
‘This morning, CJEU (European Court of Justice) ended UEFA’s near 70-year monopoly and opened the door to innovation in football: Clubs can now openly discuss and consider proposals to address the sport’s most pressing issues.
‘The cornerstone of our proposal remains the ten principles we published in February. A couple of the principles are worth repeating: Participation will be based on sporting merit. There will be no permanent members and clubs will remain committed to their domestic leagues.
‘The new SuperLeague format would lead to exciting matches throughout the entire year, not just part of the year. A league system with just 14 matches means that absolutely every match counts, clubs that almost never play each other will now compete regularly on the European stage generating even greater rivalry.
‘At the same time there is mobility between the leagues, with promotion and relegation, and with an ongoing strong connection to domestic leagues, and finally, there would be an incredible season-end knockout stage.’
