THE BARÇA ANNOUNCES ITS ENTRANCE TO THE TOURNAMENT
FC Barcelona released a statement announcing their entry into the tournament. This is the full content and the reasons given by the club.
FC Barcelona announces that it has reached an agreement with eleven other of the most important football clubs in Europe to form a new competition, the Super League, which will be governed by its Founding Clubs and which was born with the desire to be the best sports competition at the world club level.
FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea FC, FC Internazionale Milano, Juventus FC, Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid CF and Tottenham Hotspur have joined as Founding Clubs although they will be invited to three more clubs for them to join before the inaugural season, which will start as soon as possible.
The Founding Clubs hope to hold talks shortly with UEFA and FIFA in order to find the best solutions for the Super League and for world football as a whole.
The creation of the Super League occurs when the global pandemic has accelerated the instability of the current economic model of European football. For years, the Founding Clubs have aimed to improve the quality and intensity of existing European competitions and, in particular, to create a tournament in which the best clubs and the best players can compete against each other more frequently.
The pandemic has revealed that a strategic vision and business approach are necessary to increase value and aid for the benefit of the football pyramid as a whole. In recent months there has been an intense dialogue with the governing bodies of the world of football on the future format of European competitions. The Founding Clubs believe that the solutions proposed by the regulators do not solve the fundamental questions, which go through the need to offer higher quality matches as well as to obtain additional financial resources for the world of football.
As soon as possible after the start of the men's competition, the corresponding women's league will be launched, which will contribute to the advancement and development of women's football.
This new annual tournament will provide significantly higher economic growth, which will allow to support European football through a long-term commitment, that the contributions to solidarity, grow in line with the income of the new European league. Solidarity payments will be higher than those currently generated by the European competition system and are expected to exceed 10,000 million euros throughout the Clubs' commitment period. On the other hand, the new competition will be built with financial sustainability criteria, since all the Founding Clubs commit to adopt a spending framework. In exchange for their commitment, the Founding Clubs will collectively receive a one-time payment of 3.5 billion euros dedicated solely to undertaking infrastructure investment plans and offsetting the impact of the Covid pandemic.
FC Barcelona, faithful to its history and its leadership within the framework of European football, is once again positioned as a leading club when it comes to leading the great changes that the world of football requires and always thinking about the maximum benefit for the Club from the sporting, institutional and economic point of view.