British ministers urged to take action against European Super League

MINISTERS are facing pressure to take decisive action against a plan by six leading English football clubs to join a breakaway European Super League, an idea condemned by politicians across the political spectrum and fans’ groups as wrecking the structure of the club game.

Labour called on ministers to use the announcement, made late on Sunday night, as the impetus to tackle wider governance issue in the English game, a change that some Conservative MPs had already been calling for.

Under plans for the midweek competition, which its organisers want to start in August, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham would join three teams from Italy and three from Spain, and three more to be confirmed, as “founder” clubs, which would always take part.

The merchant bank JP Morgan announced on Monday that it would be financing the proposed new league.Ahead of the announcement of the format, Boris Johnson tweeted that the plan would be “very damaging for football and we support football authorities in taking action”.

However, there was no immediate information on Monday from Downing Street or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport about what action, if any, might follow, or whether ministers might act.

It is also unclear what could be done immediately.Christopher Pincher, the housing minister, , said on behalf of the government on Monday morning that “if there’s a choice to be made we’re on the side of the fans”, but gave few specifics.

“We don’t want to see a footballing elite, which is by the elite, for the elite, of the elite – we want to make sure grassroots sport is supported and that fans are able to enjoy the kind of experience they’ve had over the past several years,” he said.

“We’ll talk to the Champions League, we’ll talk to the FA, we’ll be talking to all the players involved but fundamentally we need to make sure that football retains its grassroots support, that there is money invested in grassroots football,”Alison McGovern, the shadow sports minister, said the government must step in immediately, and introduce wider changes for the sport in England.

“For too long, the very fans who built football in this country have been treated as an afterthought,” she said. “We’ve seen communities lose their clubs, foreign owners strip assets and wealth, the neglect of the women’s game and fans priced out.

“That must now change. The government must get on with the fan-led review it has promised. There must be an independent regulator established. And these must all focus on long overdue action to ensure that fans can never again be separated from their clubs.”

Also commenting before full details of the plan emerged, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said the idea of a super league with some clubs guaranteed participation “cuts across all the things that make football great. It diminishes competition. It pulls up the drawbridge”.

“The clubs involved in this proposal should rethink immediately,” Starmer wrote on Twitter.

“And if they don’t, they should face the consequences of their actions.”

Johnson is also set to face pressure from his own benches. In January, Conservative MP and former sports minister Helen Grant proposed a bill for an independent football regulator for England, with powers to review finances and redistribute incomes, saying the governance of English football was “broken”.

The Liberal Democrats have also called for ministers to response.

Ed Davey, the party’s leader, said the government “must step in to prevent a small number of greedy, rich owners destroying the game we all love”
The Guardian