Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli launches tirade on England’s top flight
‘The Premier League is already a glorified Super League’: Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli launches tirade on England’s top flight insisting its £4bn revenue is a huge threat to the game… which is TWICE what La Liga generates!
- Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli launches attack on the Premier League
- The Italian claims that England’s top flight is already a glorified Super League
- Agnelli remains keen to make a change to the structure of European football
Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli has hit out at the Premier League by claiming it is already a ‘glorified Super League’ thanks to the amount of money being spent by clubs.
The Italian remains an advocate for a proposed Super League, even in the aftermath of the plans that were hounded out by fans in 2021.
Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona are still hopeful of a league that would break away from UEFA’s current model, and new plans for a revised version of a Super League were revealed earlier this month.
In that model, the league would consist of 60-80 teams with promotion and relegation, and clubs would benefit from an equal share of the revenue.
Speaking in an interview with De Telegraaf, Agnelli addressed the current issue of the structure of European football and launched a tirade against Premier League clubs – who he claims have already created a Super League.
Andrea Agnelli has launched an attack on the Premier League and it’s current financial muscle
Agnelli claims the Premier League is already a glorified Super League after raising €4bn a year
‘Only the Premier League is growing and growing and is already a glorified Super League.’ Said Agnelli
‘They raise €4bn a year, Spain about half, Germany €1.5bn and the Netherlands €100m. English dominance threatens European football.’
There’s no question that the Premier League has eclipsed it’s neighbouring leagues financially. In January English football’s top flight showed it’s financial might by shelling out a combined £815million on transfer fees.
By comparison, the total outlay by top-flight clubs in Spain, Italy, France and Germany combined came to just over a quarter of that figure.
It it those figures that concern Agnelli and believes that clubs further down the football food chain will ultimately suffer if something doesn’t change. With the 47-year-old believing that the plans he helped create three years ago would help the current structure.
He added: ‘In 2019 we were ready, Aleksander and I. Top clubs from all ECA subdivisions had agreed on a new format. [Under pressure from medium-sized clubs] Ceferin backed off from it. The clubs stood for a revamped and improved European football system.
When UEFA drew a line under that, plans arose outside UEFA to organise a new league with all clubs from the ECA. Whether it finally gets off the ground will depend on the European Court of Justice.
Bernd Reichart, head of the company A22, is now trying to revive the idea of a Super League
Internally, it was a war, which I wasn’t able to win. I knew the current system offers no future to Ajax, Anderlecht, Celtic, Benfica, Panathinaikos and Red Star Belgrade. Consequently, you don’t stay put but take other paths.
The monopoly of UEFA must be broken to give clubs a financially stable future. One where they don’t fall over if they fail to qualify for European football once.
With my 13 years of experience in football, I know how things work, have picked up ideas and say it is time for fairer leagues. Not leagues determined solely by commerce, by markets where the most money is spent. We should be aiming for more sporting democracy.’
Premier League clubs are said to be baffled by the latest plans for the European Super League organised by A22 – calling it ‘reverse Brexit’.
The new format would be open league with no permanent members and teams being guaranteed 14 matches per season.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here