LONDON: A so-called European Super League was dealt a fresh blow on Saturday when Italian giant Juventus decided to rejoin the body of clubs opposing the controversial breakaway competition.
Juventus had been with Real Madrid and Barcelona in pushing for a new competition that would replace the Champions League. But it will rejoin the European Club Association of 600 teams, which has fought strongly against attempts to create a Super League.
“They are back. It is great,” ECA chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi said. “The club has an amazing history. We are proud they are back to their family. I also call the others to be back.”
Madrid and Barcelona are now the only two clubs trying to form a proposed Super League, which has already had one failed launch after angry fan protests in 2021.
Madrid president Florentino Perez has been determined to push ahead with plans to create a breakaway, despite the majority of Europe’s leading clubs rejecting the idea. His position appeared to be strengthened in December when the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that soccer’s governing bodies UEFA and FIFA acted contrary to EU competition law by blocking attempts for a breakaway league.
Super League organizers quickly revealed plans for the new competition, which Perez described as a “great opportunity to improve European club football.”
But, crucially, he did not have the backing of many of the leading clubs, which faced a furious backlash from fans when attempting to form a breakaway in 2021.
Back then a group of 12 of Europe’s most storied clubs announced plans to create a new Super League. Proposals for the 20-team elite tournament would have seen 15 top sides protected from relegation.
Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan were part of the original breakaway group.
Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus were eventually left as the only clubs carrying on the fight before Italy’s record 36-time champion, Juventus, withdrew last year.
Al-Khelaifi, who is also president of Paris Saint-Germain, spoke after a meeting of the ECA Executive Committee in London ahead of Saturday’s Champions League final between Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.
He said he wanted Madrid and Barcelona to follow Juventus’ lead, saying a Super League of two teams “doesn’t make sense.”
“They can play two teams, home and away for 20 matches?”, he said. “It is not for anyone’s interest. They are going against their (own) interests today.”
Madrid is going for a record-extending 15th European Cup when it faces Dortmund at Wembley Stadium.
“I heard yesterday they (Madrid) talked about the love story between Madrid and the Champions League. On the other hand they want to destroy the Champions League. You love or you hate. You want to destroy the thing you hate?” Al-Khelaifi said.
Al-Khelaifi said he would welcome discussion with Madrid and Barcelona about rejoining the ECA.
“It’s really important for us and for them,” he said.

DALLAS: The USA make their debut in the T20 World Cup against Canada on Saturday and vice-captain Aaron Jones says they are determined to play a ‘fearless’ brand of cricket.
Both teams are making their first appearances in the expanded 20-team competition but there is particular pressure on the USA, as tournament co-hosts, with the West Indies, to deliver a strong showing on home soil.
The explosive, short-format of the game, is seen by cricket’s leaders as being the perfect version to capture the imagination of mainstream American sports fans and Jones says the team doesn’t want to be afraid of going on the attack.
“Fearless cricket, positive cricket, smart cricket. I think that’s what we’re really and truly trying to do,” Jones told a press conference.
“We don’t want to regret anything. We want to leave everything out there on the park. And then, obviously, if we come out on top, it’s great. If we don’t come out on top, that’s how cricket goes sometimes. But we don’t want to regret anything,” he added.
The two North American teams have been drawn in a tough group however with India and Pakistan the clear favorites to be the two teams who qualify for the Super Eight stage.
Ireland, who in many ways are a role model for the USA and Canada, having come from relative cricket obscurity to be a regular in major tournaments, will be looking to pull off an upset and sneak into the top two in Group A.
But however the results turn out, it is a landmark moment for the USA team to be in an elite competition after decades of being stuck in minor tournaments.
“We’ve been speaking over the last couple of years about playing in World Cups, about getting test status, about taking USA cricket to higher heights,” said Jones.
“And obviously, we are playing a World Cup starting tomorrow. So that’s probably the highest height (so far),” he added.
Jones was born in New York but raised in Barbados, who he represented earlier in his career, before moving back to the USA to be part of the team.
He acknowledges that the team has the added responsibility of being ambassadors for the sport when they play games in Texas, Florida and New York.
“Obviously, what you do on the field is very important, but I also do think that off the field stuff is very important as well, especially being a country that don’t really know much about cricket,” he said.
“We want to get the fans up; we want to get a lot more support from the American born and raised people and I think we could only do that by playing good on the field and obviously interacting with the fans or the growing fans off the field as well,” added Jones.
Curiously, the first ever international cricket match was played between the USA and Canada in 1844 in New York and there were a multitude of clubs, particularly in Philadelphia and New York.
But baseball soon replaced cricket as the favored summer sport with cricket virtually disappearing apart from in a few hold-outs.
However, in recent years, the growing communities from South Asia and the Caribbean have led a revival with competitive amateur leagues now well-established and last year a new T20 pro league, Major League Cricket (MLC) was launched.
The Grand Prairie ground, a converted minor-league baseball park, was opened last year while the cricket venue in Lauderhill, near Fort Lauderdale in South Florida, has already hosted a number of international games.
The venue in Long Island, which will host the big India v Pakistan clash, is a 34,000 temporary stadium which will be dismantled after the tournament, although the cricket field itself will remain.
Jones, who made his debut for the USA in 2018, says the change in the past few years has been remarkable to be part of.
“I think that we are on the up right now as it relates to the amount of cricket we play, as it relates to the infrastructure, different fields, a lot more access to turf wickets which is very important for us.
“Definitely some quality players (have come into) the country over the last couple of years which obviously improves the competition. So right now, I think that things are only up and we just want to keep growing from here,” he said.