EU lawmakers oppose Super League-style breakaway competitions
STRASBOURG, France (AP) – EU lawmakers on Tuesday voted to oppose the competitions escaped following the aborted Super League plan that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus still support.
Some of the biggest football clubs in Europe wanted to break away from the Champions League and organize their own competition called the Super League, but it quickly collapsed within 48 hours. launch in April following protests from fans and governments.
With 597 votes to 36 and 55 abstentions, Members of the European Parliament declared that they wanted European sports culture “to be aligned with the European values of solidarity, sustainability, inclusion for all, open competition, merit sporting and fairness ”.
EU lawmakers have opposed separatist competitions “which undermine these principles and endanger the stability of the sports ecosystem as a whole”.
They did not detail the plans for the solidarity mechanism by sports federations, but said it should ensure adequate funding for amateur and grassroots sports.
“MEPs want a balance to be found between the commercial interests of professional sport and its social functions, by strengthening the links between grassroots sport and elite sport,” they said, calling for better financial redistribution towards amateur sport.
Lawmakers have also pledged to tackle gender inequalities and harassment in sport, “in particular with regard to remuneration and equal representation on the boards of directors of sports organizations”.
The company behind the Super League, which Barca, Madrid and Juve are not giving up on, has complained that lawmakers have overlooked issues with the Champions League governing body. UEFA not only markets the competition, but regulates the European game from its base in Switzerland.
“There is no other circumstance in Europe in which a monopoly private regulator such as UEFA, based outside the European Union, would also be allowed to be the sole dominant and guardian operator,” officials said. Super League Anas Laghrari and John Hahn in a statement. declaration.
“European sport, and in particular football, needs protection against the abuses committed by a number of actors located outside the European Union, pursuing interests unrelated to sport while making use of football clubs. football as platforms for their own agendas, breaking the rules of financial fair play and undermining football traditions and its sustainability.
The 12 founding clubs of the Super League all left the European Club Association recognized by UEFA to launch the project, although the other nine have since returned to the 240-member organization.
The ECA welcomed lawmakers’ vote as “another major defeat for those who continue to try to divide European sport on the basis of self-interest, rather than building a future built around the interests of all pursued by the ECA”.
___
More AP football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports