October 21: Real Madrid want the six English Premier League clubs that signed up for the European Super League to pay a share of the project’s set-up costs.
The club believe Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham are still liable despite pulling out in April 2021. A source said the costs could reach €80m.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have so far covered the promotion costs between them.
Nine of the 12 founders, the six English clubs plus Atlético Madrid, AC Milan and Inter, withdrew within days of the launch. Juventus said in 2023 that he had left, and Barcelona formally withdrew in February this year.
All 12 signed a shareholders agreement for the European Super League Company, a Spanish holding company. After the nine outings, Florentino Pérez said: “I’m not going to spend my time explaining what a binding contract is here, but the fact is that clubs can’t leave.”
Whether the English clubs owe anything will likely depend on how the contractual commitment to “jointly own and manage” the project is interpreted and whether that includes financial obligations. A Real Madrid source said the money owed would be owed to the European Super League Company. All six clubs have been contacted for comment. A22 declined to comment.
The claim comes as Real Madrid prepare to appoint Bernd Reichart, former A22 chief executive, as head of commercial operations once he has “ended his affairs at A22”.
The project has been reinvented several times since its collapse. In December 2023, A22 proposed a competition of 64 clubs, three divisions with promotion and relegation and free-to-air TV coverage. By December 2024 it had become the Unify League, a four-tier format of 96 clubs. Last November, A22 wrote to UEFA to request Unify’s pre-authorisation “within eight weeks”.
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