Leaked plans for a ‘European Super League’ of top football clubs have left fans feeling as sick as a parrot today, amid fears of the impact such a move would have on the beautiful game. Under the proposals, Europe’s leading teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid would juggle their domestic leagues to sign with a new midweek competition that would see them play regular games across the continent against one another.
Politicians here in Britain have already been quick to get ahead of the backlash, with Boris Johnson claiming such plans ‘would strike at the heart of the domestic game and will concern fans across the country.’ Gunners man and five-a-side devotee Keir Starmer added that ‘this proposal risks shutting the door on fans for good, reducing them to mere spectators and consumers’ while the relevant sports minister, culture secretary Oliver Dowden claimed it ‘could create a closed shop at the very top of our national game.’ Abroad French president Emmanuel Macron has declared he will support ‘all the steps’ taken by football’s governing bodies to defend Europe’s existing competitions.
Who would finance such an outlandish scheme? Step forward American financial giant JP Morgan, who are backing the project with some £3.6 billion according to Sky. It is of course not the first time the banking behemoth has found itself at the centre of a campaign for Euro integration. Prior to the Brexit referendum, the bank donated some £500,000 to the Britain Stronger In Europe effort to keep Britain in the EU before predicting just two days after the result that Scotland would leave the union and change currency.
Given today’s reaction from outraged fans, Mr S suspects this new scheme will have similar success to the bank’s last Euro folly back in 2016.
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