The breakaway competition was revealed on Sunday by 12 of Europe’s richest clubs, including Juventus, Inter and Milan.
The first official statement and the Super League website were launched at midnight, an unusual time for important announcements in Europe. There wasn’t any Super League account on social media.
The Super League was supposed to be an NBA-like championship, without promotion and relegation where 15 founding clubs would have had a place booked forever.
However, it wasn’t just an unfair sporting project, that would have denied clubs like Leicester City or Atalanta to gain access to Europe’s elite competition. It was also terribly presented.
After a chaotic Monday, Florentino Perez explained the reasons that pushed Real Madrid and the other founding clubs to create the Super League and why they ensured the law protected the 12 clubs against possible UEFA sanctions.
Things changed very quickly on Tuesday when Premier League clubs decided to withdraw from the competition following some of their fans’ protests, but especially after talks with UEFA and the UK Government.
It remains unclear which sanctions they will face for breaking the contract, if they’ll face any. Meanwhile, clubs all over Europe played their domestic fixtures on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While Premier League coaches Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola voiced their discontent regarding the competition, Andrea Pirlo, Zinedine Zidane and Stefano Pioli refused to comment on the Super League, insisting they would only focus on the upcoming games.
Pirlo revealed Andrea Agnelli had “explained generally” the Super League project to the team on Tuesday.
At that point, the Old Lady’s President had already given interviews for Wednesday’s papers to Il Corriere dello Sport and La Repubblica, owned by the family-controlled holding company Exor.
He had said the competition was a “blood pact” and insisted the Super League clubs were negotiating with UEFA.
But the papers were already outdated on Wednesday morning as the Super League had announced overnight the project would need to be reshaped, while Agnelli in the morning told Reuters the competition was “no longer up and running” after the Premier League sides’ withdrawal.
That was the opposite of what Florentino Perez said in a new interview on Wednesday night when he claimed the project was still on and that both Milan and Juventus had not withdrawn.
Indeed, Juventus and Milan didn’t explicitly say in their statements that they would withdraw from the competition. Perhaps, because the remaining clubs could sue those who quit.
On Monday, JP Morgan confirmed they would finance the tournament, but five days later, they admitted they “misjudged” the competition and how the football world would perceive it. All through an unnamed spokesperson.
The Super League proved not to have a centralized communication hub that would speak for all the clubs involved.
Instead, every club used their own communication plans and, as of Friday, it’s unclear what consequences the clubs involved will face.
It also highlighted communication issues within the club as, for example, the Rossoneri technical director Maldini has said he “hadn’t known about the Super League until midnight on Sunday”. Believe it or not.
@lorebetto