Italian soccer heavyweights Juventus have started the process of withdrawing from the collapsed breakaway European Super League (ESL) project.
In a statement yesterday (July 13), the club said that following discussions with the two remaining teams – Real Madrid and FC Barcelona – it had begun the process of leaving the ESL.
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The statement said: “Following such discussions and given the existing discrepancies on the interpretation of the relevant contractual terms applicable to the Super League Project, Juventus confirms that it has initiated the procedure to exit.”
The move comes a month after Juventus announced their intention to leave the project after writing to Real Madrid and Barcelona to begin talks.
Juventus’ official exit from the Super League will be dependent on the authorization of the Spanish clubs and, if successful, will make Real Madrid and FC Barcelona the only teams left in the project, which rose and fell over around four days in April 2021.
In February, A22 Sports Management, the company in charge of promoting the ESL, unveiled new plans for a continent-wide competition featuring 60 to 80 clubs across multiple divisions.
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By GlobalDataThe new plans came almost two years after the initial ESL project launched and collapsed after multiple teams pulled out of the scheme following widespread condemnation.
The original plans envisaged a 20-club competition in which 15 of the teams would qualify by right and share an upfront sum of €3.5 billion ($3.8 billion), with US investment bank JPMorgan Chase driving the financing.
However, English Premier League clubs Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur backed out of the project within 48 hours of the announcement, while Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus remained supportive.
Juventus’ exit from the doomed project comes amid a turbulent few months for the club. They were initially docked 15 points by the Italian FA for financial rule breaches in January. That punishment was temporarily overturned but a second hearing then led to a 10-point penalty, which the club recently accepted.
Juventus eventually finished seventh in Serie A, making them eligible to compete in the third-tier UEFA Europa Conference League next season. However, last week Italian media reported the club had agreed to drop out of the competition amid a separate UEFA investigation around false accounting allegations.
Without the points deduction, the club would have qualified for the premier Champions League club competition.
It is believed that the new approach from Juventus is an attempt from the new hierarchy at the club to distance themselves from the Andrea Agnelli era.
Agnelli, who was a key figure in the ESL project, stepped down as president of Juventus in November while the initial investigation into the club’s finances and accounting procedures was taking place.
He was quickly followed out of the door by vice president Pavel Nedved and the entire board of directors.
Agnelli was given a 16-month ban from soccer on Monday in a case about irregularities in the club’s payments to players.
Image: Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images
