#european-super-league

#european-super-league

Paris St-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi says he has had nothing to do with the takeover of Manchester United.BBC Sport understands Al-Khelaifi was contacted by the Glazer family a month ago as United's owners tried to get Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani to raise his offer.Al-Khelaifi's involvement has led to suggestions of a wider Qatari involvement around Sheikh Jassim's bid.

The 'bring back Lionel Messi' campaign by the media, fans and even the manager at Barcelona is growing by the day.And while the heart tells everyone the homecoming of their greatest son is written in the stars, the head says there are many hurdles to overcome before it becomes reality.No-one knows this better than the decision-makers at Barcelona - especially president Joan Laporta, who decided two seasons ago that Messi was unaffordable despite having assured him a deal was in place to keep him.

The crassest leader in global sport was at it again last week, making a comparison between Rwanda's recovery from genocide to his own struggles to be elected Fifa president for the first time.It was another one of those Gianni Infantino car-crash moments you could see looming from a mile off, from the moment he explained how his 2016 campaign had appeared to hit the skids, before a visit to the Kigali Genocide Memorial encouraged him to keep fighting.

Fifa will stage an expanded Club World Cup featuring 32 men's teams from June 2025, says its president Gianni Infantino.Football's world governing body also hopes to introduce a women's version, with both held every four years.'World Series' friendly tournaments to be played between nations of different confederations are also planned.

Things are not going well at Juventus at the moment.The club faces serious legal trouble, with the entire board having resigned over allegations of fraud and false accounting.Now, according to CdS, a certain Bayern Munich star may have had a role in their downfall.Yes, Matthijs de Ligt apparently played a key role in helping Italian prosecutors gain evidence for the investigation.

Plans for a European Super League caused a seismic fallout across the football world when they were announced in April 2021.The six Premier League sides that signed up to the project - Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal - quickly withdrew their support after a severe backlash from fans, football governing bodies and even government.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have both announced they will boycott an "urgent" meeting called by LaLiga in Dubai next week.The Spanish league has summoned its member clubs to the United Arab Emirates on Dec. 7 with the aim of addressing "several important modifications to the statutes and internal regulations of LaLiga."
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.) Madrid and Barca both responded on Wednesday, however, by saying they would not take part in the meeting as they continue their ongoing battles with LaLiga president Javier Tebas.

LaLiga has demanded UEFA hit Juventus with sporting sanctions after the Italian club's board of directors announced their resignation on Monday.President Andrea Agnelli and vice president Pavel Nedved were among those to resign en masse following a preliminary investigation by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office into fraudulent accounting and alleged hidden payments to players.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are exploring the possibility of facing each other in the United States again next summer, various sources have told ESPN.The Clasico rivals played in Las Vegas on July 24 last year, with Barca prevailing 1-0 in front of a crowd of almost 63,000 at the Allegiant Stadium.- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.) Madrid and Barca also played in Miami in 2017, with the Catalan side winning 3-2 on that occasion, and the idea this time would be to find a venue on the West Coast, with sources telling ESPN Los Angeles and San Francisco are two of the options on the table.

Chelsea manager Graham Potter has said his position on plans for a European Super League (ESL) will not change even if the club are involved in the proposed breakaway competition.A22 Sports Management, a company formed to sponsor and assist in the creation of the ESL said on Thursday that revamped plans for the league could see "60-80 clubs" involved.

Former Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli has reiterated his belief in a European Super League in a farewell speech at the Italian club.Agnelli was one of the chief architects of the breakaway plans to form the ESL in 2021.The 47-year-old and the rest of the Juventus board resigned en masse in November amid a police investigation into the club's transfers.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta wants UEFA to get on board with a European Super League because football "needs it" to stop Premier League clubs from running away from the rest.Barca, Real Madrid and Juventus remain standing from the 12 founder members of the Super League project in their pursuit of a new competition for Europe's top clubs.

UEFA and FIFA would be entitled to freeze out a European Super League and its competing teams, according to a key opinion published on Thursday by the European Union's Court of Justice.A calamitous launching of the Super League last year saw 12 teams agree to take part, before most pulled out in a hurry after a furious backlash from fans, politicians and football governing bodies.

The financial gap between the Premier League and the rest of Europe's top divisions is "too big", says AC Milan head coach Stefano Pioli.Premier League clubs spent £815m during the January transfer window - nearly four times the combined £225m spent in Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

Barcelona's Joan Laporta says he will not give La Liga chief executive Javier Tebas "what he'd like by stepping down" as president of the club.On Monday, Tebas said Laporta should resign if he was unable to explain payments Barcelona made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, a former vice-president of Spain's referees' committee.

Juventus have been docked 15 points following an investigation into the club's past transfer dealings, Italy's football federation (FIGC) says.The Serie A giants were accused of fixing their balance sheets by artificial gains from club transfers.Juventus had been in third place but the penalty will drop them to 10th.

While some competition called the World Cup goes on in the Middle East, Juventus have bigger issues closer to home with news of impending investigations, mass resignations and other boardroom chaos descending on the club this week.What we know so far is that the entire board has left the club, starting with club president Andrea Agnelli, though reports yesterday indicated that coach Massimiliano Allegri and Director of Football Federico Cherubini have been asked to stay on.

The strategy of the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to try to purchase Manchester United while also owning Paris Saint-Germain will be to demonstrate to Uefa that each club will be controlled by a separate entity.Buying a minority stake in United is not currently of interest, it is understood.

News broke on Tuesday that Manchester United have instructed banking partners to assist in the potential sale of the club, with the Glazer family possibly looking for other majority investors as well as potentially an outright sale of their shares.Club statement on a process to explore strategic options for Manchester United.#MUFC-

A seismic shake-up of the governance of English football including the creation on an independent regulator for the elite game will move closer with the publication of a wide-ranging government white paper on Thursday.The long-awaited paper, which has received cross-party support, comes in response to 10 strategic recommendations from a Fan-Led Review of Football Governance chaired by former sports minister Tracey Crouch in 2021.

If there's anything that annoys a German, it's financial imprudence.This goes doubly so for German football clubs, who tend to be well run with a few exceptions.So, speaking to Bild, it's no surprise that Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn expressed his disdain for big clubs who run up massive losses year after year.

Surprise package Morocco will look to end their World Cup on a high as they face Croatia in the third-place play-off in Qatar.Meanwhile, finalists France have been hit by a sickness bug ahead of their bid to defend their 2018 title against Argentina on Sunday.Here, the PA news agency takes a look at what lies ahead from the final two days at the World Cup.

Croatia and Morocco provide the prelude to Sunday's final with the third-place play-off in Qatar.Meanwhile, France have been hit by a sickness bug ahead of their bid to defend their 2018 title against Argentina.Here, the PA news agency takes a look at what lies ahead from the final two days at the World Cup.

Football may be the beautiful game, but success on the pitch requires an ugly financial battle to sign top players and pay their vastly inflated wages.Monday's resignation of Juventus Football Club SpA's entire board of directors, including chairman Andrea Agnelli, amid multiple investigations into the club's financial reporting is a searing moment for the club and the wider soccer universe.

After 17 years, Manchester United are finally on the market and the roundly detested ownership of the Glazer family appears finally to be coming to an end.But what does a good, and realistic, outcome for United supporters look like?What can a football supporter reasonably expect of an owner of their club in 2022?