Inside Sport newsletter: Get an expert guide to the biggest moments shaping the world of sportGet our free Inside Sport newsletterGet our free Inside Sport newsletterFans have been urged to remain vigilant to the possibility of a “stealth” Super League, exactly five years after 12 clubs announced the formation of a controversial breakaway competition.Late on Sunday, April 18, 2021, the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ all announced they had joined the European Super League.It was proposed that 15 of the league’s members would be permanent – free from the threat of relegation.“The fundamentals of the game were significantly and severely under threat,” Football Supporters’ Association chair Tom Greatrex told the Press Association.“This was a competition that removed any sense of sporting jeopardy and just offended the sense of what football is – and supporters could see it.”The competition would have been a direct rival to UEFA’s club competitions and while the six pledged to continue in the Premier League, the Super League was also seen as an existential threat to the English top flight.Asked why the clubs chose to do it, Greatrex added: “I don’t think they anticipated that so fundamentally breaching the competitive tenets of the English game was going to result in the level of outcry that there was.“I think they assumed that because they had been able to do whatever they wanted, pretty much for such a long period of time, they would be able to do pretty much what they wanted again.”The withdrawal of English clubs was swift, with all six having pulled out by late on April 20.The Super League concept did not officially die until February this year, when its chief supporters Real Madrid announced an agreement signposting the end of their legal dispute with UEFA.Greatrex does not believe such a bold breakaway will ever happen again, not least because English clubs will soon be subject to independent regulation.However, the expansion of the Champions League and FIFA’s Club World Cup are arguably signs of the game still being bent to the will of the big club owners, all chasing greater revenues and more security for their investment.Greatrex said: “There needs to continue to be vigilance about the way in which existing competitions are formulated and amended to get close to some other features of the exclusivity of the Super League, those ‘stealth’ changes.”He believes the Super League did have one positive impact –…
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2026-04-18 00:01:00
