Juventus chairman Agnelli: ‘Super League is a desperate cry for help’
Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli believes European Super League was a "desperate cry for help" rather than a “coup.”
chairman
Andrea Agnelli
previously was the executive and chairman of the European Club Association, an independent body that represents football clubs at a continental level, according to
FotMob.
The ECA is supposed to act as a "voice" for teams and a key stakeholder in the landscape of the game internationally.
Agnelli then left the ECA in April as he became the vice-chairman of the proposed
European Super League
. This league was a breakaway. A closed-shop competition that threatened the competitive nature of European football and Juventus were one of the 12 clubs who were announced as the founding members of the league.
After a backlash, Atletico Madrid, Inter and Milan followed all the six English clubs and left the league. However, Juventus, Real Madrid, and Barcelona stood firm and affirmed their commitment to radical change.
Agnelli believes this radical change was a "desperate cry for help" rather than a “coup". He addressed the media on Friday and stressed the need for a radical change in a news conference arranged to bid farewell to sporting director Fabio Paratici, who is about to join Tottenham.
"For years I have tried to change European competitions from the inside because the signs of crisis were evident even before the pandemic," he told the reporters.
"The Super League is not a coup, but a desperate cry of help for a system that, knowingly or not, is heading towards insolvency.
"The agreement between the founders [of the Super League] was conditional on UEFA's prior recognition of the competition. The response was deafening, with offensive terms and arrogant methods, and then it turned to three clubs.
"It is not with this type of behavior that football is reformed in the face of this crisis. Fortunately, I know that not everyone in UEFA feels the same way. The desire for dialogue, however, remains unchanged.
"Other sports have faced changes of this type, and almost all stakeholders agree that the model needs to be changed.
"Juventus, Barcelona, and Real Madrid are determined to achieve a complete reform of the competitions, and above all, in the interest of the clubs that show us fear for this situation."
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