Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, one of the men who championed the European Super League, has now admitted the project is no longer 'up and running'.
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Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, one of the men who championed the European Super League, has now admitted the project is no longer ‘up and running’. 12 clubs had announced the formation of the new league on April 18 (Sunday). However, all six English Premier League clubs pulled out of the tournament on Tuesday.
They were followed by Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid announcing their departure. Currently, only Real Madrid and Barcelona remain of the original members.
“To be frank and honest no, evidently that is not the case,” Agnelli told Reuters when quizzed whether the European Super League would go ahead.
After all of this, Agnelli’s Juventus play Parma tonight, which ironically is a must win to keep their hopes of playing #UCL next season alive.
— Adriano Del Monte (@adriandelmonte) April 21, 2021
“I remain convinced of the beauty of that project,” he added. “But admittedly … I mean, I don’t think that that project is now still up and running.”
Agnelli further added that other clubs were ready to join the new league before the departure of the English sides.
“I’m not going to say how many clubs contacted me in just 24 hours asking if they could join. Maybe they lied, but I was contacted by a number of teams asking what they could do to join.”
He also stated that he believed they bowed out due to political pressure. English Prime Minister Boris Johnson had condemned the formation of the league. He also vowed to do whatever possible to stop it from taking place.
“I have had speculation to that extent that if six teams would have broken away and would have threatened the EPL (Premier League), politics would have seen that as an attack to Brexit and their political scheme,” he said.
Agnelli was also not regretful of the way the league was announced. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who is close to Agnelli, had termed the Juventus president a ‘snake’ for lying to him.
“If you tell me other methods for putting together such projects … if you were to ask the authorisation of others, I don’t think you would have carried out a project like this.
“The relations are there, I have seen relations changing in time. Some people I am quite sure that people will be open and talk to each other. I don’t think our industry is a particularly sincere, trustworthy or reliable one in general.”
