(Paris) A new face for the Super League: the company promoting this dissident European competition, aiming to supplant the Champions League, appointed German Bernd Reichart as CEO on Wednesday, who told AFP that he wanted to open a ” dialogue” on the future of club football.
Posted at 1:58 p.m.
Former boss of the RTL Group media group in Germany, Bernd Reichart takes control of A22 Sports Management, announced in a press release this company “created to sponsor and help create the Super League”, a project to which cling three major European clubs, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin.
Its promoters set themselves the “reasonable” objective of launching the Super League by 2024-2025.
“European football needs an open and honest dialogue around its future,” said Bernd Reichart in an interview with AFP, 18 months after the failure of a first version of this rival project of competitions. UEFA.
“Clubs should be sovereign and govern their own destiny”, he explains, noting a “broken system” and a “European football which does not reach its full potential”.
Bernd Reichart, 48, is a specialist in media and sports rights, notably working for the rights agency Sportfive, the Spanish media group Atresmedia and the German group RTL, of which he was CEO from 2019 to 2021.
Incarnation
This appointment makes him the new incarnation of the Super League, a potential competitor to competitions organized by UEFA, the European football body.
This private competition project launched by twelve major European clubs (supposed to be members by right) was unveiled with fanfare in April 2021. But faced with the fury of many supporters and the threat of political measures, the affair had fallen apart in 48 hours.
Nine of the twelve rebellious clubs, notably the powerful English clubs, have made amends, but Real, Barça and Juventus continue to keep the flame burning.
In recent weeks, Madrid president Florentino Pérez and his counterparts from Barcelona Joan Laporta and Torino Andrea Agnelli have all reaffirmed their commitment to the project.
And this potentially explosive case for the balance of football is now in the hands of European justice: a dispute over an alleged abuse of a dominant position by UEFA landed in mid-July before the Court of Justice of EU (CJEU) in Luxembourg.
The company A22 Sports Management, one of whose shareholders is the Franco-Moroccan businessman Anas Laghrari, close to Florentino Pérez, is involved in this file. The CJEU’s Advocate General is due to deliver an advisory opinion on December 15, before a final decision in 2023.
“Let’s talk”
“Clubs should prepare to draw their own future and consider what the new landscape could look like” in the event of a decision favorable to the Super League, warns Bernd Reichart, who assures that it is no longer relevant to have automatically qualified clubs for the competition, unlike its first version.
“It is no longer a question of permanent members, we want to discuss on the basis of an open competition, based on sporting merit”, he argues.
To counter the Super League, UEFA announced a major reform of the Champions League for 2024, with 36 teams instead of 32, and an eight-day mini-league instead of the traditional six-day group stage. Television rights must bring in the record sum of fifteen billion euros over three years (2024-2027).
“This project is not going in the right direction”, slice Bernd Reichart.
“I am quite convinced that the fans will not like the 2024-2027 format, which has clear weaknesses”, he says, pointing in particular to the sharp increase in the number of matches and the fact that the knockout phase at From the round of 16, the most “interesting and exciting” part only opens in the spring.
“Let’s discuss to see if we can do better,” he pleads.
UEFA, contacted by AFP, confirmed receipt of a letter from A22 Sports Management addressed to its president, Aleksander Ceferin. “UEFA is always open to a constructive dialogue and will therefore consider the request for a meeting in due course,” continued a spokesperson, recalling that “the UEFA President is currently on an official visit to Argentina. »
But it may be difficult to attract around the table partners scalded by the first attempt of the Super League to force through, notes a leader close to a European League.
“They are not going to be taken seriously after their kamikaze approach last year,” the source told AFP. “It’s a pitiful attempt to reinvent itself. They can’t come back from the dead – even if it’s Halloween soon. »