By Andrew Warshaw
February 2 – La Liga chief Javier Tebas has accused Gianni Infantino of privately supporting the launch of a breakaway European Super League despite FIFA steadfastly opposing the project.
Last month FIFA and its six individual confederations threatened a World Cup ban on players who take part in any proposed Super League but Tebas says that behind the scenes Infantino is actually in favour.
“FIFA as an institution have been very clear but Infantino is not FIFA the institution, he is the president and he should clarify his position,” Tebas said in an interview with AFP and The Sun newspaper in the UK.
Tebas says he has seen documents which he believes prove Infantino has been actively orchestrating the plan.
According to Tebas, the documents, apparently circulating among leading clubs for weeks and highlighted recently in The Times newspaper, point to the controlling interests of ‘W01’. That, claims Tebas, stands for ‘World Number One’ – Gianni Infantino.
“It is obvious that he has been involved in the meetings. He has been working on it and even been encouraging them to set it up.”
“W01 clearly refers to Mr Infantino. That is his code name. If I am wrong, I will apologise. But we have information and the facts seem to be there. So he should urgently clarify his position, his personal position.”
Tebas says the entire plan will shortly be in the public domain despite constant opposition from FIFA, UEFA, the European Clubs Association and other key stakeholders.
“The documents I have say it’s going to be announced in February, next month. It says they are going to sell the broadcasting rights in March and it’s all going to start in 2022.
“I’m not sure about that. These clubs have been involved in decisions about Champions League broadcasting rights between 2021 and 2024 and will have to break away from that. Some of the other clubs knew about the project, while others didn’t even know about it or that it existed.”
Tebas’ comments would appear to tally with reports that first emerged last October of US banking giant JP Morgan being in talks with top-flight European clubs in in Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France, over a game-changing $6bn (£4.6bn) plot to launch a European football league. At the time it was suggested the project was FIFA-backed, with a start date as early as 2022.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has been the main club protagonist of such a tournament while outgoing Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu dramatically revealed, also in October, that his club intended to join any new elite competition.
When contacted by AFP, FIFA apparently referred to its January 21 statement which warned “such a competition would not be recognised by either FIFA or the respective confederation.”
Asked therefore why Infantino would support a European Super League, Tebas replied: “Maybe he has a position in this future Super League that he is going to take up. Otherwise I wouldn’t understand it.”
For months Infantino has been championing a new, expanded 24-team Club World Cup which he says will be the “the best club competition in the world” as well as, he claimed, the most lucrative.
Tebas implied some of the super league clubs could gain automatically entry into Infantino’s pet project.
“In the documents there are also certain dates being held back for the Club World Cup, which is so precious to Infantino,” he said. “They have kept January free for the Club World Cup and even said who is going to be part of it.”
“It is obvious that people involved like (Real Madrid president) Florentino Perez could not have those details if Infantino were against it.”
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