September 12 – Amidst the wave of anger among European leagues to UEFA’s proposed changes to its two major club competitions to avert the possibility of a Super league outside its jurisdiction, one major league boss has actually had the temerity to come and conditionally support a breakaway competition.
During the summer, China’s Dalian Wanda Group confirmed it had started preliminary talks with clubs to create a new tournament that rival the Champions League.
No such event could take place until 2021 at the earliest but Javier Tebas, outspoken head of Spain’s La Liga, believes the idea has some merit.
Tebas believes there would be “greater opportunity to generate more revenue” with a Super League than in the existing Champions League.
The Spanish have long been concerned that England, which is benefitting from a bumper new domestic broadcasting deal, are gaining a competitive advantage.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Tebas said no agreement had been reached but that La Liga was attracted by Wanda’s concept.
“If [European club competition] is reorganised as Wanda has set out, there is a greater opportunity to generate more revenue from audiovisual broadcasting,” he said.
But at the same time he, like his colleagues, denounced Uefa for the proposed changes to the Champions League following increasing speculation that largest European clubs were discussing a super league amongst themselves.
“We’ve also become more interested in [Wanda’s] proposal since UEFA announced they will be reforming [the Champions League], without seriously consulting – in detail – their broader reform plans with the other national leagues,” Tebas said.
Last year, Wanda paid $1.2 billion for Infront Media, the Swiss company led by Philippe Blatter, nephew of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, which distributes TV rights for some of the world’s biggest sporting events. The FT says Infront executives are leading the negotiations with European football leagues and clubs for a new tournament, hoping to sell the worldwide broadcasting rights.
Under its plan, according to the FT, Wanda would replace UEFA’s two annual club competitions, the Champions League and Europa League, and organise a single expanded competition.
“The idea of unifying the two tournaments is not a bad one,” said Tebas. “But what is clear is we have to work something out with all the different national leagues and UEFA is not doing it.”
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