Five of the biggest clubs in the Premier League recently met to discuss something – and it didn’t take long for the rumour mill to start speculating about what that something might be. Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal – or their respective bosses at least – were all seen coming together at the Dorchester Hotel in London, and guesses about what could be bringing them together started to fly around almost instantly.
A front-runner quickly emerged amongst those rumours, when tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that they were meeting to discuss the creation of a new European tournament, breaking away from the Champions League to form a new super league in Europe. Other news outlets quickly picked up on this rumour, and began speculating on what the formation of the new league could mean and just how drastically it would transform football in Europe.
However, sources at all five of these clubs have now denied rumours that they were discussing a breakaway from the Champions League. Instead, the big five claim that they met mainly to discuss the International Champions Cup, a pre-season tournament that has been held for the past three pre-seasons running. Initially, this tournament was confined to being held in the USA, but last year spread to Australia and China as well. English Premier League clubs have taken part in the past, with last summer’s event seeing Manchester City compete in Australia and Chelsea and Manchester United playing in the USA.
A spokesperson for Arsenal said “We are strongly opposed to any breakaway. Not Arsenal, nor any clubs at the meeting, are seeking changes to the Premier League and European landscape and no conversations surrounding displacing the Premier League or starting a European Super League took place.”
Furthermore, sources within the clubs have claimed that a meeting between bosses from the major clubs is not as remarkable as the press seems to have believed. On the contrary, they say that there are regular meetings between the “Big Five,” often also attended by representatives of Tottenham Hotspur, to discuss a wide range of matters.
Club sources did admit that they have been in discussion over the future of the Champions League. However, they insist that this simply means potential changes that could be made to the existing tournament in future seasons, and not the possibility of breaking away and forming a new league altogether. For example, there have been discussions about moving the qualification process for the Champions League over to a two-tier system. This would see one tier, comprised of Europe’s very biggest clubs, given direct entry to the competition without the need to qualify. The second tier would have the opportunity to gain entry to the competition through qualifier rounds in much the same way as under the current format.
Author Bio:
Ian has been an avid premier league football fan and reporting for over 10 years. He currently runs https://www.signupbonuses.co.uk/ that allows you to find and compare the latest offers from online UK betting providers, in amongst keeping up to date with premier league news.