Bloomberg reported:
Organizers are finalizing details of an alternative to the prestigious UEFA Champions League, in which a group of at least 10 marquee teams -- including Manchester United and Real Madrid -- would play each other, according to people familiar with the situation. An announcement could come as soon as this week, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Establishing a new elite competition (Super League) in Europe would effectively end the Champions League’s decades-long reign as the world’s premier club contest, upend the sport’s structure, and funnel billions of dollars into the upper echelons. Founding teams would share an upfront payment of 3.5 billion euros ($4.2 billion), according to a planning document seen by Bloomberg News.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is in talks to provide financing for the project based on the expectation of future television revenues, people familiar with the matter said previously.
The Guardian reported:
Former Football Association and Manchester City chairman David Bernstein said he was ashamed of his old club and the creation of the new league showed the desperation of club owners who had built up huge debts.
“There are two things in play here, one is greed and the other is desperation because some of these clubs … have incurred enormous debts, certainly Barcelona and Real Madrid and at least one of the English clubs who shall remain nameless are approaching £1bn of debt,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It’s a lifeline that is going to end, if it happens at all, very badly.”
Private Equity Insight reported in November 2020:
CVC Capital Partners and Advent International want to add a “breakaway” clause to their €1.6bn deal to buy into Italy’s Serie A football competition to protect their investment if a rival European super league is launched.
The two private equity firms are part of a consortium with Italian investment fund Fondo FSI that is hoping to buy 10 per cent of a new company that will manage the broadcasting rights for Italy’s top football division.
That deal is in its final stages, but has been complicated by last month’s revelations that some of Europe’s biggest clubs are in discussions to create a new continental competition that could threaten the primacy of national leagues.
International investors have become increasingly interested in European domestic football leagues — which have suffered significant losses during the pandemic — because of the huge global audiences and valuable broadcasting rights. Private equity firms have approached Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga in recent weeks.
Who knew European football was a distressed asset and needed to be stormed by the greed and leverage boys? Unherd reported:
The biggest irony is the attempt by a bunch of American owners to create a closed shop in European football.
Closed shop, valuable broadcasting rights, outsized returns....it's the PEU way. Micheal Every of Rabobank gave the Super League a Red Card.
“IT’S RED!” A straight red card for Global Neoliberalism United, that is. 12 of Europe’s top football (‘soccer’) clubs are planning to break away from their already-lucrative elite domestic leagues, and their even-more lucrative Champions League, in order to form a breakaway closed-loop European Super League with no relegation and no cup competitions. In short, the richest (if not most successful) clubs, and the world’s most famous players, are potentially about to walk away from the entire global system of football - including the quadrennial World Cup - to keep all of the global money in the game rather than sharing just a little of it with others: this is of course backed by Wall Street and private equity to the tune of USD8bn.
PEU's expect special treatment, like carried interest taxation granted in the United States.
Update 3-3-22: The Carlyle Group will finance a PEU buyout of Italy's Atalanta Football Club. Bain Capital et al will have a majority stake in the firm that owns 86% of the club. As usual they have insiders leak the information while officially staying mum.
