Joan Laporta, Barcelona president, stated that if the breakaway European Super League is formed, the team will receive an initial bonus of €1 billion.
The concept still involves Barca, Real Madrid, and Juventus, three of the original 12 clubs, and according to Joan Laporta, it will resolve the club’s financial problems and improve the team’s performance.
“For starters, there would be a bonus of €1bn for the founding clubs,” Laporta told SPORT in an interview. “Per season, we could get around €300m annually in this competition. Moreover, the key to the Super League is that it will be governed by the clubs. UEFA, obviously, would be there at the governing table, but the clubs would be a majority.”
The Super League proposal was introduced in April 2021, but it was abandoned 48 hours later when Premier League clubs withdrew in response to intense political and public reaction.
The teams that are still involved in the project, Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus, have filed a lawsuit against UEFA, challenging the monopoly of the organization on football, and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is expected to issue a decision in the coming months.
The formation of the Super League is opposed by UEFA and FIFA, the governing authorities of football.
“In March we expect a resolution from the Luxemburg courts and having begun a dialogue with UEFA, I believe in a couple of seasons the competition could start,” Laporta added.
“Last Tuesday’s meeting between the Super League CEO Bernd Reichart with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, was an important step forward. What the Super League aims to do is improve football, fight for the sustainability of football, so that the clubs come out of bankruptcy, so that the clubs can be more and more competitive and have more resources.”
In August 2021, Laporta said that his board had inherited a €1.35 billion club record debt, but last summer’s asset sales allowed Barca to pay off the debt and spend more over €150 million on free agency.
“The economic levers have helped to save the club from bankruptcy and to build a competitive team,” Laporta said. “But the hole was so big that we still have an operating deficit of €200m annually as a result mainly of the enormous expenses that we have, especially with the wage bill.”
Laporta added that due to LaLiga’s budgetary restrictions, he anticipates a quiet winter transfer window for Barcelona.
“To sign in winter, we would have to incorporate players that improve what we already have,” Laporta said. “It’s not easy, especially considering that we continue to have fair play problems due to our elimination from the Champions League [in the group stages] which has reduced our budgeted income.”
“LaLiga has already warned us that we will have less capacity to sign. We will try to reverse it by negotiating with LaLiga to reconsider its interpretation [of the rules] and achieve new income with victories in the Europa League or the Spanish Super Cup. Even with some friendly matches during the World Cup.”
Barca was eliminated from the Champions League in the group stages for the second consecutive year. In February, they will compete against Manchester United in the Europa League playoff.
After a poor Champions League campaign, Laporta stated that Barca’s first aim is winning the LaLiga championship as the league enters the World Cup break.
“I evaluate this first phase of the season positively,” he said. “This season’s priority is LaLiga. An increasingly competitive team has been improved, although it is still under construction. But it has already begun to generate great expectations.”
Joan Laporta
Joan Laporta Estruch, a Spanish politician and the current president of FC Barcelona, was born on June 29, 1962.
After earning his law degree from the University of Barcelona, Laporta founded his own firm, Laporta & Arbós, which serves a number of prestigious Spanish companies.
From 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the Catalan Parliament.
FC Barcelona won six trophies in 2009, during his first term as president, setting a new record for the most trophies won in a calendar year.
He left in 2010, but in 2021 he was chosen to serve again as the club president.
What Happened To The Super League?
For years, the idea of a superleague of the best European soccer teams had been floated, but never with the level of specificity and with such clear intentions as were revealed on Sunday morning.
Following months of private negotiations, the breakaway teams, which included some of the biggest, wealthiest, and most well-known sports organizations in the world, officially announced their intention to establish a new league independent of soccer’s century-old league structures and Continental hierarchies.
They claimed that the soccer economy no longer suited their needs and that their new project would produce an abundance of wealth that would permeate all facets of the game.
There were rumors, then demonstrations, and then news that Manchester City had stepped down. Chelsea left; Tottenham, Manchester United, and Arsenal followed suit. Liverpool came next.
The plans for a Super League was all over 48 hours after it started.
