Five English clubs are among 11 so-called “founding members” in a proposal for a European Super League to start in 2021, according to documents released by Der Spiegel on Friday. The German magazine – as part of the latest Football Leaks revelations – claims Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are among the clubs who have been in negotiations about a new competition to replace the Champions League in three years’ time. A draft of a “binding term sheet” sent on 22 October 2018 by the firm Key Capital Partners to Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, appears to show the English clubs would be joined by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Milan as founding members with a further five clubs – Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Marseille, Internazionale and Roma – appearing as “initial guests”. According to Der Spiegel, the 11 founding teams could not be relegated and would be part of the league for the first 20 years. The date by which the 16 clubs are to sign the “binding term sheet” is listed as November 2018. When contacted by journalists working on the leaks, Real Madrid and Key Capital Partners declined to comment on the document. Bayern, when asked for a comment, said the club was aware of “neither the existence nor the content” of the draft of the “binding term sheet.” Furthermore, he added, Bayern “as a matter of policy, does not comment on confidential discussions”. The 11 founding clubs, according to the document, would register a company in Spain to market, organise and execute the European Super League under its full control. The competition would have a group stage and a knockout round. There is also a suggestion that a second league under the European Super League could be created. The document also has a list of potential ownership stakes by the individual clubs in the joint European Super League company, with Real Madrid holding 18.77%, Barcelona 17.61% and Manchester United 12.58%. Last year the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, accused Europe’s top leagues of attempting to “blackmail” the governing body and told leading clubs he would never allow the creation of a European super league. Ceferin accused “some leagues” of trying to hold Uefa to ransom and “some clubs” of agitating for a closed super league. “To some clubs, I shall say it calmly and dispassionately, but firmly and resolutely: there will be no closed league. Quite simply, that is not in line with our values and ideals,” he said in 2017. “We will never give in to the blackmail of those who think they can manipulate small leagues or impose their will on the associations because they think they are all powerful on account of the astronomical revenues they generate.”
Chelsea FC, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid have been named among the 11 founding members of a European Super League, set to launch in this month and replace the Champions League. A report by Der Spiegel said the founding clubs and five "initial guest" sides had until 2021 to sign a "binding term sheet".