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European Super League fallout – ‘Big Six’ executives forced to quit Premier League roles

3 years ago
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Difficult to believe that the attempted European Super League was less than two weeks ago.

Three Spanish, three Italian and six English Premier League clubs releasing a joint statement 11 days ago.

The dirty dozen announcing that they were ‘saving’ football by grabbing all the power and an even bigger share of the money, by appointing themselves founder members of a European Super League where none of the twelve would have to qualify, year after year after year.

When it comes to punishing the clubs, the Premier League ‘Big Six’ in particular, it has all gone worryingly quiet.

Fines, transfer bans, points demotion, blocked from European competition…none of them imposed so far and I can’t say I have any confidence in the other clubs following through with the early indications that the other 14 were going to teach them a lesson.

In fact, the only casualty announced was Ed Woodward, who is leaving Man Utd at the end of the year. However, even then, it was later reported that he was already scheduled to leave Old Trafford then anyway.

However, at last some positive news, as BBC Sport (see below) have revealed that the ‘Big Six’ executives have been forced to resign from their ‘advisory’ roles at the Premier League.

The movers and shakers from Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, no longer sitting in groups making decisions and laying down policy, before presenting it to the rest of the clubs as basically a done deal.

How it works in practice now remains to be seen but certainly it always felt like the ‘Big Six’ were for example deciding on which outside people were appointed to key roles in running the Premier League (Chairman / Chief Executive etc), then having a special relationship and meetings with them, over and above the other 14 PL clubs.

Quite shameful really, maybe the most shameful bit was that the other 14 put up with this because they were afraid of upsetting the self-appointed elite.

As I say, interesting to see what the reality is now BUT the other 14 clubs should now have the confidence of knowing that the ‘Big Six’ aren’t quite so powerful as they imagined themselves to be.

BBC Sport report:

Premier League: Executives from ESL clubs forced to quit advisory roles

Executives at clubs involved in the failed European Super League have been forced to resign from advisory roles at the Premier League.

The move is a consequence of the so-called ‘Big Six’ teams attempting to set up a league which drew widespread criticism before it fell apart.

The 14 other Premier League clubs felt betrayed by the move and demanded that executives involved, including Manchester United’s Ed Woodward, Liverpool’s Tom Werner and Manchester City’s Ferran Soriano, step down.

Woodward and Werner will no longer sit on the Premier League’s Club Broadcast Advisory Group.

Soriano and Arsenal’s chief executive Vinai Venkatesham will be removed from the Club Strategic Advisory Group, while Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck will no longer be on the Audit and Remuneration Committee.

Tottenham, who were also part of the short-lived European Super League breakaway, were not represented in the three groups, which were introduced 18 months ago and discuss ideas before they are presented to clubs to vote on.’

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