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La Liga president Javier Tebas has criticized Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus amid talks of relaunching the European Super League.
With the ESL plan previously failing to come to fruition following the huge backlash, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus are set to revitalize the league much to Tebas' chagrin. Tebas said (via The Sun):
"When I read about the Super League, these three clubs, they lie more than Vladimir Putin. They constantly say it won’t affect national leagues. But all the national leagues must be idiots, dumb, because all of us will say it will hurt us."
Tebas continued:
"These clubs want to kill football. They met at Agnelli’s house last week. A meeting we know about. They now say they don’t want fixed slots for teams in this Super League."
In April 2021, 15 premier clubs across Europe, which included the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Barcelona among others, planned to create a breakaway rogue league. However, considering that it would have killed off smaller clubs in terms of revenue and viewership, the league was widely criticized by the football universe. Following this backclash, all except three clubs - Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus - withdrew from the competition.
The relaunch, according to the Sun, is set to be announced by Juventus president Andrea Agnelli. The new plan states that ESL will not become a breakaway league. Instead, there will be two leagues of twenty clubs and any club from Europe can qualify depending on their performances.
Whilst the three teams plan the relaunch, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has once again berated the concept. Ceferin has stated that teams are free to create their own competitions but will not be able to participate in UEFA competitions.
Could Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus exit Europe due to the ESL?
When the original plan for the ESL was announced last year, many wanted the clubs involved in the proposal to be punished with expulsion from the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
At the time, Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid were part of the semi-finals of the UCL. Their place in that season's tournament came under threat, with Danish UEFA member Jesper Moller stating (as per Mirror) that the clubs would be kicked out of UCL.
However, following the public reaction to the Super League, teams soon backtracked, including Chelsea and Manchester City, and were therefore afforded the opportunity to continue in the UCL.
The two English sides made it to the final last year with Chelsea winning the tournament. That did not stop the feeling that the clubs were not punished severely enough for their involvement in the Super League.
If Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus go ahead with plans to relaunch the league, we could see action taken that will affect this season's UEFA tournaments.
Real Madrid and Juventus are currently in the last 16 of the UCL and both have a second leg to play. However, the Super League relaunch could throw their progression in the tournament into jeopardy.
This could also be the case for Barcelona in the UEFA Europa League. The Catalan giants drew Turkish side Galatasary in Round 16. However, they could be expelled should the proposal go ahead as planned.
