ECA re-admits nine Super League rebels

Nine of the rebel clubs that signed up for the doomed Super League project have been welcomed back into the European Club Association (ECA).

Six Premier League teams – Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal – are back in the independent body that oversees the European club game, along with LaLiga champions Atletico Madrid and Serie A rivals Milan and Inter.

That amounts to three quarters of the initial breakaway dozen, with the financially stricken Barcelona retaining a commitment to the ill-fated collaboration along with Real Madrid and Juventus.

All 12 founding Super League clubs quit the ECA in April before the quick collapse of the new competition amid supporter protests and opposition from governing bodies.

“Following the receipt by ECA of specific requests asking the ECA Board to consider the withdrawal of their previous resignation requests of April 2021, the ECA Executive Board has agreed that the following clubs will retain their ECA ordinary membership for the current 2019-23 ECA membership cycle: AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, Club Atletico de Madrid, FC Internazionale Milano, Liverpool FC, Manchester City FC, Manchester United FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC,” an ECA statement read.

“In its decision, and after an exhaustive process of re-engagement by the clubs and re-assessment by ECA over recent months, the ECA Executive Board took into consideration the clubs’ acknowledgement that the so-called European Super League project was not in the interests of the wider football community and their publicly communicated decisions to abandon said ESL project completely.

“The ECA Board also acknowledged the clubs’ stated willingness to engage actively with ECA in its collective mission to develop European club football – in the open and transparent interests of all, not the few.”

The nine teams re-admitted to the ECA, which is now chaired by Paris Saint-Germain chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi, previously reached a financial settlement with UEFA, amounting to a combined payment of €15million and five per cent of revenues from one season of European competitions.

Additionally the clubs agreed to be fined €100m if they attempt to play in any future unauthorised competition.