London : Premier League club, Arsenal, on Friday made their stance clear on the European Super League by officially rejecting the revived competition and reinforcing their commitment to UEFA competitions.
The club released an official statement to announce their stance which read, “Arsenal Football Club notes the judgement by the European Court of Justice on Thursday, 21 December 2023 and our position in relation to the European Super League has not changed. We will continue to play in UEFA competitions and continue to work with fellow European clubs and the European Club Association (ECA).”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta also backed the club’s decision in the pre-match press conference of their Liverpool clash.
While speaking to reporters ahead Arteta, said as quoted from Goal.com, “Very clear. Exactly the same. We remain in the same position. We love playing in the CL and we’ll continue to do so.”
“The conversation that we had were very clear after what happened two years ago. I think the club has issued a statement that is very clear and transparent. We’ll stick to that,” Arteta added.
The concept of the European Super League was initially launched 32 months ago and ended up receiving a lot of criticism from fans as well as many clubs.
Fast forward to December 2023, on Thursday, Sky Sports reported that “judges said UEFA rules blocking the formation of a new competition, such as the European Super League, were contrary to EU law – but added that the competition may still not be approved.”
A fresh proposal for the men’s ESL was unveiled, which presented a revamped structure.
Sports development company A22, which is working behind the scenes on the ESL project released a statement about the prospect that the competition brings.
“This vision is based on extensive consultation with a wide range of football stakeholders across Europe and built on our core principles including participation based on sporting merit (and) no permanent members,” the statement read.
“Participating clubs stay in their domestic leagues which remain the foundation of European football. Now that clubs can determine their own future at European level, we look forward to further engagement with a broad set of football stakeholders to achieve the objective of all great sporting competitions,” the statement further added.
