Sports

Real Madrid, Barça, Juve admitted to 2021-2022 Champions League

Madrid, Jun 15 (EFE).- Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have received letters from UEFA admitting them to the 2021-2022 Champions League, sources with the Blancos told Efe Tuesday.

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, later confirmed the admission of the three clubs, who had been threatened with possible sanctions over their unwillingness to renounce an abortive bid to create a continental Super League.

The nine other teams that originally signed up for the new competition abandoned the project within days amid an angry backlash from fans and public dissent from within their own organizations.

But Real Madrid, Barça and Juve say they remain committed to the idea.

Last week, UEFA said that the disciplinary proceedings initiated against the three clubs in late May had been “temporarily” suspended.

The independent UEFA Appeals Body had to pause the process pursuant to an injunction issued in April by a Spanish court at the request of European Super League Company SL.

Efe has learned that UEFA decided to suspend the proceedings pending a decision by Court of Justice of the European Union on the question of whether UEFA’s actions against the Super League constitute an abuse of the governing body’s dominant position in the sport.

UEFA’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, said last Friday that despite the suspension, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus should not assume the matter is at an end.

“I will just say that justice is sometimes slow, but it always comes,” he told Italy’s RAI Sport. “From my point of view, it is not a definitive stop. First we clarify the legal things and then we will go on.”

On April 18, a dozen of Europe’s biggest clubs presented their plan for a European Super League that would have 15 permanent members and five rotating slots to be filled through qualifiers.

Several other top European sides, including Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, rejected invitations to join.

Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur abandoned the initiative within a span of a few hours on April 20. Three other participants, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan, quickly followed suit.

The nine teams that walked away from the Super League reached a “reintegration” agreement with UEFA. EFE rmm-jap/dr

Related Articles

Back to top button