Aston Villa CEO Christian Purslow has offered his opinion on the new European Super League, labelling it a ‘grotesque concept’.
As confirmed in a press release on Sunday, 12 of Europe’s ‘leading clubs’ have founded a new competition that has sparked major debate in the 24 hours since it was announced.
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Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal would form the English contingent in it, and it’s unclear at this stage whether or not that jeopardises their involvement in domestic football and UEFA competitions.
Purslow has shared his opinion on the matter and it’s clear that he isn’t impressed with the concept and certainly isn’t in favour of it coming to fruition next season.
“These proposals do away with sporting merit,” he said, as reported by The Express and Star. “It would enable a small number of clubs to be in this competition come what may and, for millions of people in football, that goes against everything the sport means and stands for.
“The idea is that the uncertainty that comes with sport, that makes it so compelling, that we all love, is actually damaging to the business models of these huge clubs.
“So the scheme is designed to take away that uncertainty, to give predictability to their businesses so that, if they’re badly managed or have a poor year, they’re still in the premier tournament.
“Does that sound like sport or football to you? To me it sounds a grotesque concept.”
It’s difficult to disagree with Purslow’s assessment, and it’s one that is shared by fans, pundits and governing bodies alike as it remains to be seen if further action is taken to prevent this from going ahead or to put limitations on which competitions these clubs can be involved in outside of their new creation.
Villa could obviously benefit in terms of moving up the standings if you take away those six teams and could compete for major honours moving forward if it was decided to ban the clubs mentioned above from taking part in the Premier League.
However, there are significant negatives that also come with those scenarios and there is also a long way to go and plenty more discussions to be had before we reach a point like that.
Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that Purslow and Villa aren’t in favour of the concept and will perhaps communicate their disdain for the idea if presented with an opportunity to do so moving forward.