‘Utter chaos’: The inside story of the Super League own goal

Twelve of Europe’s top clubs planned to shake up the sport. Instead, the project collapsed spectacularly in just 48 hours.

Fans of Chelsea Football Club protest against the European Super League outside Stamford Bridge.

Murad Ahmed

Updated Apr 25, 2021 – 12.27pm, first published at 11.39am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

Nasser al-Khelaifi received a series of frantic phone calls last weekend. The president of French football club Paris Saint-Germain was being pressed to sign up to a European Super League, a breakaway contest that threatened to shatter the power dynamics of the world’s favourite sport.

“It was utter chaos,” says a person with knowledge of the calls. “The lobbying went from being polite: ‘Come on guys, it’s happening,’ to switching to coercion and threats: ‘If you are not involved, you will be on your own.’”

Financial Times