Rio Ferdinand has joined an ever-growing list of high-profile figures in football to condemn the European Super League bombshell plans.
On Sunday, it was announced that Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City will be among 12 clubs founding a new rival competition to the Champions League.
The news has led to a huge backlash among fans, with Gary Neville slamming the plans as an ‘absolute joke’ and calling for the Premier League’s big six to be punished.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as well as several governing bodies, also spoke out against the ‘damaging’ proposals, which would change the face of English football forever.
And Man United icon Ferdinand has now joined the ranks speaking out against the breakaway.
Ferdinand, a pundit on BT Sport’s coverage of the FA Cup semi-final between Leicester and Southampton, said: “This is, for me, a war on football. It’s a disgrace, it’s embarrassing and goes against everything football is about.
AFP
“It’s a closed shop for these bigwigs and it’s completely and utterly only about one thing and that’s money. The rich getting richer and the others not even being considered.
“How they’ve got the audacity to do it in the climate we’re in at the moment… the pandemic around the world. People are struggling all over the world, and this lot…colluding with this idea that they’ve hatched – and to break it like this.
“The element of being anti-competitive goes against everything football is about. It screams (that) these people have no idea what football’s about. It’s purely a business transaction. The people who make this game special are not being considered.”
On the United link, Ferdinand continued: “There’s been so much thrown at the owners these past years. This situation now, to be part of a breakaway group and leave everybody for dead, that’s an embarrassment. I can’t believe it.
“I’m a United fan and I love the club but I can’t stand by and support something like that.”
Ferdinand’s comments came after his former manager, the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson, warned that the proposals would be a ‘move away from 70 years of football history’.
‘Talk of a Super League is a move away from 70 years of European club football. Both as a player for a provincial team Dunfermline in the 60s and as a manager at Aberdeen winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup, for a small provincial club in Scotland it was like climbing Mount Everest,” he told Reuters.
“Everton are spending £500 million to build a new stadium with the ambition to play in Champions League. Fans all over love the competition as it is,” he said.
“In my time at United, we played in four Champions League finals and they were always the most special of nights.
“I’m not sure Manchester United are involved in this, as I am not part of the decision making process,” he added.
Former England striker Gary Lineker, meanwhile, wrote on social media: “Sense this Super League plot will die on its preposterous and avaricious a***.”
from Football - news, transfers, fixtures, scores, pictures https://ift.tt/3tx4ctw
via IFTTT
No Comment