Real Madrid believe Manchester City and the five other Premier League clubs that signed up for the breakaway European Super League remain liable for a share of its setup costs despite walking away in 2021, according to reports.
It feels like a lifetime ago, but in the spring of 2021 the biggest controversy Manchester City supporters had to worry about was when the European Super League arrived and fell apart within 72 hours.
Confronted with a furious reaction from supporters and the wider game, City were among the first to abandon the breakaway almost as quickly as they had joined it, and the project swiftly collapsed.
More than five years on, the saga still keeps returning to haunt the English clubs involved. Real Madrid, one of the few founding clubs still trying to keep the idea alive, now want Manchester City and their fellow rebels to foot the bill for a competition that never saw so much as a ball kicked.
What do Real Madrid want?
Madrid are adamant the six Premier League sides that put pen to paper should still cover a share of the project’s initial costs, even though all of them pulled out within days of the initial announcement.
As reported by The Athletic, Real Madrid consider the six English founders - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - liable for costs that one source has put at up to €80 million (£67.3m) in total.
Real Madrid, along with Barcelona and Juventus, have so far been responsible for the promotional costs tied to the plan since its unveiling in April 2021.
Their argument traces back to a reported shareholders’ agreement the clubs signed with the European Super League Company, the Spain-based holding firm behind the venture, with any money owed said to be due to that company.
A binding contract?
Whether the clubs can actually be forced to pay up is likely to depend on the wording of that agreement. Signatories committed to “jointly own and manage” the competition, and the question is whether that phrase carried financial obligations that still exist despite their withdrawal.
It is an argument Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez has always said he is willing to have. In the aftermath of the 2021 collapse, he was blunt about where the clubs stood.
“I’m not going to take my time to explain what a binding contract is here. But the fact is, the clubs can’t leave.”
The Super League’s long afterlife
The breakaway has been repackaged more than once since, from a 64-club format in 2023 to the four-tier, 96-club “Unify League” floated in 2024, and Madrid’s resolve has not faded.
The club are set to appoint Bernd Reichart, former chief executive of A22 - the management company driving the project - to lead Real Madrid’s business operations, once he has, in the words of a Madrid source, “finished his affairs at A22”.
A bill City could do without
Manchester City and the other five English clubs have been invited to respond, and none is likely to give in and pay without a fight. The demand comes at an unfortunate time for City in particular, with the club already deep in the appeal against their Premier League financial verdict.
Whether Madrid’s claim ever reaches a courtroom or fizzles out like so much of the Super League story already has, the bill for a competition that lasted barely two days may land on City’s doorstep.