Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos has supported the new plans to launch a breakaway European Super League (ESL) and said UEFA is “by no means a great Samaritan for football fans.”
Earlier this month, it was announced that ESL planned to launch a new competition that could include as many as 80 teams in the future.
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Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus were among 12 clubs to announce a breakaway Super League in April 2021. But the move collapsed within 48 hours after an outcry from fans, governments and players forced Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid to pull out.
As Madrid continue to push the ESL with Barcelona and Juventus, Kroos has come out in favour of the breakaway competition and said it is destined to take place.
“I think we will see the Super League. And I believe so for several reasons,” he told podcast Einfach mal Luppen. “The idea of the Super League has changed and deserves to be heard.
“If you look carefully from both angles, you will see that UEFA is by no means a great Samaritan for football fans and that the Super League has no plans, at least in the second attempt, to exclude any team, because there will be no permanent founding members.
“It is a sports competition, an open tournament, but managed by the clubs and not by UEFA, because these clubs believe that they do not need UEFA for that. I think this deserves at least one chance.”
