Barcelona have announced their official withdrawal from the European Super League in the latest blow to a project which has struggled to get off the ground.
The Super League originally launched in 2021 with the support of 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs, but a fan backlash in England quickly saw the six Premier League teams — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur — withdraw.
Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan and, eventually, Juventus followed suit, leaving just Real Madrid and Barça as the faces of the project.
However, following the souring of the relationship with Madrid in recent months, coupled with the Barça president, Joan Laporta, re-establishing links with UEFA and the European Football Clubs [EFC], the Catalan side have now also stepped away.
«Barcelona hereby announces that [on Saturday] it has formally notified the European Super League Company and the clubs involved of its withdrawal from the European Super League project,» the LaLiga leaders confirmed in a statement.
0:47
Barcelona vs. Atletico Madrid in semi-finals
Samuel Marsden previews what to expect from Barcelona heading into the Copa Del Ray Semis.
Following the initial fallout to the launch of the Super League and the fact it was perceived to be a closed shop for the founding members, it relaunched in 2024 as the Unify League.
Super League promoter A22 Sports said at the time it had submitted a proposal to UEFA and FIFA asking football’s governing bodies to formally recognise its right to organise a new European competition.
The move followed a ruling by the European Court of Justice in December 2023 — after the Super League sought protection for its plans under EU law — which held that UEFA and FIFA had been «abusing a dominant position,» calling their rules governing new formats «arbitrary.»
UEFA subsequently said it believed rules brought in since the Super League’s attempted launch in 2021 ensured it now complied with EU law.
Despite A22 Sports’ plans, though, there has been little appetite for the Super League around Europe following changes to the Champions League format in recent years.
The switch from eight groups of four to the Swiss model — 36 teams taking part in one big league — and the tweak in how revenue is distributed has been well received by most clubs so far.
– Barcelona’s Hansi Flick backs Deco stay ahead of elections
– LaLiga table
The relationship between Barça and Madrid, meanwhile, has soured in recent months, notably between the two presidents, Laporta and Florentino Pérez.
As allies in the Super League project, they put their differences aside as they pursued a competition they believed would benefit them financially as many European leagues struggle to compete with the riches of the Premier League.
Those differences have bubbled to the surface again recently, with Pérez and Madrid pushing for action to be taken against Barça in the Negreira case, an ongoing investigation related to payments the Blaugrana made to the vice president of the refereeing commission in Spain between 2001 and 2018.
In October, Laporta confirmed that his plan was to re-establish links with UEFA and EFC at a meeting in Rome.
