FC Barcelona is no longer one of the supporters of a European Super League. The club announced this in a single sentence.
For years, FC Barcelona had fought publicly alongside its archrival Real Madrid for a European Super League. As of Saturday, the Catalans are no longer supporting the controversial project – which they announced in a much more defensive manner. In a statement consisting of just one sentence, the club announced that the European Super League Company and the clubs still involved had been officially informed of this step.
As recently as October last year, Barca president Joan Laporta had attempted to relaunch the heavily criticized project. “We are in favor of peace, because there is a way for the Super League clubs to return to UEFA,” Laporta said after several clubs had already withdrawn and UEFA had not yet granted approval for the new competition.
The company, chaired by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, had reformed the project in 2024. The league, now promoted as the “Unify League,” was intended to be more compatible with existing competitions. Under the new format, annual rankings within the national leagues would be a prerequisite for guaranteed participation in the “Unify League.” The aim of the reform is to obtain UEFA approval. Several former co-initiators, including top Premier League clubs such as Chelsea FC and Manchester United, had already withdrawn. Atletico Madrid and three Italian clubs had also pulled out of the project.
Barca was one of twelve clubs that, virtually overnight in 2021, initiated the creation of a new European league competition for top teams, causing a brief shockwave in professional soccer. Clubs from the Bundesliga did not participate in the project from the outset.