EPL’s rebels without a clause

THE Premier League is set to change its rules to ensure that no member club will ever be able to join a breakaway European league again.

A governance review being carried out by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters, in conjunction with the FA, will now focus specifically on ending any such future threat of an English team signing up to a rebel competition.

Under the Premier League’s rule L9, there is a list of other competitions that member clubs are permitted to play in, but the new rule will end any possible ambiguities around new competitions outside the existing football structures.

Some top-flight clubs are still pushing for the “big six” – Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs – to face sanctions for joining the Super League on Sunday, only to pull out 48 hours later after a storm of criticism from their own fans, as well as threatened action from the government and the football authorities.

One club insider said rule L9 was “clearly broken”, as any Premier League member club needs written approval by the board to enter a new competition, and therefore the rebel clubs should face sanctions.

There is another view, however, that the clubs have been so devastated by the events of the past week – losing the goodwill of their fans, no longer being part of the European Club Association, losing key committee positions on the Premier League – that no longer being able to use the threat of a Super League is, in itself, enough of a punishment.

“The ‘big six’ have used that as their final bargaining chip for years – now it’s worthless,” a source said.

The moves came on the day that angry fans broke into Manchester United’s training ground and supporters also confronted Josh Kroenke, the Arsenal director and son of the majority shareholder, Stan, at a fans’ forum.

Despite the anger in England, Barcelona and Real Madrid are still refusing to concede defeat, even though the La Liga rivals are the only two of the 12 clubs still involved. Real president Florentino Perez, the supposed first chairman of the Super League, appeared to blame Manchester City for creating the “avalanche” that led to the clubs abandoning the project.

Perez told Spanish radio: “There was one of the English clubs who didn’t seem so interested and that spread. And then the avalanche started.”

The 12 elite clubs wanted to boost their revenues by replacing the Champions League with a 20-team tournament.