Sources: Update on breakaway plot as new Celtic and Rangers documents leaked
Fifa’s new agreement with the European Club Association is a major blow to the Super League project which has promised to double Rangers and Celtic’s European revenue, sources have told Football Insider.
The ECA announced on Monday (27 March) that it had signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding with world football’s governing body, reaffirming the pair’s long-standing alliance.
The agreement – which was inked at the ECA General Assembly in Budapest, Hungary – will see Fifa and the ECA continue to collaborate closely on a range of governance matters.
It emerged earlier this year that Fifa has flirted with the idea of supporting the Super League’s plot to resurrect the breakaway competition aborted in April 2021.
That is in stark contrast to the stance adopted by the ECA, who have consistently been one of the loudest and most emphatic voices in the pushback against the Super League.
Football Insider has been told by a governance source that the renewed ECA-Fifa partnership is another nail in the coffin of the controversial project which now looks increasingly unlikely to see the light of day.
The Super League retains the support of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus and has launched an aggressive PR campaign under its overseers A22 Sports Management.
But it may be forced to fold altogether if the European Court of Justice upholds the advice of its advocate general Athanasios Rantos in a crucial case later this year.
Rantos argued that FIFA and UEFA are entitled to penalise clubs who join breakaway leagues, which would all but end A22’s hopes of relaunching the competition under a revised format.
A22 CEO Bernd Reichart recently appealed directly to Rangers and Celtic, saying there is a place for Scottish clubs in a multi-tiered Super League.
Documents seen by Football Insider show that A22 forecast that they can double the European revenues of participating teams – and that would mean Super League revenues of around £60m for the two Glasgow clubs.
In other news, Rangers close in on marquee striker signing.