Andrea Agnelli confirms European Super League clubs still united in rebel plan

Andrea Agnelli has confirmed that the clubs who failed to launch the European Super League last year are still united by contracts in plans for a reboot.

The Juventus chairman has been one of the leading voices for the controversial competition, which was announced in April last year to challenge UEFA 's reforms for the Champions League.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur all signed up but 'pulled out' after fierce fan protests.

But now, at the Financial Times Business of Football summit, Agnelli confirmed that plans remain in place thanks to contracts which the Premier League 'Big Six' and six others signed up to.

"The Super League hasn't failed. In my opinion, European football is in desperate need of reform," the Italian was quoted as saying.

UEFA knew that I as Juventus president was working on something different. The Super League is a collective work of 12 teams, not one person. 12 clubs signed a 120-page contract and it is still binding for 11 of those clubs."

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Headlines were made earlier on during Thursday's summit, with La Liga chief Javier Tebas accusing those who want to reignite the European Super League of "lying more than [Vladimir] Putin."

"He [Agnelli] will have to explain it, if he doesn't explain it, he will be lying," Tebas began. "A week ago, I think it was in his house there was a meeting of the three teams.

"Now they are saying they don't want fixed slots, Real Madrid are saying they don't want the first slot. It is false.

"It is very difficult for the English teams to form part of this competition so they are creating a European league with two categories and the national leagues are the second categories.

"There will be two or three people relegated but there will always be the typical teams - Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid. It will be difficult for them to go down.

"They have made enemies of UEFA and the Premier League, whose growth goes against their model. We know this, we have got this information. They can say what they want but this is what they are working on.

"Every time I read about it, I get cross, I think they lie more than Putin to be honest.

"They are insisting that introducing this will not affect national leagues. We must be idiots, we must be dumb. But we all say it hurts the national leagues.

"For me it is an insult, I feel humiliated. They will do huge harm."

Responding to Tebas' comments on Thursday evening, Agnelli bluntly stated: "I will not take any questions on Tebas, his words speak for themselves."

Meanwhile, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has accused the Agnelli and co of using Russia 's invasion on Ukraine as a distraction.

"They can play their own competition, nobody forbids them. But if they play their own competition, they can't play in our competition," Ceferin reaffirmed.

"First, they launched their nonsense of the idea in the middle of a pandemic. Now, we read articles that they are planning to launch another idea now in the middle of a war.

"We are helping in a terrible situation, they are working on a project like that."