Chelsea and City were among the 12 teams who announced on Sunday that they were setting up a rival to UEFA’s Champions League without the need for annual qualification.
The company set up to run the new league is headquartered in Madrid and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is the league’s first chairman. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that the clubs cannot be “half in, half out” of the established framework. Johnson held a meeting with representatives from the English Football Association, the English Premier League and fan groups where he confirmed the government would not stand by to allow the creation of a closed shop.
However, the sport’s governing bodies, other teams and fan organizations say it will increase the power and wealth of the elite clubs and the closed structure of the league goes against European football’s long-standing model. As well as the ‘Big Six’ from England and Real, Italian clubs Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan signed up along with Spain’s Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.