Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta revealed he received a personal apology from the club’s owners as he saw supporters send the “strongest message” in the history of football to bring to an end plans for a breakaway European Super League.
The Gunners were one of six Premier League clubs to announce on Sunday night that they had signed an agreement to form a new competition with other elite teams from across Europe.
The response from supporters and the wider footballing world was almost completely negative to the extent that, by Tuesday evening, Arsenal – as well as Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – withdrew from the process.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas, though, was scathing about the ailing project, which still has Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona attached to it despite the majority of the founder clubs withdrawing in the last two days.
“These plans have dissolved like a lump of sugar,” Tebas said. “If it (the Super League) was good for football, as (Real Madrid president) Florentino Perez has said, they wouldn’t have done it behind our backs.”
Tebas, though, resisted calls for retribution.
“Everyone wants to cut people’s heads off. We have to have a procedure and we have to see how it looks in the end,” he said. “These clubs have been sanctioned by their own fans.”
