The six Premier League clubs originally involved in the European Super League are planning to ask Florentino Perez to dissolve the company created to launch the project, multiple sources have told ESPN.
On April 18, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Chelsea — alongside Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid — announced their participation in the Super League, naming Perez as president.
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The scheme was intended as a replacement for UEFA’s Champions League, but just days later, the six English clubs, Inter, Milan and Atletico decided to withdraw in the face of widespread opposition.
Madrid, Barca and Juve were left as the three remaining clubs wishing to push ahead with the plans, but the company which the 12 founding clubs set up to administer the Super League still exists.
Sources told ESPN that in the next few days, the Premier League clubs — having notified Inter, Milan and Atletico — will formally ask Perez to dissolve that company.
Once the Madrid president has received that request, a source told ESPN, he would have between two and four weeks to call a board meeting of all members to disband the Super League.
The source added that if Perez were to refuse to do so, the six Premier League clubs would consider taking legal action to force the issue.
A source at one of the English clubs stressed to ESPN the legal complexities involved, with uncertainty surrounding how many clubs are required to come together to trigger a dissolution and whether they can do so without resorting to the courts.
UEFA has accepted the steps taken by the nine founding clubs to distance themselves from the project, but has begun disciplinary proceedings against Madrid, Barca and Juve.
Last month, ESPN reported that the three remaining clubs were facing a punishment that could include being banned from the Champions League for two seasons.
This week, La Liga president Javier Tebas — a vocal critic of the Super League — said that he believed the clubs could be excluded from Europe’s top club competition.
“Rather than a punishment, UEFA could not register Madrid and Barcelona in the Champions League. I think they could be left out,” Tebas told Spain’s GOL TV.
However, the clubs have remained defiant, with Barca president Joan Laporta having said he remains in favour of the plans and would be willing to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the face of a punishment.
“We are not planning to apologise for thinking,” he said. “If they punish us, we’ll go to CAS and we’re sure that we’ll win.
“There was pressure from governments, countries and UEFA itself and the format of the competition doesn’t exist. Now there’s a company with the rights, which have been recognised by a judge, and the judge has sent the case to [the European Court of Justice] to confirm that we have this right.
“If we wanted to organise the competition, we could. We will sit down with UEFA, FIFA and everyone. We defend it because we have this problem and we’re suffering. UEFA say that it’s going to solve it, but it hasn’t. We have to look for a better, more attractive format.”
Earlier on Friday, Juve president Andrea Agnelli had said the ESL proposal was a “cry for help” in the face of a “system which is heading towards insolvency.”
ESPN’s Mark Ogden, James Olley and Alex Kirkland contributed to this report