Inter’s participation in a new European Super League is an extra reason for owners Suning not to sell the club, according to a leading Italian journalist today.
The Nerazzurri were one of 12 leading clubs last night to announce they would join the franchise as founding members, in an elite group which also includes AC Milan and Juventus.
Suning are known to be battling liquidity issues at Inter and were rumoured earlier this year to be considering an outright sale, but this now seems a remote possibility.
“This is a new scenario that would lead Suning to not sell Inter anymore,” Il Sole 24 Ore reporter Marco Bellinazzo told Radio 24 during ‘Tutti Convocati’.
Inter, AC Milan and Juventus would be joined in the Super League by six Premier League clubs (Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham) and three La Liga teams (Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid).
Bellinazzo explained that the decision to create the new franchise came as a result of UEFA’s new Champions League reforms (announced today), which did not satisfy the 12 clubs in question.
“Steven Zhang and Andrea Agnelli have often made the comparison between football and NFL,” he explained.
“NFL is worth €8 billion whereas the Champions League and Europa League tournaments only create €3 billion for football.
“These clubs want to increase the value of football; it’s not a tantrum, it’s a genuine necessity.
“The alternative to the Super League is a big scaling down of operations; clubs will lose twice as much money next year as they did this year.
“They didn’t like the new Champions League format and so the clubs have made this break with UEFA.
“One of the clubs’ grievances is that UEFA haven’t conceded anything to them in terms of governance, whereas they wanted to have active roles with the stakeholders.
“The talks began back in October really, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this whole process.”
