New interesting background about the breakaway Super League project was revealed by the New York Times.
As the American newspaper writes in a long article, from the pages of the project that saw Juventus , Inter and Milan as protagonists, FIFA emerges , which was informed of the facts. Entered with a code name, but clearly identifiable, the highest body of world football, chaired by Gianni Infantino, who publicly took sides against the Super League, was informed about everything, with the Swiss president who was aware of everything, with his subordinates who had held several talks on the subject in the previous months.
The Super League’s discussions with FIFA began in 2019. They were led by a group known as A22, a consortium of advisers headed by the Spain-based financiers Anas Laghrari and John Hahn and charged with putting together the Super League project. A22 officials held meetings with some of Infantino’s closest aides, including FIFA’s deputy secretary general, Mattias Grafstrom.
In at least one of those meetings, the breakaway group proposed that, in exchange for FIFA’s endorsement of its project, the Super League would agree to the participation of as many as a dozen of its marquee teams in an annual FIFA-backed World Cup for clubs. The teams also agreed to waive payments they would have earned by taking part, a potential windfall for FIFA of as much as $1 billion each year. After their initial meetings, the advisers reported back that they had found a receptive audience.
Obtaining FIFA’s support was not merely a hedge; the organization’s consent was required to prevent the project from being mired in costly and lengthy litigation and to preclude any punishments for the players who took part.
Infanitno was open to this possibility, which is why JP Morgan later took the field, convinced in the goodness of the operation. Then, the rest is news, with Infantino who, contacted by Ceferin, denies any involvement in the project, complete with a joint press release. A story, that of the Superlega, which is not over yet.
source: www.nytimes.com
