{"id":461912,"date":"2026-02-08T14:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/461912\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T14:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:55:11","slug":"barcelona-impact-real-madrid-with-major-european-super-league-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/461912\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona Impact Real Madrid With Major European Super League Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barcelona have officially withdrawn from the proposed European Super League, leaving rivals Real Madrid as the only club still signed up to the project.<\/p>\n

The Catalan giants were one of 12 clubs, including the Premier League’s \u2018big six,\u2019 that had proposed to break away from the governance of UEFA to create a new midweek competition that would rival the Champions League.<\/p>\n

Significant backlash saw the project immediately fall apart\u2014Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus were the only teams not to back away\u2014but the management company behind the idea, A22 Sports Management, have continued scheming in the background in the hope of their idea eventually coming to fruition.<\/p>\n

But a short club statement on Saturday said: \u201cFC Barcelona hereby announces that today it has formally notified the European Super League Company and the clubs involved of its withdrawal from the European Super League project.\u201d That, in theory, should be that.<\/p>\n

The End of the European Super League Once and for All?\"Florentino<\/p>\n

Club presidents Florentino P\u00e9rez (left) and Joan Laporta had formed somewhat of an alliance. | Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Barcelona president Joan Laporta said in October 2025 that the club wanted to rejoin the European Football Clubs (EFC), which they, along with the 12 clubs who\u2019d signed up, were expelled from. ESPN<\/a> report that Laporta also attempted to build bridges with UEFA and La Liga president Javier Tebas\u2014it\u2019s thought he was successful in doing so.<\/p>\n

That was the first real sign that Barcelona had started to lose faith in the project, though tensions with rivals Real Madrid<\/a> have been bubbling away under the surface. The European Super League project served as a mutual interest, with both clubs wanting to battle the financial might of the Premier League, but Real Madrid president Florentino P\u00e9rez hasn\u2019t always been able to bite his tongue.<\/p>\n

He finally spoke out on the Negreira case\u2014Barcelona were found to have paid companies related to the former vice president of referees, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Enr\u00edquez Negreira, \u20ac8.4 million ($9.9 million) from 2001\u201318\u2014in November, saying it \u201cisn\u2019t normal\u201d for the Catalans to have made payments that \u201ccoincided with the best results in Barcelona\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez also boldly proclaimed at Real Madrid\u2019s annual assembly that the 15-time Champions League<\/a> winners \u201care the only club that has the institutional strength and wealth to take on this battle.\u201d <\/p>\n

And if that wasn\u2019t enough, P\u00e9rez also stated, despite the withdrawal of all other participants, including Juventus in June 2024, that the ESL was \u201can essential project for football\u201d which gave Real Madrid the right \u201cto be compensated for our losses [alluding to UEFA\u2019s conduct], and to arrange a competition in the future. We will tirelessly pursue both.\u201d<\/p>\n

A22 Sports have endlessly changed the parameters of the proposed competition in the last four years, even rebranding it as the Unify League. By then, a four-tier format comprising of 96 clubs had been put forward. The Star and Gold sections would house 16 teams, the Blue and Union 32 each. Unsurprisingly, it hasn\u2019t moved the needle.<\/p>\n

Barcelona Focus on Conquering Existing Formats\"Raphinha<\/p>\n

Barcelona have had the wood over Real Madrid of late. | Ismael Adnan\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n

With the European Super League now officially in the rear-view mirror, Barcelona<\/a>\u2019s objectives are now clear. To re-establish themselves as the dominant force in La Liga\u2014something they achieved last season under Hansi Flick and have built on in 2025\u201326\u2014and to win the Champions League for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n

The Catalans completed a domestic treble last year and once more defeated Real Madrid to win the Spanish Super Cup in January\u2014a result that ultimately cost Xabi Alonso his job at the Bernab\u00e9u.<\/p>\n

With the Spotify Camp Nou renovations also now completed, Barcelona have the opportunity to stop the financial bleeding that has dragged the club down over the past few years. They are still gravely in debt\u2014that\u2019s unlikely to change anytime soon\u2014but regular trophy wins and the associated prize money will go a long way to reimplementing some semblance of stability. How long it takes them to become the continent\u2019s dominance force again\u2014if it\u2019s even possible\u2014remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

READ THE LATEST BARCELONA NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona have officially withdrawn from the proposed European Super League, leaving rivals Real Madrid as the only club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-461912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}