SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar has called for football to be democratised after what he labeled a “cartel” of European clubs attempted to launch a breakaway attempt.
Yesterday, 12 European clubs including six from the English Premier League, united football fans in their anger at plans to break away from governing body Uefa’s European competitions and set up the European Super League where the founding members will compete every year, regardless of merit.
The money-making attempt has faced the almost-unanimous scorn of football fans with Boris Johnson also criticising the move.
The Scottish Labour leader has now blasted the attempt and called for the money-making element to be taken out of the sport.
READ MORE: European Super League: Everything you need to know
He said: “I can’t under-estimate or talk down how much anger there is amongst football fans – not just in terms of English football fans, I think football fans across the UK including Scotland.
“This is clearly an attempt to create a cartel in our football in Europe – a cartel that will hoard power, hoard money, hoard resource and that will come at the detriment of our national game and every national game across Europe.
“It goes against the very principles of fair play, disrespects grass-roots football and disrespects the fanbase of these clubs.”
Mr Sarwar said he shares the frustration of football fans, including those of the clubs involved.
He added: “I can understand why the fans of these clubs themselves are so furious about this.
READ MORE: European Super League: Shameless attempt to uglify the beautiful game must be resisted
“It shows you why we need to democratise football, we need to democratise the game – we need to make sure that it has fans and spectators at its heart and fair play at its heart.
“I think what the big clubs are attempting to do is to remove that principle and instead create their own powerbase and their own cartel across Europe. I think that needs to be robustly challenged.”
UK Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has warned that the super league proposal “ignores the fans” adding that the plan “risks shutting the door on fans for good, reducing them to mere spectators and consumers”.
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