The news that 12 of Europe's biggest clubs have planned to launch a breakaway European Super League (ESL) has triggered a storm in the football world.
As confirmed by the found clubs in a joint statement, AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur have agreed to launch the ESL to replace the Champions League.
So what would this competition look like
According to the promoters, the ESL would operate in the form of a regular-season between 20 clubs.
The 12 clubs and plus three unnamed clubs that are expected to join the founding teams soon, would be the 15 clubs that would automatically qualify each year and the other five would be drawn from invitations through a system based on their performance from the previous season in the domestic leagues.
At the end of this first phase starting in August, end of season play-offs would be organised until May to award the trophy.
Games will be staged in midweek, and the club would be split into two groups of 10 that would play each other home and away.
The top three from each group would progress to the quarterfinals, which means there would be no round-of-16.
They would be a two-leg knockout before a single-leg final in May at a neutral venue from the quarterfinals stage.
Why are they doing this
The founding clubs say they are doing it because of money that would results in greater revenue distribution throughout the game.
They believe that football would be more sustainable for the long-term with the revenue generated from the ESL.
The founding clubs will receive a one-time payment of the order of 3.5 billion euros.
This represents a more significant revenue than currently generated by UEFA for all of its club competitions -- Champions League, Europa League and European Super Cup -- which generated 3.2 billion euros in TV revenue in 2018-2019.
The founding clubs say the global pandemic has "accelerated the instability in the existing European football economic model" and as such, they want the money from the ESL.
"In recent months, extensive dialogue has taken place with football stakeholders regarding the future format of European competitions," they said in the statement.
"The founding clubs believe the solutions proposed following these talks do not solve fundamental issues, including the need to provide higher-quality matches and additional financial resources for the overall football pyramid."
UEFA worked to reform their elite club competition, the Champions League and had just announced their plans to expand it from 32 teams to 36. That would be a minimum of 10 games for each team.
But the 12 founding clubs do not believe in that reform.
Reactions
News of the ESL has triggered a seismic reaction from the football world. There have been wild spread criticisms of the concept.
The Super League said they hoped to work with UEFA and FIFA to avoid a civil war in the sport. Still, the governing bodies and the respective football associations in Europe have all threatened to ban all the clubs and players that partake in the ESL.