- Football fans say they will disown their clubs if plans for a
European Super League go ahead. - "I will be boycotting football and will not renew my season ticket at Arsenal," one fan told Insider.
- Another said the plans will make football "vapid and inconsequential."
Football fans have told Insider that they will disown their clubs if controversial plans for a European Super League go ahead.
On Sunday, 12 of Europe's biggest teams announced they had agreed to join the breakaway league, that will act as a competitor to the UEFA Champions League.
Six Premier League clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham - announced they had signed up, alongside FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Juventus.
The clubs involved in the league, which is being funded by Wall Street bank JPMorgan, are to be given a split cash sum of $4.2 billion just for joining, while they are also will set to make billions in profit in the coming years.
With no relegation and promotion, clubs in the Super League will also not have to worry about having potential competitors - many of whom are still struggling financially amid the coronavirus pandemic - take their spot.
Plans for the league have not gone down well with large swathes of the football community, with a number of fans telling Insider on Monday that they plan to stop supporting their teams if the league goes ahead.
Max Ashley, an Arsenal fan, told Insider he will no longer follow the North London club if the Super League is formed, citing the "greed" involved in forming the breakaway competition.
"I will be boycotting football and will not renew my season ticket at Arsenal," he said. "For the first time ever I can truly say I'm ashamed of my club. It's pure greed at its finest."
'Vapid and inconsequential'
Jaunté Cole, another Arsenal fan, said: "If it goes ahead, I'll happily just be a fan of football who happens to be from North London. It makes football vapid and inconsequential, and I am ashamed of Arsenal."
Outside of London, the feeling is the same. One lifelong Manchester United fan who now lives in Sweden told Insider that he will no longer spend any of his own money on the team, and said the league's formation is "akin to an oligarchy."
"There's a very clear and malicious intent within this push for an elitist league," fan Cameron Thorne said.
"I now feel that the only tangible way I can take a stand is to make sure none of my own money lands in the hands of the club."
"This means that I will no longer be a member of the Manchester United official club, buy the shirt, watch live matches, or pay for MUTV."
Another Manchester United fan, Aaran Weston, said: "Football would just become irrelevant. It will ruin the game top to bottom.
"If fewer people watch the Premier League, the lower clubs won't get the money they get now so will go bust. It's a shambles. I wouldn't really care about United anymore."
As well as individual fans being staunchly against the plans for the ESL, supporters associations have also registered their outrage.
Manchester City's official supporters club on Sunday night posted a statement alongside a cartoon picture of the Grim Reaper in which it said the new league is "motivated by greed."
We Are 1894, another City supporters group tweeted simply saying: "Hang your heads in shame," tagging the official club account.
-1894 (@WeAre1894) April 18, 2021
Atletico Fans, the largest English-language fan group for Atletico Madrid has also voiced its discontent.
Not everyone is ready to cancel their support for their teams just yet, however. Hunter Godson, who supports Tottenham, says he will wait to see how things play out.
"In truth I think it's too early to say," he said. "We'd need to see the sanctions from UEFA."
In response to Sunday's announcement, UEFA, European
They also threatened to expel those involved from any other domestic competitions, as well as ban players from representing their national teams.
"[We] will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever," they said.
"We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit; it cannot be any other way."