Everton have released a statement calling for the Premier League Big Six to immediately withdraw from the proposed European Super League.
News has filtered through over the past 72 hours that the so-called Big Six in the Premier League would be forming part of a breakaway tournament, the European Super League, from which they would never be relegated, with smaller clubs never to be invited.
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There is such a great deal wrong with the plans that we need not go into the details. All that matters is ensuring that this doesn’t come to fruition and that the clubs involved pull a U-turn immediately.
Everton, who would be one of the Premier League’s frontrunners for the Champions League, in the event that the Big Six stopped competing in the competition, have now had their say on the matter.
A statement from the board, as has been published on their official website, says the following:
“Everton is saddened and disappointed to see proposals of a breakaway league pushed forward by six clubs.
Six clubs acting entirely in their own interests.
Six clubs tarnishing the reputation of our league and the game.
Six clubs choosing to disrespect every other club with whom they sit around the Premier League table.
Six clubs taking for granted and even betraying the majority of football supporters across our country and beyond.
At this time of national and international crisis – and a defining period for our game – clubs should be working together collaboratively with the ideals of our game and its supporters uppermost.
Instead, these clubs have been secretly conspiring to break away from a football pyramid that has served them so well.
And in that Pyramid Everton salutes EVERY club, be it Leicester City, Accrington Stanley, Gillingham, Lincoln City, Morecambe, Southend United, Notts County and the rest who have, with their very being, enriched the lives of their supporters throughout the game’s history. And vice versa.
The self-proclaimed Super Six appear intent on disenfranchising supporters across the game – including their own – by putting the very structure that underpins the game we love under threat.
The backlash is understandable and deserved – and has to be listened to.
This preposterous arrogance is not wanted anywhere in football outside of the clubs that have drafted this plan.
On behalf of everyone associated with Everton, we respectfully ask that the proposals are immediately withdrawn and that the private meetings and subversive practises that have brought our beautiful game to possibly its lowest ever position in terms of trust end now.
Finally we would ask the owners, chairmen, and Board members of the six clubs to remember the privileged position they hold – not only as custodians of their clubs but also custodians of the game. The responsibility they carry should be taken seriously.
We urge them all to consider what they wish their legacy to be.”
Good on Everton, and we’ll be crossing our fingers that their strong words have the desired impact.
The Toffees are a perfect example of a historic football club whose future would be compromised by these plans to steal football away from the working man.