Man United have walked away from a financial jackpot amid a critical new development this week.
United fans are hoping that the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe as the club’s largest individual shareholder will be the start of a new era, one is not as profit-oriented as the Glazer regime.
The Manchester-born billionaire, who made his fortune in the chemicals industry, completed a deal to buy a 28 per cent stake in the club in February after a protracted takeover saga.
That came two months after United issued a statement distancing themselves from what has undoubtedly the low point of their two decades at the club.
United were one of the driving forces behind the breakaway Super League plot in April 2021 but were forced into a humiliating climbdown after an unprecedented fan backlash.
Now, the organisers of the Super League are attempting to launch it once again. And they have received a major boost thanks to a ruling in a Spanish court in the last 24 hours.
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What is the latest with the Super League project?
As reported by BBC Sport among others, Madrid’s commercial court has ruled that UEFA and FIFA’s attempts to block clubs joining the Super League were unjust under anti-competition and monopoly law.
The case was brought by A22 Sports Management, the company trying to relaunch the Super League in a new format which would see 64 teams compete across three divisions.
It marks a significant breakthrough for the Super League and is the first time that a landmark ruling made by the European Court of Justice in December has been applied.
Both A22 and UEFA have released statements claiming victory, as has been the case at each stage in the saga in the courts.
“The era of the monopoly is now definitively over,” claimed A22, while UEFA said the ruling “has not given the green light to, nor has it approved, projects like the Super League.”
But most experts agree that this is a major blow for UEFA and their hopes of fending off further breakaway attempts.
Football finance analysis: How much could Super League be worth?
Data seen by TBR shows that A22 have promised participating clubs that they can double the annual revenue of the Champions League, which is currently around £2billion.
A £4billion pot is the reason a lot of clubs are still committed – either publicly or privately – to the project despite the protests from supporters.
For United, that would see potential European revenues for United soar to around the £200m mark.
But it was in England where the backlash against Super League was most pronounced, with the botched attempt to join the competition sparking a huge backlash against the Glazer ownership of United.
It is therefore overwhelmingly unlikely that United and their peers in the so-called Big Six would re-join the Super League in its revised format.
That is especially true given the imminent introduction of an independent regulator for English football, which could have the power to stop clubs like United entering or exiting new competitions.