The controversial European Super League project has reportedly been rebranded as the Unify League with the promise it will be free for viewers to watch.
It follows the original bombshell Super League proposal, which was hastily ditched in 2021 after fans staged protests over the notion that certain clubs would automatically qualify each year.
The new project has scrapped that system and will propose annual qualification for each of the four leagues within the Unify League, according to The Telegraph.
The competition would reportedly be streamed live via a branded ‘Unified’ platform, which would follow a similar model to Netflix. It is said that it would be free at the point of use with a relatively high level of advertising content.
Alternatively, viewers could choose to pay a subscription fee to eliminate the advertising in a similar way to Spotify and YouTube.
The plan is to have 96 teams split across four tiers. The top two divisions, the Star League and Gold League, would each consist of 16 teams divided in both cases into two groups of eight.
Those eight clubs would play each other twice, with the top two teams from each of the four groups advancing to a final eight.
The final stages would begin with two-legged quarter-final ties before the single-leg semi finals, which would take place at a neutral venue days before the eventual final. The third and fourth tiers, the Blue and Union Leagues, would operate in a similar format.
Just two clubs have explicitly pledged to support to the Unify League proposal, with Real Madrid and Barcelona the only backers. In contrast, the original Super League plan involved 12 clubs including the ‘big six’ from the Premier League.
The company behind the rebranded league, A22 Sports, is expected to seek permission from UEFA to put the plans into action. A22 reportedly believes UEFA will be obliged to do so under the December 2023 ruling from the European courts.
That ruling held that FIFA and UEFA would breach competition law if they failed to ensure that their authorisation rules for rival tournaments were transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate.
John Hahn, co-founder of A22, is quoted as saying: “We have listened intently to a broad group of clubs, leagues and fans and with these changes we believe we have a lot of support.
“We are not expecting the public support of clubs at this time. Logically, that will come following the official recognition of the Unify League.”
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