Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid will not face further punishment from UEFA for their role in forming the now failed European Super League, the European football governing body has announced while revealing that the six premier league clubs involved in plotting the scheme will also not pay fines.
Barcelona, Juventus and Real Madrid are the only founding members of the breakaway competition that have so far refused to abandon the project.
UEFA threatened the clubs with legal action and planned to suspend them from this year’s Champions League, but it was announced in May that legal proceedings would be delayed after a Madrid court accused the governing body of acting “outside the rule of law”.
The UEFA Appeals Body has now announced that the case against the three clubs will be dropped.
A statement from the governing body read: “Following the stay of proceedings against FC Barcelona, Juventus FC and Real Madrid CF, in the matter related to a potential violation of UEFA’s legal framework in connection with the so-called ‘Super League’, the UEFA Appeals Body has declared today the proceedings null and void as if the proceedings had never been opened.”
The European Superleague was a controversial plot to form a new competition that would challenge the Champions League for supremacy in European football. It was announced in April.
Nine other clubs which include Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Inter announced that they would also join the Super League as founding members. But the plan quickly fell apart amid protests from fans as UEFA and the national football associations across Europe spoke out against the idea.
The Premier League teams, Atletico, Milan and Inter all announced they would be pulling out of the plan within days of the initial announcement. The clubs that pulled out agreed to pay a total of £22 million ($31m) to UEFA but now the governing body has also cancelled the fines.