Shares in football clubs were sharply lower on Wednesday, after the European Super League was left on the brink of collapse just days after it was first announced.
On Sunday night, 12 European football clubs confirmed they were forming a breakaway league. The clubs included Italy’s Juventus, British clubs Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, and Spain’s Real Madrid and Barcelona. The deal was to be financed by JP Morgan.
Shares in listed clubs initially rallied, but the controversial move was met with widespread condemnation. UK prime minister Boris Johnson insisted the government would “look at everything we can do” to block the proposal, and a fan-led review of British football was announced by culture secretary Oliver Dowden.
British fans demonstrated outside club grounds, and by Tuesday night, all six English clubs who had signed up announced they were withdrawing. Manchester United vice-chair Ed Woodward also resigned. A number of the clubs apologised to fans for their involvement, along with Liverpool’s US owner John W Henry.
Shares, which had come under increasingly pressure as opposition to the league grew, fell sharply on Wednesday morning in response. By 1000 GMT, Juventus was trading 12% lower, while Manchester United’s US-listed shares, which closed down 6% on Tuesday, were off a further 2% in pre-market trading. Although not associated with the ESL, Germany’s Borussia Dortmund was off 2%, while Ajax was largely flat.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: “It’s been a total debacle for the clubs – investors may be cautious about investing in football teams; they usually are. While the ‘big’ six English clubs have pulled out, the Italian and Spanish teams are still committed on paper. I wonder how long they can eke this out.”
Andrea Agnelli, ESL vice chair and Juventus chairman, initially insisted that the formation of the new league would still go ahead. However, by mid-morning on Wednesday Reuters was reporting that he had since conceded that the withdrawal of the English clubs meant the project was now unlikely to proceed.
