Manchester City have become the first club to officially confirm their exit from the Super League.
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On Tuesday night, it became clear that the breakout competition was doomed to fail with City among a number of clubs that were reported to have cold feet.
Now the citizens have made their resignation official via a statement published on their website.
The club’s statement. Https://t.co/GeNQZn8091
– Manchester City (@ManCity) April 20, 2021
“Manchester City Football Club can confirm that it has formally adopted the procedures for withdrawing from the group developing plans for a European Super League,” it read.
It is generally expected that City’s departure will be the first of many from the short-lived competition. It has been widely reported that Chelsea – who only joined the Super League at eleven o’clock – have also started the process of withdrawal.
The news of their impending resignation was broken in the middle of a significant fan protest outside Stamford Bridge before their match against Brighton on Tuesday. Crowds held up the Chelsea team bus for about 45 minutes with supporters appearing with anti-Super League banners and expressing their contempt for owner Roman Abramovich.
Florentino Perez’s dream is in rags | Soccrates Images / Getty Images
Barcelona is also expected to withdraw. The new president Joan Laporta confirmed on Tuesday night that they would not join the Super League without the approval of powerful fan groups, which seems extremely unlikely.
Originally, Juventus was expected to join the outgoing. But reports in Italy have since suggested that Bianconeri remain involved in the competition. It is a similar story for the other Spanish clubs, while there is no indication that neither Milan’s nor Inter’s involvement is waning.
Despite this, it would take a miracle for the Super League to move on from this position. It is a victory for the clubs, players but most importantly, the fans who met the idea from the start.
