Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu announced his resignation with a very long speech that addressed a lot of the questions that were being asked of the administration.Â
However, one of the topics that the ex-president talked about was the proposed European Premier League. In his last act as President of the Catalonian club, Bartomeu confirmed that Barcelona had consented to participate in a tournament of such stature.
His explanation for agreeing to be a founding member of the tournament that has been labelled as the end of football is the fact that the tournament would help Barcelona with the finances.Â
The club have been under serious financial pressure as of recently. So much so that there were rumours that the players would have to take a pay cut for the club to be able to continue operating.
Hence, it is easy to see why a leader of the stature and having the responsibility that Bartomeu had, would choose the welfare of the club above anything else. However, his point of view is one that few will truly understand and fewer who will agree with.Â
The European Premier League is a tournament that has reportedly had the approval of FIFA. It was first put forth by the authorities at Liverpool and Manchester United after “Project Big Picture” collapsed.
However, FIFA president Gianni Infantino brushed away any talks about the possibility of the Champions League being replaced by a league type tournament among Europe’s richest teams.
One of the parts that make the European Premier League seem ridiculous is the fact that it appears to be a sorry attempt at bringing in massive amounts of money by the big clubs of the continent.
In addition, Bartomeu also confirmed that he had agreed to a reported change in the FIFA Club World Cup format that would see the format of the tournament expand to possibly include more teams from all across the world.
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