Italy’s biggest club initially agreed to join the breakaway European Super League headed by the desperate executives of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, but in the face of a string of failures the new board has formally triggered the mechanism that would allow them to leave that project behind.
The ESL, which had an effective lifespan of about 72 hours was initially composed of the “dirty dozen”, teams from the English Premiere League, La Liga in Spain, — and tradition steeped Juventus. After public and government opposition nine of the original twelve teams bailed out with various levels of apologia (looking at you Levy!) leaving only three hardcore holdouts, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus to continue the stump of the rebel league.
However with Juventus knee deep in regulatory problems and a new board in place they have now formally triggered the process to withdraw from the league. The Athletic reports that after notifying their two remaining partners they have filed a formal request to withdraw from the league.
Juventus publicly commented as follows:
“Following the press release dated June 6 2023, with which Juventus announced that it had begun a period of discussion with Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (clubs that had not announced their intention to exit the Super League project until then) with regards the proposed decision by Juventus to exit the Super League Project, the following is announced.
“Following such discussions, and given the existing discrepancies on the interpretation of the relevant contractual terms applicable to the Super League Project, Juventus confirms that it has initiated the procedure to exit therefrom, but it also acknowledges that, under the applicable contractual terms, its exit will be completed and effective only if previously authorised by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and the remaining clubs involved in the Super League Project.”
The interesting twist here is that the last holdouts might approve the withdrawal for it to be legally effective. The public posting means that Juve’s brass must either have the tacit approval of the Spanish sides to leave or want to put public pressure on them to allow the exit.
The timing is also interesting. It seems that Juventus arn’t even going to wait to see the end of the court battle with UEFA before pulling the plug.
For all intents and purposes it appears this iteration of the European Super League is done and dusted.