The Super League takes another step: the promoter of the project appoints a new CEO

He has lost battles, but has never thrown in the towel. The initial project of the Super League failed 18 months ago but its promoters have never hidden that their plan to launch a new rival competition to the Champions League has not died. It is only reconsidered with an open dialogue in football pending the ruling in 2023 of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the possible dominant position of UEFA by preventing this project, led by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus and that involved nine other European clubs as founders (Atlético de Madrid, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter and Milan).

In the prelude to that ruling, at the edge of Wednesday morning, the new step of the Super League was revealed: the former CEO of RTL Deutschland, Bernd Reichart, has been appointed CEO of the sports agency A22 Sport Management, which is the company incorporated to sponsor and assist the creation of the competition. In his advisory role, he focuses primarily on the overall structure, operational and financial aspects.

The effort of A22 Sport Management (known as A22) will be above all at the communication level, one of Reichart's strengths, which arrives "to start an open dialogue about the future of football", as the manager assures Bild, where admits that the first attempt to launch the Super League in April 2021 had "clear weaknesses". He sees it possible to create a European club competition that is "more attractive, more entertaining, more exciting, fairer and cheaper", something he considers crucial in order not to lose younger fans.

The plan is to include a wide range of football stakeholders such as clubs, players, coaches, fans, the media and policy makers in the dialogue. There would be no preconceived format. "I believe that Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus are asking the right questions and I am personally willing to listen to different voices so that the European football community can find the right answers together," he added in a statement issued last night.

This dialogue has as a backdrop the aforementioned process of the European Court, which began after the proposals regarding the European Super League in April 2021. A22 is a co-plaintiff in this process, which will have as a prelude the non-binding opinion of the attorney general of the CJEU.

At 48, Reichart thus returns to the world of sports. He started his career in the marketing sector at the Sportfive agency (formerly known as UFA Sports) in Hamburg. In 2003 he landed in Madrid as director of marketing for the branch that opened the agency in the Spanish capital.

A year later he joined Antena 3 (today Atresmedia) as head of investor relations. From 2007 to 2013, he oversaw a portfolio of free-to-air television channels as Managing Director Multichannel. In 2013, he joined the RTL Group in Germany, taking on the role of Managing Director of the German television channel VOX, where he launched some of the most successful programs in the channel's history. In January 2019, he was appointed CEO of the RTL Deutschland Group, leading one of Europe's leading private broadcasting groups until the end of 2021. From January 2019 to June 2022, he was also a member of the Management Committee of the Bertelsmann Group, a company of media, services and education that operates in 50 countries around the world.

Reichart is the CEO of the promoter of the competition, but not of the limited company created to organize it, known as the "European Super League Company". Florentino Pérez is the president of that company, which has two vice presidents: Andrea Agnelli (Juventus) and Joel Glazer (Manchester United).

The roadmap that Reichart outlined yesterday in the statement was already advanced by Florentino Pérez at the last Real Madrid Assembly on October 2, where he asked to debate the reform of football "without pressure". "Once the CJEU rules on the monopoly position held by UEFA, we will work together to excite fans throughout the year, recover the passion for our sport and reverse the current trend in European football," warned the white president. "Only in this way can we protect football as a global sport, the result of a debate without pressure among the entire football family and for that the clubs must be free and kings of their destiny in Europe and always in accordance with the laws of the European Union. ".

"You can be against the Super League format, but not close the debate," he added in reference to one of the most controversial points. "It would not be a closed competition, since it would have 25% of its places open".