The news of a new European Super League has created a strong and, almost overwhelmingly angry, reaction across the continent.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham are the English clubs, alongside Spanish trio Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, and Italian clubs Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus, who have agreed to join a new ESL.
BBC Sport and BBC Monitoring take a look at the media fallout across Europe.
‘The bonfire of greed’
The Italian sport dailies lead the way when it comes to outrage.
“Juve, Inter and Milan: the bonfire of greed,” says leading sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport in a scathing editorial.
“This paper has always been opposed to any project that favours the interests of the few by betraying individual merits and undermining the national tournaments which make up the social and cultural roots of football.”
Tuttosport’s headline is succinct but perhaps best indicative of the mood among football fans in Italy: “Are you insane?”
And Il Fatto Quotidiano says “the Super League is the antithesis of football: they want to kill the passion for the game in the name of profit… and to turn fans into mere consumers”.
Like several other outlets, the paper says the project is an attempt to reshape European football into an NBA-like tournament “in which every match is an event, and the sport is the means rather than the end: a huge match every night, players who are paid tens of millions per season, extortionate tickets and audiences of billions of people. It’s the furthest thing from the European idea of football – and of sport.”
- European Super League: ‘I’m disappointed and disgusted’ – Danny Murphy
- ‘Bang out of order’ – MOTD2 pundits discuss European Super League plans
- European Super League a ‘grotesque concept’, says Villa chief executive Purslow
- Super League: Why are football’s biggest clubs starting a new tournament?
