Threatened with legal action: Real Madrid demands six English clubs pay the bill for the failed Super League
Royal revenge after four years
After four years of silence, Real Madrid have decided to open the old ledgers and settle the accounts. Left alone to defend the dream of the European Super League, the Spanish giants now want six Premier League clubs who fled the project in its earliest days to pay their share of the failure bill, estimated at 80 million euros.
The great escape bill
The British newspaper "The Athletic" revealed that Real Madrid believe Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur remain legally responsible for the initial costs of establishing the European Super League, despite their swift withdrawal in April 2021.
Those costs could reach a total of 80 million euros, covering the promotional and legal preparation for the project. So far, only Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus have shared them.
You can check out, but you will never leave
Of the 12 founding clubs, nine withdrew just days after the announcement. The six English clubs walked, along with Atletico Madrid, Milan and Inter Milan. Juventus followed in 2023, then Barcelona made it official last February, leaving Real Madrid alone.
Madrid rely on one decisive legal point. Every club signed a shareholders' agreement for "The European Super League Company", a holding company based in Spain, committing them to "own and manage" the project jointly.
Florentino Perez had warned of this from the very first day of the collective withdrawal in April 2021. "I'm not going to waste my time explaining what a binding contract is here, but the truth is that the clubs cannot withdraw," he said.
For Madrid's lawyers, that phrase "own and manage" implicitly carries a financial commitment to pay the costs. The English clubs argue their obligation ended with their public apology, pointing to the absence of any explicit mention of money in the leaked contracts.
Why have Real Madrid acted now?
The timing is intriguing. Real Madrid are preparing to appoint Bernd Reichart, former chief executive of Super League promoter A22, as their new head of commercial operations once he wraps up his work at the company.
It also lands after Real Madrid finally called a truce with European football's governing body UEFA. The Super League plans, and the new "Unify League" project of 96 clubs across four tiers, have been frozen.
The Athletic's analysis frames it this way: the Super League's legal situation stayed theoretical for five years, but now there is a real bill to settle. Real Madrid believe it should be split equally among the 12 clubs.
Should Real Madrid insist on their demands, the only route is the courts. That would mean a long legal battle between Europe's biggest clubs, with sports lawyers the only winners.
