Barcelona will change the traffic of Los Angeles for a few hours for the calmer and more picturesque Santa Clara, located 75km southeast of San Francisco. Xavi Hernández's team will play the first game of the summer tour against Juventus next morning at Levi's Stadium, inaugurated in 2014. The home of the San Francisco 49ers in American football and venue for major sporting events such as the 2016 Super Bowl will also become a World Cup stadium for the next World Cup. It has the capacity to accommodate 72,864 people, a figure that makes it the field with the least capacity of the four that the Barça team will visit.
Beyond the ball, there is another game that will be played in the box. The one from the European Super League, with the president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta and the football director Maurizio Scanavino. The president of the Italian club, Gianluca Ferrero finally did not travel. Both clubs have met up to seven times in friendly matches. The last one, last year in Dallas. At that time, Barcelona and Juventus were, along with Real Madrid, together on the Super League boat. Everything came to an end at the beginning of June when, with the summer tour already closed, the Turin club announced that it had started the procedure to leave the Super League due to "the existing discrepancies on the interpretation of the contractual terms with Real Madrid and with FC Barcelona".
The vecchia signora also acknowledged that, "under the applicable contractual terms, his departure will be completed and effective only if it is previously authorized by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and the rest of the clubs involved" in the project. “They are competitors. Each one makes the decisions they consider to be correct and we will meet in Santa Clara”, said Vice President Elena Fort at the welcome dinner for the Barcelona expedition in Los Angeles.
Despite the differences between the clubs, the organizers of the project recall that the Super League is immersed in the midst of legal proceedings pending resolution by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. In this sense, they point out that it will be the verdict that determines not only the position of Juventus, but also the final opinion of the parties involved in this matter.
The sentence will not come this summer. Sources consulted by La Vanguardia involved in the evolution of the project point out that the CJEU will not issue the ruling that will decide whether UEFA and FIFA abuse their dominant position as organizers of international competitions until September. They also ensure that Juventus has been the victim of pressure from UEFA through threats to throw it out of European competitions for three years if it did not abandon the project. They also insist that the first binding 200-page contract signed by the 12 clubs – Milan, Arsenal, Atlético de Madrid, Chelsea, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur – is still in force and that no one has jumped ship as the economic clauses have not been completed. To exit the project, a penalty of 300 million euros must be paid.
Although the previous report of the general lawyer of the EU, the Greek Athanasios Rantos, was favorable to UEFA, which he legitimized to organize and authorize European competitions, the Super League maintains that in the event that the 15 judges agree with the lawyer, as is usually the case in 80% of cases, the necessary permits for the creation of the competition could be requested and negotiated with UEFA.
On April 19, 2023, it was three years since Florentino Pérez announced the birth of the Super League. Little remains of that closed format. Real Madrid, Barça and Juventus appointed the German Bernd Reichart CEO of A22, the company that has redesigned the idea. The new Super League is committed to an open competition that is accessed by sports meritocracy according to its performance in national competitions. It would have up to three divisions made up of between 60 and 80 clubs that will be the ones to design the final format if the CJEU decision is positive.
