Spanish league president claims Infantino backed European Super League

FIFA president Gianni Infantino supported the European Super League (ESL) project, Spanish La Liga president Javier Tebas claimed on Thursday.

Tebas said Infantino gave his support because the clubs had given him guarantees they would play in a new-look FIFA Club World Cup every year.K

Infantino said last week it was his job to speak to clubs large and small but that this did not mean FIFA “was behind, was colluding, was plotting, (on) any Super League project”.

But Tebas believes plans for an annual Club World Cup featuring the Super League clubs and holding national team men’s and women’s World Cups every two years were interlinked.

He added that they were also tied up in a Saudi-backed investment.

“It is no coincidence to me that Saudi Arabia, a major backer of Softbank which is prepared to support FIFA’s projects, happened to be the national association which last week suggested a study looking at the impact of biennial World Cups,” the Spaniard said.

The study will now go ahead.

“Infantino supported the Super League because (the founder clubs) guaranteed that they would participate in the Club World Cups,” Tebas said.

“That is the strategy for FIFA, I’m not inventing it,” he said.

FIFA declined to comment on Tebas’ latest claims when approached by the PA news agency, and simply referred back to Infantino’s remarks at FIFA Congress last Friday.

Infantino said football should not look outside its existing structures to address the challenges facing it, but said there was a need to start “with a blank sheet of paper.”

On Wednesday FIFA launched a new consultation process aimed at “planning and shaping the football of tomorrow.”