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News
- 7 hours ago
The European Super League is dead as Barcelona officially pull out
Tom Weber
- Updated: 7 Feb 2026 15:38 GMT
- 4 min read
News
Barcelona have officially withdrawn from the European Super League, leaving Real Madrid as the sole club still associated with the project.
The Blaugrana announced on Saturday that they have ended their affiliation with the breakaway competition, which initially emerged in 2021 and was relaunched again in December 2024.
"FC Barcelona hereby announces that today it has formally notified the European Super League Company and the clubs involved of its withdrawal from the European Super League project," the reigning Spanish champions wrote in a succinct statement.
This means that 11 of the 12 founding members of the Super League have officially cut ties with it, leaving Real Madrid as the last club standing. Prior to Barcelona, Juventus were the last club to leave the project when they pulled out in June 2024.
The six associated Premier League clubs backtracked within just 72 hours of the original launch in 2021 due to widespread protests from supporters. The Super League was meant to rival the Champions League, but fans argued that it was a cash grab to make Europe's biggest clubs even richer.
What next for the Super League?
After the embarrassing collapse in 2021, the Super League was revamped and relaunched in December 2024 as the Unity League by Madrid-based company A22.
It came a year after the European Court of Justice ruled that UEFA and FIFA could not legally stop the formation of a breakaway Super League.
The Unity League was slated to begin play in September 2026, but with Real Madrid now the only remaining standard bearer, it is difficult to see the project actually getting off the ground.
Unlike the original closed-shop Super League, the new Unity League was supposed to be a multi-tiered competition with qualification based on sporting merit.
However, the top two divisions were only to contain 16 teams each, three of which were guaranteed to be from the Premier League. All told, 96 teams were planned to take part in the competition across four levels.
Barcelona still backed the Unity League at launch, but as the months went on, it became increasingly clear that they had lost faith in the undertaking.
In October, Blaugrana president Joan Laporta announced as much when he revealed that the club was seeking rapprochement with UEFA. The idea of a Super League appears to have been laid to rest for good now.
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