According to Dan Roan of BBC Sport, Manchester City have withdrawn from the European Super League as Pep Guardiola publicly spoke out against the move.
The Sky Blues had agreed to join Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in one league, but they’ve made a U-turn on the decision after widespread backlash and the comments of Guardiola.
Where will Manchester City finish this season?
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2nd
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4th
Pep recently said in a press conference: “If you ask me (why) these teams have been selected, I don’t know the reason why. It is not a sport where the relation between the effort and the success, the effort and the reward, does not exist.
“It is not a sport where success is already guaranteed or it is not a sport when it doesn’t matter where you lose. That’s why I said many times, I want the best competition, the strongest competition possible, especially the Premier League.
“It is not fair when one team fight, fight, fight, arrive at the top and cannot qualify because success is already guaranteed just for a few teams. I don’t know what is going to change.
“(Even if) the people say: ‘No, no, maybe four or five teams can go up and play this competition,’ [then] what happens to the 14 or 15 not playing a good season and every time will be there? So this is not sport.”
City have pulled out of the breakaway league two days after it was announced and many clubs have followed. The Manchester giants weren’t drivers of the plans and reportedly only joined so to not be left out. Chelsea were in a similar position, and the two clubs were the first to leave.
It’s good news that City have accepted they were wrong about joining the European Super League, but there could still be a backlash from fans. This plan was conducted in secret and announced without any warning to players, staff or supporters. And the U-turn only comes as a result of the reaction, so City were open to sticking this out had the reaction been less negative.