Europe’s twelve biggest clubs are facing a ban from playing in their respective national leagues and other UEFA competitions after launching a break-away European Super League on Sunday.

English Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are among the teams that have signed up to the plans.

They are joined by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from Spain, and Italian Serie A trio of Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.

The Super League said, in their statement, that they aimed to have 15 founding members and a 20-team league with five other clubs qualifying each season.

The clubs would share a fund of $4.19 billion to spend on infrastructure projects and to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The money would not be available to spend on players.

The move to create a super league has been condemned by football authorities and politicians with UEFA declaring that they will ban any team which participate in the competition.

“The clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams,” UEFA said.

“We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough.”- Soccer 24 Zimbabwe