Football: Billionaire owners out of control

[Photo: CNN]

The Football Supporters' Association (FSA) said a report that Europe's top teams are in talks to become founding members of a new competition shows "billionaire owners are out of control" and proves football cannot regulate itself.

A Sky News report said more than 12 teams from the top five leagues -- in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- are in negotiations over what has been dubbed the 'European Premier League', with a provisional start date in 2022.

"The latest reports of plots ... to create a European Super League, expose the myth that billionaire owners care about the English football pyramid, or indeed anything other than their own greed," the FSA said in a statement.

"This has to be the last nail in the coffin of the idea that football can be relied upon to regulate itself. These billionaire owners are out of control.

"Decisive action is now needed to protect the game we love," the group added.

The Sky report, which cited unnamed "football industry" sources, said financiers were looking to raise a $6 billion funding package to kick-start the new tournament, which had the backing of football's world governing body Fifa.

European soccer governing body Uefa, whose blue-riband club competition is the Champions League, has reiterated its president Aleksander Ceferin's opposition to any such 'Super League'.