As quickly as the confirmation of the European Super League was announced, it collapsed entirely after an outpouring of backlash from pundits, fans, players, and managers alike. After the news was released last Sunday, criticism from pundits quickly turned into fan protests outside of the grounds for the six Premier League teams that had signed on to the Super League (Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, and Arsenal).
Bayern Munich, along with Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, was one of the first major European clubs to deny an invitation to the Super League. The Bundesliga’s 50+1 rule would’ve made it next to impossible for any club in the league to join the Super League. It what was a rather tumultuous week for Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who was one of the Super League’s chief architects, he was caught red handed in a number of lies. One of his lies involved Bayern, Dortmund, and PSG, for which he tried to say that all three of the clubs were not invited to the Super League, which was entirely untrue. Leaked documents showed that the ESL had plans to invite them.
Perez claiming that #PSG, #Bayern and #BVB were not invited is a straight up lie. Documents obtained by Der Spiegel show that #Bayern and #BVB were invited and have 30 days to join. PSG also invited but they have 14 days to join the Super League. (Via @derspiegel) pic.twitter.com/j20aDE7Y5l
— Dr. Manuel Veth (@ManuelVeth) April 19, 2021
Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed, though, that Bayern had no idea about the ESL’s plans to include them this speaking on Bild am Sonntag (via Bild+). “No, none of us knew about this contract. The SL was set up in a legally & financially professional way - with just one mistake: they underestimated the reaction of the rest of the football family,” he replied when he was asked whether or not Bayern was aware of the ESL’s plan to have them involved, at least eventually.
As far as the Super League as a whole, Rummenigge said that he would’ve done everything in his power to prevent it from happening if he had all of the proper foreknowledge that it was right around the corner. “If I had found out something about it before, I would have tried with all my power to prevent the Super League, together with our friends from Dortmund and Paris, among others,” he proclaimed. “FC Bayern is not available for such an event. We all have a clear stance here: You cannot separate yourself from the football family by organizing your own event at the expense of others,” he added.
While the Super League received the proper backlash it deserved all throughout the course of last week, Rummenigge also said he felt that Bayern, Dortmund, and PSG wanting to have nothing to do with it as some of Europe’s biggest clubs played a big part in the ESL’s complete capitulation. When he was asked why he felt the ESL collectively failed, he said, “because this project was met with such great rejection. Another important fact was that 3 big European clubs, Paris, Bayern & Dortmund, were not on board. Without the three of us, the Super League would not have been exclusively super.”