Leaks shows cover-ups & talks on Super League

German newspaper Der Speigel yesterday uncovered talks between clubs on an European Super League and covers-up by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UEFA to prevent the likes of Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain from receiving hard punishments for violating Financial Fair Play.

The documents were obtained by a whistleblower named John, which is not his real name, who runs Football Leaks. The information relating to the story were up to more than 3.4 terabytes and 70 million documents which Der Speigel shared with other media outlets in the European Investigative Collaboration (EIC) consortium.

According to the leaks, Bayern Munich alongside Real Madrid, Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester United and 11 others went behind the back of UEFA to discuss forming a European Super League. The competition will involve 11 of the biggest clubs in Europe as 'founders' and five 'initial guests' were there is no relegation and membership will be guaranteed for 20 years. The leaks covered Bayern and its president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on finding ways to withdraw Bayern from the German League, the Bundesliga, and prevent players from going for international duty. Bayern in their response denied all allegations and stand by their membership in the Bundesliga.

The leaks also brought allegations against FIFA President Gianni Infantino during his time as UEFA General Secretary. As General Secretary, Infantino and UEFA knowingly found ways to keep Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, clubs owned by countries in the Arabian Gulf, from getting harsh punishment from Financial Fair Play (FFP), which was introduced in 2009 to level the economic playing field. The leaks also covered Infantino's close relationship with Qatar in finding ways to improve their image for the 2022 World Cup as well as watering down FIFA's Code of Ethics. Both City and PSG strongly deny these claims.

Whether there will be any changes, the leaks clearly reflect the widening gap between the richest clubs in the world from the others which continues to increase through lucrative sponsorship deals and the influence from nations like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, countries with questionable Human Rights records, in matters relating to UEFA and FIFA. This also shows the little changes made from FIFA's corruption scandals which tarnished Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini and FIFA itself. However, from Infantino's time as General Secretary, the watering down of FIFA's Code of Ethics as Corruption is no longer a violation and his close relationship with the Gulf states, it's more of the same-old story. The Beautiful Game that we love so much has an ugly side with corruption and greed the center of thoughts in FIFA and UEFA.