Following the move by Europe’s top 12 football clubs to establish a new football tournament called the Super League, famous retired English footballer and Inter Miami soccer club president David Beckham has apparently joined the ranks of those who are criticising this development.
"I’m someone who loves football. It has been my life for as long as I can remember. I loved it from when I was a young child as a fan, and I’m still a fan now," Beckham wrote in an Instagram post featuring a picture of himself surrounded by a crowd of people who appear to be Inter Miami fans. "As a player and now as an owner I know that our sport is nothing without the fans. We need football to be for everyone. We need football to be fair and we need competitions based on merit."
He also argued that "unless we protect these values the game we love is in danger."
According to the Daily Mail, English actor and West Ham United fan James Corden has also blasted the new league’s creation, comparing it to "an imagined scenario where A-list actresses Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Saoirse Ronan and Viola Davis carve up Oscar nominations for themselves".
"I’m heartbroken by it, genuinely heartbroken by it. I’m heartbroken because the owners of these teams have displayed the worst kind of greed I’ve ever seen in sport," he complained.
Last weekend, twelve prominent European football clubs - AC Milan, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur – announced the creation of the Super League.
The new tournament has already been criticised by the FIFA and UEFA leaderships, while Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Porto have refused to participate in this competition.