MADRID: La Liga president Javier Tebas dismissed a Madrid court’s decision asking UEFA to revoke action against the founding clubs of the European Super League, saying there were ‘a lot of jokes’ going on when it came to decisions made in that court about the breakaway league.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus said in a joint statement on Friday they will continue with plans for the Super League after the 17th Mercantile Court of Madrid ordered that all financial and sporting penalties against the founding members of the breakaway competition were dropped.

Barcelona, Real and Juventus are the last ones standing of the 12 clubs that signed up to the breakaway project in April, only for it to unravel when six Premier League clubs plus Inter Milan, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid withdrew.

“I have read the [joint] statement, not the court order,” Tebas said on Saturday. “First of all, it’s the same judge as always, so he was always going to rule in a similar fashion.

“If this particular judge has already made his views on the issue clear, he is not going to change his mind.

“If he was going to change his line, it would be a bit of a joke, wouldn’t it - speaking of jokes, I think there’s a lot of them going on in that court.”

Barcelona, Real and Juventus have said that the case will now be assessed by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and that going forward we will no longer be subject to ongoing UEFA threats”.

The three clubs have continued to defend the Super League plan, releasing joint statements in May complaining of unacceptable third-party pressures and threats to abandon the project.

Despite their involvement in the proposed European Super League, the trio have been admitted to the 2021-22 Champions League.

“Let’s think of the way these [joint] statements have developed ... they are increasingly charitable,” Tebas said

“They talk about needing to talk to the leagues, UEFA, FIFA, that we’re going to fix the world everyone together,” Tebas added sarcastically. “I remember the words of the Real Madrid president [Florentino Perez] on El Chiringuito [the TV show he went on to launch the Super League], he told us not to worry.

“That they would organise everything and that they would hand out breadcrumbs here and there. Now they’re taking a step forward in the right direction at least.”

The Super League argued it would boost revenue for top clubs and allow them to distribute more money to the rest of the game.

However, the sport’s governing bodies, other teams and fan organisations countered that it would increase the power and wealth of the elite clubs and the partially-closed structure of the league went against European football’s long-standing model.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd , 2021