Arsene Wenger has warned the Premier League that it could be destroyed if the European Super League eventually comes into place.
After the drastic proposals of Project Big Picture - which was led by Manchester United and Liverpool - were quashed following a meeting with Premier League clubs, the European Super League was the next plan to be drafted.
Talks have since taken place over the set up of the new £4.6billion European League but former Arsenal boss Wenger, now head of global football development at FIFA, insists its creation could have a catastrophic impact on the English game.
Wenger told the Guardian: 'The Premier League has a superiority. The project [Big Picture] wanted to reinforce this superiority.
'The other leagues tried to destroy the advantage the Premier League has. For them, the best thing to attain that is to create a European league.
'So that means to destroy the Premier League, basically. So if they get the agreement from the English big clubs, it will happen.'
Wenger then claimed the main target by the driving forces behind the European League is to 'make more money'.
When quizzed on whether the European Super League is football driven or business-led, Wenger replied: 'It is football as well. But of course, we are in a period of owners who are investors.
'What are the investors' first target? It's to make more money. And so that the European Super League is one way maybe to make more money.'
The European Super League competition is expected to involve between 16 and 18 teams, and will be played at midweek during the normal European club season.
It would start as a typical league campaign before the top-performing teams would enter a knockout competition to crown a champion.
Relegation could form part of the new league, and it is believed that some ideas from an earlier iteration could be adopted within this new proposal.
Outgoing Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu dropped a bombshell this week when he revealed he had ratified the club's participation in the European Super League before announcing his resignation.
The Catalans are one of several European clubs who would likely become part of the new competition, which is threatening to replace the Champions League in the coming years.
But following Bartomeu's bombshell, FIFA have distanced themselves from the notion of a breakaway league.
A FIFA statement read: 'FIFA is not aware of any agreement.
'As we already said last week, the topic of a so-called 'European Super League' comes up every now and then and FIFA has no wish to comment further on this since there are already well-established football institutional structures to deal with it.
'Generally speaking, and as stated again last week by the FIFA president, the focus for FIFA is on global football development and the new Club World Cup, and not any European Super League.'
Nesaiknruy_Legend
1251
There is already too many competitions being fought on different fronts in Europes most competitive league so why add another? bad idea.
Blue_Messiah
1136
I support what he says, because it's basically like having another Champions League but with a different name...so what really is the point?!
D10S_LM10
1074
When POWER of MONEY is more than LOVE for GAME.. PLZ don't destroy this beautiful game...
ishti
988
One thing is for sure, if European super league starts, I will not go bald very soon. All the tension, excitement, the sleeplessness and anxiety I feel watching league matches will be gone. I will watch it as a fun. Win/loss will not affect me that much. I will eat normally and sleep normally too.
TheFootballNoob
383
Guys Mr.Wenger has a point.Premier League is the best league in europe.It is because of the level of intensity,fans,teams and it is highly unpredictable.The best club in the world might not be from PL but the best league is PL.So please dont do anything stupid and make the PL forgotten
VAR-IS-SHIT
102
it won't just destroy the premier league, it will destroy european football as a whole... first of all, only the top teams who are dominant right now and have money will be participating... so, those teams won't even play in their countries' league, nor the ucl... it is a failure within itself if top team won't play ucl... second, if this happens, we won't be able to witness underdog stories, which are a beautiful part of football... third, we will be seeing high profile matches everytime... the good thing about high profile matches is that they don't happen so often... so we can't judge the outcome..thus, if that happens, football will lose its prestige as people will stop bothering much about big team matchups that happen so frequently... it is just a money minded move by uefa, just like the nations league... they will continue having numerous tournaments, hence more money... but, if these big matches continue to happen, people will stop seeing them after an extent, cuz no one would like to see same matchups all the time, even if it is a big match... this idea of the super league shouldn't get into motion... otherwise the beautiful game will be destroyed 😔😔😔