Soccer super league plan faces furious backlash

Soccer fans and politicians were united Monday (April 19) in fury over plans for a breakaway European super league.

It's terrible says this fan of giant Spanish club Barcelona, as it will forever exclude smaller teams.

The plan was announced late the day before by 12 big names.

Besides Barcelona, other teams involved include Manchester United and Liverpool in the UK, Juventus in Italy, and Real Madrid in Spain.

They would be permanent members of the new league, with no fear of relegation.

French president Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson swiftly condemned the plan.

Johnson says his government will look at ways to block the move.

European football ruling body UEFA said the clubs involved would be expelled from all other competitions if they went ahead.

Players who take part could be banned from playing for their national sides.

In a letter seen by Reuters, the super league clubs say they have begun legal moves to prevent action against them.

They also call for talks with UEFA and world governing body FIFA, which has joined the condemnation.

Many newspapers talked of a football world at war with itself.

Ronan Evain is chief executive of fan organisation Football Supporters Europe:

"This is going to endanger the financial eco system of football. These clubs will be able to potentially be able to attract substantial investment, they will take away a lot of the TV money from the rest of European football, indeed now we will see potentially dozens and dozens of clubs are going bankrupt."

Among the few people who seemed pleased Monday were investors, with shares in some of the clubs involved heading higher.

Italy's Juventus saw its stock soar 12% in early trade.

And big banks are also ready to get involved.

U.S. giant JP Morgan has confirmed it will fund the new league.

The super league clubs will share a one-off payment of 3.5 billion euros - or about 4.2 billion dollars - as part of the plan.

Many fans may see all that as confirmation that the motives behind the league are more financial, than sporting.