Barcelona Impact Real Madrid With Major European Super League Decision

The Catalan giants are enjoying the best of their rivalry and things could now spice up even more.

Barcelona have enjoyed great on-field success of late—to the delight of president Joan Laporta (center). | Maciej Rogowski/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images

Barcelona have officially withdrawn from the proposed European Super League, leaving rivals Real Madrid as the only club still signed up to the project.

The Catalan giants were one of 12 clubs, including the Premier League's ‘big six,’ that had proposed to break away from the governance of UEFA to create a new midweek competition that would rival the Champions League.

Significant backlash saw the project immediately fall apart—Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus were the only teams not to back away—but the management company behind the idea, A22 Sports Management, have continued scheming in the background in the hope of their idea eventually coming to fruition.

But a short club statement on Saturday said: “FC Barcelona hereby announces that today it has formally notified the European Super League Company and the clubs involved of its withdrawal from the European Super League project.” That, in theory, should be that.

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The End of the European Super League Once and for All?

Club presidents Florentino Pérez (left) and Joan Laporta had formed somewhat of an alliance. | Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Barcelona president Joan Laporta said in October 2025 that the club wanted to rejoin the European Football Clubs (EFC), which they, along with the 12 clubs who’d signed up, were expelled from. ESPN report that Laporta also attempted to build bridges with UEFA and La Liga president Javier Tebas—it’s thought he was successful in doing so.

That was the first real sign that Barcelona had started to lose faith in the project, though tensions with rivals Real Madrid have been bubbling away under the surface. The European Super League project served as a mutual interest, with both clubs wanting to battle the financial might of the Premier League, but Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez hasn’t always been able to bite his tongue.

He finally spoke out on the Negreira case—Barcelona were found to have paid companies related to the former vice president of referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, €8.4 million ($9.9 million) from 2001–18—in November, saying it “isn’t normal” for the Catalans to have made payments that “coincided with the best results in Barcelona’s history.”

Pérez also boldly proclaimed at Real Madrid’s annual assembly that the 15-time Champions League winners “are the only club that has the institutional strength and wealth to take on this battle.”

And if that wasn’t enough, Pérez also stated, despite the withdrawal of all other participants, including Juventus in June 2024, that the ESL was “an essential project for football” which gave Real Madrid the right “to be compensated for our losses [alluding to UEFA’s conduct], and to arrange a competition in the future. We will tirelessly pursue both.”

A22 Sports have endlessly changed the parameters of the proposed competition in the last four years, even rebranding it as the Unify League. By then, a four-tier format comprising of 96 clubs had been put forward. The Star and Gold sections would house 16 teams, the Blue and Union 32 each. Unsurprisingly, it hasn’t moved the needle.

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Barcelona Focus on Conquering Existing Formats

Barcelona have had the wood over Real Madrid of late. | Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

With the European Super League now officially in the rear-view mirror, Barcelona’s objectives are now clear. To re-establish themselves as the dominant force in La Liga—something they achieved last season under Hansi Flick and have built on in 2025–26—and to win the Champions League for the first time since 2015.

The Catalans completed a domestic treble last year and once more defeated Real Madrid to win the Spanish Super Cup in January—a result that ultimately cost Xabi Alonso his job at the Bernabéu.

With the Spotify Camp Nou renovations also now completed, Barcelona have the opportunity to stop the financial bleeding that has dragged the club down over the past few years. They are still gravely in debt—that’s unlikely to change anytime soon—but regular trophy wins and the associated prize money will go a long way to reimplementing some semblance of stability. How long it takes them to become the continent’s dominance force again—if it’s even possible—remains to be seen.

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