NEW YORK: JP Morgan, the still-born European Super League’s principal financial backer, has said it “misjudged” how fans would react to the breakaway competition.
The American investment bank said it had committed €3.25 billion ($3.92bn) as start-up capital for the league, which posed a direct challenge to UEFA’s Champions League and also threatened to devalue Europe’s top domestic leagues.
For the record, the $5.5 billion (€4 billion) financing, while backed by bank JP Morgan, was delivered by Spanish advisory firm Key Capital Partners.
Twelve clubs announced they had signed up to compete last Sunday night but by Wednesday afternoon nine had withdrawn amid fan protests and outrage from UEFA, FIFA, leagues, clubs, players and even politicians, making it a non-starter.
JP Morgan released a short statement on Friday morning which read: “We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future. We will learn from this.”
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