European football model 'unsustainable', says new CEO of Super League promoter

The new CEO of the company promoting the Super League, German businessman Bernd Reichart, says European football must hold talks to reshape its future and warns it is "becoming unsustainable" under the current system.

Reichart, the 48-year-old former boss of the RTL media group in Germany, was on Wednesday appointed head of A22 Sports Management.

"European football needs an open and honest dialogue about its future," Reichart told AFP, 18 months on from the botched attempt at a breakaway 12-team Super League designed to supplant the UEFA Champions League. 

"Football is facing problems which won't resolve on their own," he said.

"European football is losing its undisputed leadership in global sports. European club football is not living up to its potential by not offering week after week the best sport on a global stage. 

"Young audiences have turned more and more to other entertainment alternatives."

Reichart plans to reach out to an extensive range of football stakeholders including clubs, players, coaches, fans, media and policy makers.

"I think dialogue can take place, it's good there is conciousness that the (status quo) can change and clubs should be prepared to shape their own future and to consider what the new landscape could look like," he said.

"Football can do better, clubs should be able to lead such a dialogue and be entitled to propose new alternatives, free from threats, sanctions or exclusion (from) competition as happened in the past."

"The football ecosystem is becoming unsustainable, the pandemic has accelerated this trend, the system is broken," he added.

Closed shop 'off the table'

aunched by some of Europe's top clubs in April 2021, the Super League's plan to shake up European football fizzled out amid the