Arsene Wenger claims 'Europe wants to destroy Premier League' in wake of Super League breakdown
Wenger: "The basis of our sporting culture in Europe is to have access through your performances to top level competition. I don't understand how anybody could believe that capping the link between the domestic league and access to the top league would pass and be accepted."
Saturday 24 April 2021 10:01, UK
Arsene Wenger has claimed that ‘everybody in Europe dreams of destroying the Premier League’ as he assessed the situation in the wake of the seemingly failed Super League experiment.
Wenger, who guided Arsenal to three Premier League titles and won the FA Cup seven times as a manager during a spell at the north London club that lasted over 21 years, challenged the basic principle of the breakaway tournament and is convinced it would have ultimately led to the demise of the Premier League.
"It was born dead. From the start, I couldn't believe it would work," Wenger told The Telegraph. "The most surprising in all that was the English behaviour. Everybody dreams of destroying the Premier League in Europe. In England we do it ourselves.
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"I can't understand the rationality behind that because England voted for Brexit and now they want to bring a Super League. The English has the strongest league. The Super League would destroy, 100 per cent, the Premier League.
"The basis of our sporting culture in Europe is to have access through your performances to top-level competition.
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"I don't understand how anybody could believe that capping the link between the domestic league and access to the top league would pass and would be accepted by the fans.
"The rest is how amateurish all that looked in the presentation, in the preparation. You worry quite a lot how our top clubs are managed. It looked to be a quick fix for the financial problems that these clubs have."
Wenger did, however, praise the response of many players to the proposed Super League.
James Milner was one of the first high-profile players to publicly state his opposition to the breakaway league when he spoke to Sky Sports after Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Leeds on Monday night as the first aftershocks of the news were beginning to be felt.
Other players, including Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and a number of his teammates, also added their voices to the opposition to the new European league.
Wenger highlighted the growing willingness of players to speak out on issues they feel strongly about, as he appeared to reference players taking a knee before games as part of the Premier League's 'No Room For Racism' campaign.
"I am very proud of the responsibilities the players have taken in this case," he added. "It shows there is a huge evolution - we have seen since the start of the season in England that the players now are part of the political impact in society and rightly so. I am very proud of that evolution."
