Manchester United in WhatsApp group with Premier League’s big six clubs as fears grow Champions League sides could move to breakway European Super League
SunSport exclusively revealed back in March that some top clubs had met with an American media mogul about a new division.
MANCHESTER UNITED executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is part of a Whatsapp group with six of the Premier League’s biggest clubs as they discuss the billion-pound TV deals that could spell the end of England’s top division.
The Old Trafford money man caused a stir at a recent meeting among the 20 clubs by holding a secretive huddle with his contemporaries from Manchester City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea and Liverpool, reigniting fears the country’s biggest clubs could be interested in a breakaway European super-league.
And now the reports those Champions League-chasing sides are using the free app to ping messages across to each other.
If the half dozen sides can add one more member to the group they will have enough names to challenge the PL’s 14-6 majority needed for big decisions and could potentially change the landscape of British football.
A Premier League spokesman said: “We are aware various groups of clubs hold meetings over various issues and we are relaxed about it. We still have a healthy collective.”
The next TV deal for 2016-19 will bring in £8.3billion for the Prem clubs to share but some are still very conscious their market value is far greater than some of the smaller teams in the bottom half of table.
SunSport exclusively revealed back in March that some top clubs had met with an American media mogul about a European Super League.
United's executive vice-chairman, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck, Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, Man City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano and Liverpool’s Ian Ayre all emerged smiling and shaking hands after the clandestine meeting with US billionaire Stephen Ross at London’s Dorchester Hotel.
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Whatsapp’s importance is growing in football after it was revealed Chelsea’s dozens of fringe players keep in touch via a group and Sean Dyche’s Burnley players also have a team chatroom.
After AFC Wimbledon legend Adebayo Akinfenwa helped the club win promotion last May, he broke the news he was being released by the club and told any managers interested in his signature to “hit him up on Whatsapp”, though Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth eventually snapped him up after an old-fashioned phone call.