Everton have become the first Premier League club to publicly speak out against what they call the "preposterous arrogance" of the European Super League founders and warned the owners of the six English teams involved to consider their legacies.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United have all signed up to become founder members of the Super League, a closed shop European competition which, the Premier League say, "attacks the principles of open competition and sporting merit which are at the heart of the domestic and European football pyramid."
Supporters of the clubs involved, as well as Liverpool's James Milner and Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes, have voiced opposition to the plans, and now the Everton hierarchy have become the first club to condemn the proposal on the record.
"Everton is saddened and disappointed to see proposals of a breakaway league pushed forward by six clubs," the club directors said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Six clubs acting entirely in their own interests. Six clubs tarnishing the reputation of our league and the game.
"Six clubs choosing to disrespect every other club with whom they sit around the Premier League table.
"Six clubs taking for granted and even betraying the majority of football supporters across our country and beyond.
"At this time of national and international crisis - and a defining period for our game - clubs should be working together collaboratively with the ideals of our game and its supporters uppermost.
"Instead, these clubs have been secretly conspiring to break away from a football pyramid that has served them so well.
"And in that Pyramid Everton salutes EVERY club, be it Leicester City, Accrington Stanley, Gillingham, Lincoln City, Morecambe, Southend United, Notts County and the rest who have, with their very being, enriched the lives of their supporters throughout the game's history. And vice versa.
"The self-proclaimed Super Six appear intent on disenfranchising supporters across the game - including their own - by putting the very structure that underpins the game we love under threat.
"The backlash is understandable and deserved – and has to be listened to. This preposterous arrogance is not wanted anywhere in football outside of the clubs that have drafted this plan.
"On behalf of everyone associated with Everton, we respectfully ask that the proposals are immediately withdrawn and that the private meetings and subversive practises that have brought our beautiful game to possibly its lowest ever position in terms of trust end now.
"Finally we would ask the owners, chairmen, and Board members of the six clubs to remember the privileged position they hold – not only as custodians of their clubs but also custodians of the game. The responsibility they carry should be taken seriously.
"We urge them all to consider what they wish their legacy to be."
