JP Morgan Chase have issued an apology for their involvement in the proposed European Super League (ESL) plans.
The American investment bank had pledged to bankroll the breakaway league by making a financial commitment worth €3.25bn (£2.8bn), to be shared among the 12 major European sides involved.
The ESL clubs which included the Premier League’s Big Six – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – were each set to receive a “welcome bonus” to the tune of €200-€300m (£173m-£276m) for signing up.
JP Morgan stood to receive millions of dollars in fees for financing it.
Following the ESL’s dramatic collapse on Tuesday night, though, its stakeholders including the 12 clubs, PR company InHouse Communications and JP Morgan, have all come in for intense criticism from football supporters, the media and government officials across Europe.
In response to the furore surrounding the ESL, a JP Morgan spokesperson said: “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.”
JP Morgan’s apology comes after the company’s sustainability rating was downgraded from “adequate” to “non-compliant” by Standard Ethics over their part in the plans on Wednesday.
A Standard Ethics statement read: “Standard Ethics judges both the orientations shown by the football clubs involved in the project and those of the US bank to be contrary to sustainability best practices, which are defined by the agency according to UN, OECD and European Union guidelines, and take into account the interests of the stakeholders.”
More to follow
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2RP5m5I
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