Qatari royal family to announce plans for competition next month.
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The Daily Mail today reports that plans are being drawn up for a Gulf ‘Dream Football League’ that will act as a direct competitor to the UEFA Champions League.
The proposed competition would occur every second summer in years when there are no World Cup or European Championship commitments with the first tournament to be held in 2015.
In order to persuade Europe’s top clubs to take part in the competition the Qatari backers will offer clubs as much as £175m just to compete, this is ahead of any prize funds that can be won by competing sides.
Man United, Man City and Chelsea are to be offered the chance to compete in what will be a 24 club summer tournament, 16 of the places held for permanent members. Four spots will be handed to Premier League sides, of which the aforementioned three are said to be certainties.
The Qatari royal family will release full plans for the DFL next month and PSG are already said to have offered their backing, which is perhaps unsurprising given they are owned by Qatari billionaires.
One would imagine Spanish giants Barcelona, who have recently announced a shirt sponsorship deal with Qatari Airways, and Real Madrid would be among those invited to participate as well as German giants Bayern Munich and Italian sides Juventus, AC and Inter Milan.
It is worth noting that this competition is scheduled for the summer which would of course lead many to wonder as to why then there is an apparent issue with Qatar hosting the 2022 World Cup in the hotter months of the year, with speculation rife that the finals could be held in the winter.
Some are however claiming that the story of a Dream Football League are indeed a hoax.