Premier League stars knew European Super League would never work

Andros Townsend has claimed Premier League players already knew the European Super League was bound to fail.

Crystal Palace forward Andros Townsend is thankful for the role played by fans in making sure the European Super League never saw the light of day.

News that the English top flight’s so-called ‘big six’ had agreed to become founding members of a new elite Super League sent shockwaves through the sport on Sunday night.

However, the Super League was over before it started, with a majority of the founding clubs pulling out, started by the English sides.

Townsend says players were left in the dark all through and only heard about developments on Twitter, just as everyone else.

Reflecting on what has been an eventful past two days, the 29-year-old says the Super League plans were ‘doomed’ the moment FIFA and UEFA threatened to ban stars from the World Cup and Euros.

“There has been a lot of chatter in the dressing room,” said the Palace winger to talkSPORT.

👏 “Fans will wake up today & think ‘Wow, look what we did in 48 hours!’”

🗣 “‘We do have a voice, we do have a say, what else can we do?!’ & fans will have more conversations!”

Andros Townsend thinks fans have more belief to stand up for what they believe in after the #ESL. pic.twitter.com/LcrxZkGBto
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) April 21, 2021

“Ultimately we saw why everyone loves football, we saw the power of the fans, the power of the players, the power of journalism, pundits, and collectively we’ve come together to make sure this ill-advised competition didn’t see the light of day.”

Speaking on how players found out, Townsend said: “On Twitter.”

“It’s funny, people think we have this inside information and we know things and get things early, but no, we find out the same as everyone else, just on Twitter.”

“We didn’t get talked through it all by the club or anything, it didn’t even get to that stage because anyone I spoke to, we were adamant this competition would never see the light of day.

“There was no way it could work, so there was no need for an official meeting or anything like that, we knew in a couple of days this thing would blow over and it would be gone, and that turned out to be the case.

“I couldn’t see how a format like this could ever see the light of day, so the right thing was done eventually.

“Once UEFA and FIFA came out and said they were going to start banning players from internationals and you wouldn’t be able to play in World Cups and Euros – there was no way past it. That is the pinnacle of any player’s career, so once that happened we knew it was doomed.”