Players showed their care for fans with Super League criticism – Gordon Taylor

Gordon Taylor, the outgoing chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, has praised the role of players in derailing the breakaway European Super League project.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, team-mate James Milner and Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan were among those to voice opposition to plans for the ‘closed-shop’ league involving Liverpool, City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Players from other clubs outside the so-called ‘big six’ also played a role, with Leeds notably wearing T-shirts in opposition while warming up for their match against Liverpool a day after the plans were made public.

“Above all they have shown how much they care about supporters,” Taylor said.

Taylor also criticised the new Champions League format, which will see the competition increase from 32 to 36 teams from the 2024-25 season, with a new-look group stage that will see all teams play at least 10 fixtures.

“They (UEFA) keep going to the well for more and more games and looking at quantity rather than quality,” he added.

“We do need to be mindful of the health and safety of our players because, even though we’ve made massive improvements with regard to medicine and science and sport science, it is still only an average eight-year career because of the intensity of the competition.”