TheCable

JP Morgan, financier of the botched European Super League (ESL), has issued an apology for its involvement in the breakaway competition.

The US investment bank had planned to bankroll the controversial league with about  €3.25bn (£2.8bn) — which is expected to be shared among the 12 major European clubs involved.

The funding was secured on the back of the expected multi-billion-euro reward that will be made in TV broadcasting rights.

The development, however, provoked widespread criticisms from footbаll supporters, the mediа аnd government officiаls.

In a statement on Friday, the banking giant said it regretted supporting the soccer clubs in launching the widely-denounced competition.

“We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future,” a representative for the bank said in the statement.

“We will learn from this.”

The apology comes barely days after the firm’s sustainability rating was downgraded from “adequate” to “non-compliant”, according to a statement by Standard Ethics.

“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,” it read.

The controversial new league had planned to include Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham alongside Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus, and Inter Milan.

The six English Premier League clubs, two Italian clubs, and Atletico Madrid, however, announced their withdrawal from the Super League.

Florentino Perez, Real Madrid president, who orchestrated the breakaway league, had earlier said that the project was created to “save football at this critical moment”.

“Whenever there is a change, there are always people who oppose it. We are doing this to save football at this critical moment,” he had said.

“Audiences are decreasing and rights are decreasing and something had to be done. We are all ruined. Television has to change so we can adapt.”