What is it? 

Some of Europe's biggest football clubs have launched a breakaway Super League as a rival to UEFA's established Champions League, against the wishes of football authorities, political leaders and fan groups. 

The Super League is aiming to have around 15 founding members and a 20-team league, with five other clubs qualifying each season. 

The founding members would have their participation guaranteed, taking away the jeopardy of relegation and ensuring their year-on-year continuation in the lucrative league. 

Who's involved? 

There are 12 teams in total, six teams from England: Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham. All but Tottenham have won the domestic Premier League (but the club has won the top flight of English football in its previous incarnation as Division One), while most are regular participants in the current European elite football competition – the Champions League. 

READ MORE:

'People are not born racist'
 

The history of Russia-Ukraine tensions
 

Soccer's elite clubs announce breakaway plans
 

From Spain: Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid – domestically the three dominant teams in the top division La Liga for decades. 

In Italy, Inter Milan and AC Milan join Juventus the chairman of which, Andrea Agnelli, was, until Monday, the head of the European Club Association, the body that represents the 246 leading clubs across Europe. 

He will now reportedly take on a role as the vice-president of the new league, alongside Manchester United owner Joel Glazer and Arsenal's Stan Kroenke. 

The President of Europen football's governing body UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, the godfather to Agnelli's daughter, denounced the Juventus boss, telling the press "he's been the biggest disappointment of all."

Who isn't involved?

German football giant Bayern Munich and France's Paris Saint-Germain, owned by the ruler of Qatar, are notable absentees from the competition. 

As things stand, no German team is joining the rebel league, which could be due to their league's rules on ownership. The "50+1" rule ensures that the clubs' members – largely made up of fans – retain overall control by owning more than 50 percent of the club's shares, protecting them from takeover by external investors. 

However, the Super League is reportedly still courting Bayern and PSG, and hopes to recruit the teams in the near future. 

Why are they doing this? 

Sky Sports broadcaster and former Manchester United player Gary Neville condemned the move as being driven by "pure greed." His damning attack, which has garnered millions of views on social media, was reflected by UEFA, which denounced the league as a "cynical project" based on self interest. 

Money, for many of these clubs, has never been more important. Footballing institutions like Barcelona and Real Madrid are facing financial chaos after the pandemic gutted their finances. Arsenal recently restructured its debts and its players took a pay cut over the pandemic, while Tottenham has a new 60,000-seat stadium to pay for and no fans to fill it. 

However, the rebel organizers have framed their decision as the right one to protect the future of football. 

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, the reported head of the breakaway league, said the move "will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world.

"Football is the only global sport in the world, with more than 4 billion fans, and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires."

How much money can they make?  

The operation to launch the league is being funded by U.S. investment bank JPMorgan Chase, which committed to underwriting a $4.19 billion "infrastructure grant."

The Financial Times reports that the 12 signatories have been guaranteed a "welcome bonus" of between $240m to $360m each from this grant. And that the league's 15 permanent members will be joint owners of a company in Spain and will share all future broadcast and sponsorship rights. 

The league reportedly expects to make around $4.86 billion annually from broadcasters, compared with the $3.9 billion commercial revenue, reported by UEFA, for each of the past three seasons from selling the rights to the Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Super Cup.

Early reports suggest the breakaway league has held talks with U.S.-based media giants including Amazon, Facebook and Disney about broadcasting rights. 

In an attempt to placate criticism, the league has promised to pay $481m in "solidarity grants" to governing bodies and teams in other competitions, a significant increase on the money provided by the existing elite European football competitions. 

What punishments might they face? 

In his press conference, where Ceferin cut a furious figure, the UEFA head said that "as soon as possible ... clubs will be banned from all our competitions – and the players from all our competitions." Which would have immediate effects on the ongoing Champions League and the upcoming international European Championships. 

Domestically, the rebel teams also face threats. There have been reports that English teams could be put in the fifth division of the domestic game, while other reports suggest the clubs could forgo domestic competition entirely. 

The Premier League, the richest domestic league in world football, relies heavily on the revenue brought in by the six rebel teams. Complicating matters, any suspension or expulsion of the rebels from the league – a decision that would have to be supported by the other teams – would ultimately damage the league financially. 

National governments have been quick to condemn the plans, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowing to "block" the move, while France's President Emmanuel Macron has given his support to the existing football authorities to fight the new league.  

The condemnation of the league was more mild in Spain, where the country's sport's minister Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes told reporters: "We don't want it [the new project] to affect [Spanish soccer], and if it does, we want it to affect [it] in a good way."

Despite the opposition from governments, at this state it is unclear what they could do to stop the league forming or punish those taking part. 

What is the impact on fans? 

After a year of empty stadiums due to the pandemic, the future of match-attending fans has never been more precarious. 

The news has prompted near-universal and fierce criticism from fan groups, damaging the already strained relationship between the clubs' owners and supporters, while plans to boycott games and hold protests are currently being organized.