Spanish Clubs

After a six-month spell at the top of LaLiga, Atlético Madrid has ceded control of the division to Barcelona with only five matches remaining (although the two clubs meet on May 8). 

On Sunday, Atlético slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Athletic Club at the San Mamés following Iñigo Martínez’s dramatic 86th-minute winner. After an early stretch of 15 wins in 16 games that made Atlético’s title look almost certain, Los Colchoneros have won only five of their last 12 to allow Barça (15 wins in 17) the chance to go top on Thursday against Granada.

Sevilla kept itself in the LaLiga title race by defeating Granada 2-1 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán on Sunday, although Spain’s fourth-place side had to withstand late pressure following Roberto Soldado’s penalty and hold out for not one, but two full-time whistles. 

Ivan Rakitić gave Sevilla a 1-0 lead from the spot in the 16th minute, and Lucas Ocampos made it 2-0 in the 53rd off a feed from Papu Gómez. However, in the 90th minute, the VAR spotted a Marcos Acuña handball and Soldado said game on with four minutes of stoppage time to play.

MANCHESTER, England — The European Super League collapsed on Wednesday as eight of the 12 founding members from England, Italy and Spain abandoned the breakaway project under massive pressure from fans, politicians, soccer officials and even the British royals.

Founder and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli told Reuters he was reluctantly calling time on the new league after six English clubs withdrew on Tuesday, with Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid following suit and AC Milan indicating they would too.

MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City started the process of withdrawing from the breakaway European Super League on Tuesday less than 72 hours after agreeing to join, with Chelsea also reported to be quitting in a major blow for the proposed new competition.

City confirmed they wanted to pull out while fellow English club Chelsea were reported by local media to be preparing the paperwork to leave a project backed by U.S. investment bank JP Morgan and headed by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

The cat is out of the bag as 12 “leading European clubs” have thrown it all away in pursuit of securing the most gluttonous bag in the history of football. It’s difficult to see these historic institutions — Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan among them — as football clubs at this point; they’re self-serving vehicles of greed that operate as welfare for billionaires. We should amend the “FC” abbreviation on these clubs’ names accordingly.