Summary:
the Flint consulting agency have first-class contacts with parliamentarians and authorities. Their specialty is discreetly »paving the way« for difficult projects.
This summer, the company with offices in Brussels and London applied for a particularly delicate contract: They are supposed to unhinge international professional football. The football clubs Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin want to found a European Super League. Yes still.
Pérez and his people really want to push through the Super League. And the Flint agency wants to help them with that. They have designed a strategy how the league could still be successful against all odds.
Spiegel had access to the agency's first draft. The paper has ten pages and is entitled "Preparing the way for the Super League: the strategy for reconstruction, reset - and victory".
Flint promises to launch a campaign that will be "bulletproof" against attacks of all Super League opponents
The legal experts from Flint see chances of a victory in front of the European Court of Justice, which would then legitimize the Super League by the highest court. But just winning in court, without conquering the "hearts and minds" of fans and opinion leaders, will not be enough, according to Flint
The company plans to reverse the negative image of the Super League. With »discreet events« and »briefings for selected politicians, EU bureaucrats and journalists«. The aim is to take away the worries of decision-makers.
Flint lists important persons who should be influenced: the people of Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, EU parliamentarians with a connection to football like Tomasz Frankowski, media people like EU correspondents of the Financial Times and the FAZ
Flint experts point out in their paper that it makes no sense to try again with a league that opposes this principle of European football (pro/rel, open to all). Fans and politics would run into storm again.
the flagship product should be the Super League, there could also be a Super League 2 as a compromise. Promotion and relegation should be possible between these leagues.
the agency confirmed to SPIEGEL that it had received the Super League mandate from the clubs
