SPORTS: Man City, Chelsea to pull out of breakaway Super League: Reports

English football clubs Manchester City and Chelsea are set to quit a controversial European Super League in a crucial blow for the proposed new competition, according to several media reports.

Chelsea and City were two of 12 leading European football clubs to sign up to the breakaway league on Sunday.

Manchester City said in a statement on Tuesday it has “formally enacted the procedures to withdraw from the group developing plans for a European Super League”

Chelsea has yet to make an official statement.

Shortly before the BBC reported that the two English clubs were set to back out of the breakaway competition, in Spain the new competition went to court to stop the football authorities from thwarting its plans.

There was also speculation in Spain that Barcelona and Atletico Madrid may be planning similar steps in what could be a fatal blow to the planned but closed elite event.

An emergency meeting of the 12 clubs was said to be scheduled for Tuesday night, according to Spanish sports paper Marca.

The other teams are Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United from England; Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid from Spain; and AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus from Italy.

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