Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Tottenham Hotspur have publicly acknowledged their collaboration with six elite clubs in Spain and Italy on a new extremely selective and mainly closed event that would basically replace the Champions League. The new tournament would feature only the best teams in Europe and would be played over one or two seasons.
The participants in this new tournament would include the top clubs in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The order of appearance of the teams in each season would be determined by a series of play-off matches. If two teams are tied after playing each other once, they would go into a penalty shoot-out to determine who moves on to the next round.
This new tournament would replace the current European Champion's Cup. The last edition of this competition was won by Real Madrid who beat Ajax 4-3 on penalties after both teams finished level at 1-1 after 120 minutes of normal time played. It is worth mentioning that the final was watched by nearly 50 million people worldwide.
The new tournament would begin in the spring of 2016 and would end in the fall of that same year. However, the participating teams could decide to extend the contract for another season if there is no break in the schedule of games.
Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool are the six English clubs who have signed up for the Super League. They were considered the English Premier League's "Big 6." The title now includes Newcastle United, who last season joined London-based teams in the Champions League.
Newcastle United played in the top flight from 1955 to 1973 and again from 1975 to 1995. They were relegated in 2004 but returned to the top division after winning the Championship play-off the following year. They are currently playing in the UEFA Cup.
So the "Big 6" are Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool. These are the only clubs that should be featured in any discussion about the EPL or the Super League.
Newcastle United may also be included in such discussions if you consider them to be part of the "bigger 6" due to their previous status as a major club. However, they are not officially recognized as such by any league officials or media sources so we will not include them here.
Now, let's look at which clubs are missing from this list.
It's impossible to say when it happened, but a "big six" in the Premier League arose somewhere in the previous decade, consisting of Manchester United, City, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Tottenham. Each of these teams has either won or been runner-up in the English top flight ten times since 2004/05.
The "big six" have dominated the league for years, with only two other teams able to match their success rate: Everton (with nine top-four finishes in the last 11 seasons) and Newcastle (with five straight seasons at or near the top). Neither Man City nor Chelsea have ever finished lower than fourth place during this period.
Although not quite true competitors, both Man City and Chelsea have very strong squads and tend to finish above both of them. Since the arrival of Abu Dhabi owners in 2008, both clubs have spent enormous amounts of money on players, putting them out of reach of everyone else. There's also a general perception that the "big six" don't want to lose, so they try even harder than everyone else to keep winning titles.
Finally, there's Liverpool. The club has always been considered one of if not the best team in England, but over the last few years they've fallen behind everyone else.
The Premier League has six clubs from London. There are 12 teams in each of the four elite categories of football, with six in the Premier League. The other two domestic cup competitions, the FA Cup and the UEFA Europa League, also have a sixth team coming up from the Division 3 level.
Only one club outside Britain has featured in the Premier League recently: A.S. Roma from Rome entered the league for the 2001-02 season and played only one game, losing 4-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford. Since then, they have been relegated back to Serie A.
Two clubs from France have competed in the Premier League: Marseille and Lyon. Both were members of the old First Division before it was renamed Ligue 1 and both remain in that division today. AFC Bournemouth is the most recent English club to join them; the Cherries were promoted from the English Football League Championship at the end of 2016-17.
Three clubs from England have featured in the Premier League: Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Like Marseille and Lyon, both of which were formed in 1848, they all belong to the Old First Division. It's a remarkable achievement for three clubs who have no link apart from their location within England.
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