The European Super League is back, rebranded as the “Unify League”, and ready to challenge Uefa’s Champions League pre-eminence with a claim that it will be free to watch.

The new proposal, which follows on from the original bombshell Super League proposals in April 2021, have scrapped the notion that certain clubs qualify automatically every year.

Instead there is a proposed annual qualification for all four leagues within the Unity League by the organizers behind it, A22 Sports. A22 is the Madrid-based company established to advise the original European Super League with close links to Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez.

The competition would be streamed via a branded “Unified” platform, via an app, with a similar model to Netflix. Subscribers could watch the games free with a relatively high level of advertising content, or pay for a subscription that would eliminate the advertising in much the way that the music streamer Spotify operates.

The European Super League Company and A22 will now ask Uefa for permission to operate the competition. A22 believes Uefa is obliged to do so under the Dec 2023 ruling from the European courts.

The proposal is for 96 clubs to compete – fewer than the 108 that qualify for the group stages of Uefa’s three competitions including the Champions League. The Unify League champions would eventually come from the top two tiers, the Star League and Gold League.

Both would feature 16 teams divided in both cases into two groups of eight. Those eight would play each home and away – 14 group stages fixtures. The top two clubs from each of the four groups would go through to a final eight.

The final stages would begin with two-legged quarter-final followed by single game semi-finals played at a neutral venue in the same week as the eventual final. That would mean 18 games in all for the winner. The Blue and Union leagues would play a similar knockout format.

The original breakaway involved 12 clubs, including six from the Premier League. The current version only has the explicit support of Real and Barcelona

John Hahn, co-founder of A22, said: “We have listened intently to a broad group of clubs, leagues and fans and with these changes believe we have a lot of support. We are not expecting the public support of clubs at this time, logically that will come following the official recognition of the Unify League.” He added that the subscription would be “meaningfully cheaper than it is [to consumers] today”.