CHICAGO -- Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr. left Sunday night's contest against the Chicago Cubs in the fourth inning due to pain in his lower abdominal muscles, according to the Braves.

Acuna had reached base via a walk in the top of the fourth but was attended to by Braves trainers after advancing to second on a free pass to Freddie Freeman a few moments later.

After eventually scoring from third base on a sacrifice fly, Acuna didn't come out to play the field in the bottom of the inning. He was replaced in the lineup by Johan Camargo. It was unclear if the injury happened on the basepath or elsewhere.

Acuna has been the Braves' best hitter in the early going, having reached base in his past 13 games, including on Sunday. He is hitting .419 so far this season.

LOUDON, N.H. – Bobby Santos III won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the third straight time in a breathtaking 50-lap Tour-Type Modified Open that was held Sunday during the Northeast Classic.

Santos was running second to Matt Swanson when the race’s only caution waved at lap 25 for teams to change right-side rubber.

On the restart, Swanson spun his tires and fell back. Santos assumed the lead, and the race transformed from a sedate affair to another Magic Mile classic. Santos and early leader Mike Christopher Jr. double-swapped the lead on three straight laps, with Christopher taking the lead entering turn one and Santos pulling the crossover move in turn three.

They pulled the same sequence on laps 33 and 34, and on the fifth double-cross, polesitter Chase Dowling stole second place from Christopher.

Dowling then flexed his muscle, passing by Santos to lead laps 35 and 36. The two then officially exchanged the lead five more times over the next six laps. Even then, there were double-swaps again on laps 46 and 47.

Ronnie Williams followed Santos to the inside for second with three to go, and although Dowling was able to repass him, the sequence cost Dowling enough time that he couldn’t run Santos back down. All told, the 50-lap feature had nine official lead changes plus 16 more unofficial lead changes.

Santos, Dowling, and Williams were the top-three finishers in that order. Eric Goodale and Christopher rounded out the top-five.

The finish:

Bobby Santos III, Chase Dowling, Ronnie Williams, Eric Goodale, Mike Christopher Jr., Anthony Nocella, Matt Swanson, Sam Rameau, Jeffrey Gallup, Andy Shaw, Joel Monahan.

LOUDON, N.H. — Reigning American-Canadian Tour champion Jimmy Hebert finally scored a long-awaited victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday during the inaugural Northeast Classic.

Hebert was awarded the win following post-race technical inspection, giving the veteran a triumph he’d been chasing for his entire decade-long late model career.

The now eight-time ACT winner was leading the event with three laps to go before getting passed by D.J. Shaw. However, Shaw was later disqualified for a carburetor infraction. This gave Hebert the win and a $5,000 top prize on a busy afternoon at the Magic Mile.

Ryan Kuhn started on the pole and led the first four laps. Shaw then passed him from the fifth starting spot and drove away from the field. Hebert and Tom Carey III followed Shaw around Kuhn, who was eventually felled by a brake problem. The duo could only watch Shaw drive into the afternoon sun until a competition caution on lap 27 for right-side tires and adjustments.

Shaw pulled away again after the restart until Jimmy Renfrew Jr. smacked the backstretch wall with 11 laps to go. The leader chose the inside for the restart, but Hebert made a charge on the outside, taking the top spot after two laps of side-by-side racing.

Hebert held the lead through one more caution on lap 43 for Dylan Payea’s stalled automobile. Shaw, though, had the faster long-run car and got below Hebert in turn three for the top spot with laps winding down. The joy was short-lived, however, and Hebert was named the victor in his first late model race driving a Ford.

Carey moved up into the second spot following the disqualification after a late battle with Ben Rowe. Rowe became the new third-place finisher. Mark Jenison, Derek Ming, Stephen Donahue, Trenton Goodrow, Erick Sands, Robby Gordon Douglas, and Payea rounded out the top-10.

The finish:

Jimmy Hebert, Tom Carey III, Ben Rowe, Mark Jenison, Derek Ming, Stephen Donahue, Trenton Goodrow, Erick Sands, Robby Gordon Douglas, Dylan Payea, Jesse Switser, Mike Benevides, Jamie Aube, Michael Lindquist, Gerard Giordano Jr., Matt Anderson, Derek Gluchacki, Tom Sheehan, Shawn Swallow, Jimmy Renfrew Jr., Kevin Vaudrien, Ryan Kuhn, Woody Pitkat, Jamie Swallow Jr., D.J. Shaw (DQ).

LEEDS, Ala. – Last year, NTT IndyCar Series fans got to know Alex Palou when the then-rookie driver from Spain had an impressive season with Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh.

It certainly impressed team owner Chip Ganassi, who hired Palou to replace Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 10 Honda this year.

In the first race of the new NTT IndyCar Series season, Palou got to know victory lane.

The 24-year-old from Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Spain, led 56 of the 90 laps on his way to winning Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park.

He defeated a charging Will Power by .4016 seconds. Palou was able to use a consistent driving style to keep Power at bay as the Team Penske driver had nearly half of his 200 seconds of push-to-pass to use in the final 10 laps.

Because Power was able to hit the push-to-pass button, he tightened the gap to 1.230 seconds to the leader as they raced around the picturesque road course.

The battle at the end featured the top four drivers separated by just a few seconds. The top three drivers were running virtually the same speed as Power was told by his Team Penske crew to use as much push-to-pass as he could on the final lap.

Palou was able to fend off the pressure and stay 1.831 seconds ahead of Power’s Chevrolet as the final lap began. He drove to the first checkered flag of his career as he scored his first NTT IndyCar Series victory.

“No way!” Palou shouted on the radio. “Oh my God.”

Palou joined Michael Andretti and the late Dan Wheldon as drivers to win in their first race driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I think it was possible to win the first race because we had the best car and the best team,” Palou said in victory lane. “Ricky Davis, my engineer, said, let’s win them all. Ricky told me to keep doing what I was doing on the mileage. It was one of those days where everything went well.

“It was an amazing race.”

Ganassi had three of his four drivers finish in the top eight.

“We did some testing during the offseason and he was really quick,” Ganassi said. “At one point, he was quicker than Scott Dixon. Wow, how can you be quicker than Scott Dixon.”

Power put up a great fight with the extra push-to-pass.

“I made one little mistake in turn nine, but with the amount of push-to-pass it could have been pretty good,” Power said. “It blew my mind how much Alex pulled away in that first stint.

“It’s awesome to get a really good start to the season. It’s great. I said to the guys if we have solid races with no mistakes, we will have a great chance to win the championship.”

Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion and Palou’s teammate, Scott Dixon, was third in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda, 2.9881 seconds behind the winner. Pole winner Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP was fourth. Sebastien Bourdais drove A.J. Foyt’s No. 14 Chevrolet to a fifth-place finish, 10.6967 out of the lead.

The top-four drivers all utilized a two-stop strategy during Sunday’s IndyCar opener.

Rinus VeeKay, Graham Rahal, Marcus Ericsson, Alexander Rossi and the debuting Romain Grosjean completed the top-10.

Team Penske rookie driver Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand was 14th. Another rookie, seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was 19th, three laps down, and was credited with zero on-track passes.

“I’m very happy to have finished,” Johnson said. “There were two scary moments in the race including the crash at the start of the race and the chaos. It was a ton of learning experience throughout the day and I’m happy to Chip has given me a chance to drive his car.

“And a huge congratulations to Alex Palou. To be his age with so much talent and wisdom is great. He did inform me the other day that I’m older than his father. But he was on it today.

“I can’t say too many times how different this racing is and how special the craft is to drive these cars.”

Ganassi said, “He’s got a hill to climb, but he’s going to do it.”

After a clean start to the race, Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden got turned around outside of turn five on the first lap, creating a massive crash that also involved Ryan Hunter-Reay, VeeKay, Colton Herta, Felix Rosenqvist and Max Chilton.

“I got loose coming over the hill,” Newgarden said. “It was a good start. We were lining in pretty nicely, but I just got loose in the wake. I thought I had the car and then touched the grass and I think once I touched the grass it pitched me sideways. I feel really bad for anyone that got involved in that. Obviously, my mess created a bigger mess. Any of the cars that got involved, I’m real sorry because it was obviously us that tipped it off. It’s a shame. I feel like we had a really good car. We just needed to file-in there at the start. We partially did that but yeah.

“Wudda, shudda, cudda I guess for Hitachi and Chevrolet. But we’ll come back. We’ve just got to bounce back at the next one.”

For complete results, advance to the next page.

RICHMOND, Va. – Alex Bowman took advantage of a late-race restart to secure his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season during Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Raceway.

Bowman was an unlikely winner as most of the race had been dominated by Denny Hamlin, with Joey Logano coming on strong late in the race to challenge for the victory during the final 100 laps.

Logano had managed to get by Hamlin during a long green flag run with 66 laps to go, but Hamlin never let Logano get away after both drivers made green flag pit stops. Bowman, meanwhile, was running in third more than 10 seconds behind the lead duo.

Logano and Hamlin began to battle for the lead with less than 30 laps left, with Hamlin consistently sticking his nose under Logano’s No. 22. However, the battle was halted with 20 laps left when the right-rear tire on Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 failed and he backed his Ford into the wall to bring out the caution flag.

The leaders brought the few remaining lead lap cars down pit road for the final round of pit stops, with Hamlin barely beating Logano out of the pits. Bowman followed them off pit road in third to set up the final restart with 12 laps left.

When racing resumed Hamlin got a strong launch into turn one and was able to clear Logano to take the lead. However, behind them Bowman roared to life as he dispatched Logano for second before turning his attention to Hamlin.

Bowman immediately drove under Hamlin and with 10 laps left he moved the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet into the race lead. He stretched his lead out briefly, but Hamlin soon began to close back in on Bowman’s bumper as the laps clicked off.

However, Bowman had built enough of a cushion to hang on and crossed the finish line .381 seconds ahead of Hamlin to become the eighth different race winner in nine events this season.

“To be honest with you, we were terrible on short runs,” Bowman said. “We restarted third and I’m like ‘Man, if we get out of here with a solid top-five, we’ll be good.’ We’ve overcome a lot today. I don’t know if Greg pumped the pressures way up or what he did, but that’s more grip than I’ve ever had in a race car at Richmond and it worked out really well. Getting to race a guy like Denny at a place that this is really cool. I feel like we raced each other really clean, so I’m appreciative of that. It means a lot.”

The victory also Bowman’s first since taking over the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that was vacated by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson at the end of last year.

Johnson made his NTT IndyCar Series debut earlier Sunday afternoon, finishing 19th.

“There are so many different things going on right now that I almost didn’t remember that,” Bowman said of Johnson making his IndyCar debut. “It’s really special for a lot of reasons.”

Hamlin’s second-place finish was his eighth top-five finish in nine races this year and leaves him with a commanding lead in the NASCAR Cup Series standings. However, he was still frustrated after watching another victory slip away.

“We just didn’t take off very good there,” Hamlin said. “Definitely the worse that our car took off after a restart. The 48 (Bowman) I’m guessing had his tires pumped up and he was able to take off there and get the lead and then build a lead that I didn’t have enough time to get back to him.”

Logano settled for third, followed by the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Christopher Bell and Martin Truex Jr.

For complete results, advance to the next page.

Ready or not, the Vancouver Canucks will play their first game since March 24 on Sunday night at home.

When they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, however, the Canucks -- who saw their season stalled by a lengthy COVID-19-related pause -- will hardly have the type of lineup that Vancouver fans are used to.

"I was just looking at our board. I think we have eight or nine guys out of the lineup tonight that would have had a good chance of playing," coach Travis Green said Sunday during his pregame media availability.

Green appeared sullen and stone-faced as he answered questions while sipping a cup of coffee. The coach -- as well as his club -- has been challenged by the pandemic, perhaps more than any other team.

That said, Vancouver had enough of a roster to field some practices leading up to the game. The Canucks began preparations Thursday.

"We should have some enthusiasm in our players for sure," Green said. "Our team will be excited to play. [There] will be some rust, though. There's no way you can mimic game action. And we've been out for awhile."

Canucks veteran defenseman Tyler Myers will be one of the players in the lineup when Vancouver takes on the No. 1 team in the North Division. But his type of experience on the blue line will be lacking overall against the high-octane Maple Leafs.

"We had a pretty good last few skates. You could tell guys were really pushing through some of the fatigue to get back at it, enough that will put us in position to win games," Myers said. "We expect to come out hard."

The return of the Canucks has been debated for weeks across the league, and one of the team's veteran forwards, J.T. Miller, who will play Sunday, was outspoken about the league potentially rushing their return to play.

Canucks general manager Jim Benning defended the message last week.

"We're dealing with a different kind of COVID; the P.1 variant is different. We didn't know what to expect," Benning said Friday. "As our players started coming back and working out, then the constant communication -- they were having some symptoms that were different than regular COVID, and it took them a little longer to get up and going. I think that was relayed in J.T.'s message."

Myers, too, echoed the sentiment, but more for what the Canucks have at home than on the ice.

"The hardest part was when all the families got it," he said. "But looks like most of the kids handled it better than the adults did."

The Canucks have off Monday but will face the Maple Leafs again on Tuesday in Vancouver.

"I'm looking for a lot of things," Green said about this week. "First of all, how we're skating, and then how we're handling the puck. I feel like those go hand in hand with our group.

"And I'm anxious to see the rust level in this team."

Stewart Cink wrapped up the wire-to-wire victory Sunday at the RBC Heritage, winning for the second time this season. Here's everything you need to know:

Leaderboard: Stewart Cink (-19), Harold Varner III (-15), Emiliano Grillo (-15), Maverick McNealy (-13), Corey Conners (-13), Matt Fitzpatrick (-13), Chris Kirk (-12), Collin Morikawa (-12)

What it means: Despite starting his week by yanking his first tee shot into the water and making bogey, Cink quickly took control, led wire to wire and on Sunday afternoon won for the second time this season. The last time Cink won more than once in a single season was 2004. The 47-year-old veteran now has eight PGA Tour wins in his career.

What it happened: Cink entered the final round with a five-shot cushion, so his victory wasn’t in much doubt. He only carded two birdies, on Nos. 5 and 17, but he also dropped only one shot – for the week he made just three bogeys. No player got within three shots of Cink on Sunday.

Round of the day: Varner piped his opening tee shot Sunday out of bounds yet rebounded to shoot 5-under 66.

Shot of the day: One of Grillo’s four birdies came at the par-3 seventh, where Grillo nearly aced it before tapping in an easy 2-footer for birdie.

Biggest disappointment: Morikawa. After beginning the day by holing a 16-footer for birdie, Morikawa made just one other birdie the rest of the way. He bogeyed Nos. 2 and 4, the latter coming after a missed 3-footer, to essentially end his shot at tracking down Cink.

A heavily depleted Real Madrid side scraped a 0-0 draw at Getafe on Sunday in La Liga to fall three points behind leaders Atletico Madrid.

Real beat Barcelona 2-1 last week and overcame Liverpool in midweek to reach the Champions League semifinals but were crippled by the absence of nine players due to either injury, suspension or COVID-19 positives.

- Ratings: Courtois gets 9/10 despite Real dropping points
- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

Forward Mariano had an early goal ruled out for offside after a VAR review but Getafe had far more and far better opportunities, hitting the woodwork in the first half and being thwarted by two fine saves from Thibaut Courtois in the second.

The draw interrupted a run of four straight league wins for Zinedine Zidane's side and left them second on 67 points after 31 games, three behind leaders Atletico who thrashed Eibar 5-0 earlier in the day.

"I don't see this as two points dropped, it's always difficult to come here," said Real defender Marcelo.

"We knew what it would be like here, the pitch was very dry and we couldn't get the ball moving quickly. We have hardly any time to rest but we have to keep on giving everything, that's what football is like right now."

Despite the many absences, Zidane chose to start without top scorer Karim Benzema and left Toni Kroos on the bench, handing a first start to defender Victor Chust and a debut for 20-year-old midfielder Antonio Blanco from the bench.

Getafe could have scored three times in the opening 10 minutes and then striker Jaime Mata struck the post with a header.

Real's Mariano saw a shot cleared off the line from David Timor, adding to his frustration after his goal was chalked off for a fractional offside.

The home side continued to dictate the play after the interval as Real grew ever more tired but Getafe could not get past Real keeper Courtois.

"You focus on one word," said Zidane after the match. "We don't have limits. We'll do something. We'll keep fighting, whatever happens, until the end of the season, we'll raise the limit, there's no ceiling for this team. Our morale is good, we have to rest well and keep going."

The Belgian flew towards the top corner to beat away a shot from Angel Rodriguez and then reacted quickly to tip a long range effort from Nemanja Maksimovic over the bar after it took a deflection off Chust.

Getafe had two penalty appeals waved away for incidents involving Real centre back Eder Militao, who brought down Enes Unal in the first half and then collided with Angel just as the forward was getting his shot away.

Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez recorded his first two-goal performance of his MLS career and Sacha Kljestan scored in the 81st minute to lift the LA Galaxy to a 3-2 win over host Inter Miami CF on Sunday.

Hernandez matched his goal total from all of 2020, the first year in MLS for the Mexico national team's all-time leading scorer.

For Kljestan, a late substitute, it was his first goal since scoring the winner for Orlando City against the New York Red Bulls on March 23, 2019.

- MLS on ESPN+: Stream LIVE games and replays (U.S. only)

Gonzalo Higuain scored from the penalty spot and had an assist for Miami, which lost in the debut of manager Phil Neville, the former Manchester United and England teammate of partial club owner David Beckham.

Instead, it was Greg Vanney winning in his managerial debut for the Galaxy. He assumed the role after helping Toronto FC win one MLS Cup and reach three finals.

But Miami was the better team for long early stretches and took the lead through Robbie Robinson just before halftime.

Not long after the break, Vanney made a tactical change, inserting Ethan Zubak as a second forward to switch to a 4-4-2.

It resulted in Chicharito's first goal in the 62nd minute. Zubak worked wide on the left, then sent in a cross toward the striker, who made a lateral run across the penalty spot and drove a first-touch finish past goalkeeper John McCarthy.

Higuain put Miami in front again not long after on a penalty earned by Rodolfo Pizarro, but Chicharito answered with his second in the 73rd minute when he pounced after McCarthy failed to deal with a cross from the left.

Then came the winner from an Oniel Fisher attack down the right. Sebastian Lletget eventually got to the cross and laid the ball off for Kljestan, whose low finish struck the inside of the left post on its way past McCarthy.

Twelve of Europe's top clubs announced on Sunday they were launching a breakaway Super League, headed by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

AC Milan, Arsenal FC, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Barcelona, Internazionale, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur have all joined as founding clubs, the statements added.

Madrid president Perez said: "We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world. Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires."

As part of the move, the clubs included would withdraw from the European Club Association and games would be played in the middle of the week, with the Super League governed by the founding clubs, the club statements indicated.

The agreement provides that the founding clubs will receive an upfront net grant of approximately €3.5 billion ($4.19 billion) in aggregate, the statements said.

ESPN sources said earlier on Sunday that up to 15 of Europe's biggest clubs are in talks to launch a so-called European Super League, planned to start in time for the 2023-24 season.

If the initiative is successful, which has already been rebuked by FIFA and numerous FAs throughout Europe, it would threaten the existence of the Champions League -- football's biggest club competition -- with UEFA due to announce on Monday a new 36-team format for the tournament designed to stave off attempts by the game's top clubs to break away.

- Marcotti: What a breakaway Super League would mean
- Stream LIVE games and replays on ESPN+ (U.S. only)

A women's Super League competition is also planned to be launched after the men's league is up and running, the statement said.

The format of the competition would be two groups of 10 playing home and away fixtures with the top three in each group qualifying for the quarter-finals. A play-off involving fourth and fifth placed teams will complete the final eight.

Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, vice-chairman of the new league, said the move would secure the long-term future of the game.

"Our 12 founder clubs represent billions of fans across the globe and 99 European trophies. We have come together at this critical moment, enabling European competition to be transformed, putting the game we love on a sustainable footing for the long-term future, substantially increasing solidarity, and giving fans and amateur players a regular flow of headline fixtures that will feed their passion for the game while providing them with engaging role models."

FIFA said on Sunday it disapproved of the breakaway competition called the European Super League as it was outside of international football structures.

"Against this background, FIFA can only express its disapproval to a 'closed European breakaway league' outside of the international football structures," a statement from football's world governing body read.

ESPN has been told by a person familiar with the blueprint that the proposed framework involves a total of 20 teams, with 15 permanent members who cannot be relegated.

Sources have told ESPN that New York-based investment bank JP Morgan will underwrite the project, with $6 billion distributed as loans to the teams.

Under pressure from the European Club Association, UEFA has drawn up plans to reshape the Champions League format, with the new-look competition due to be unveiled Monday, ahead of UEFA's executive committee summit in Switzerland this week.

UEFA criticised the plans in a statement and said: "UEFA, the English Football Association and the Premier League, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and LaLiga, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and Lega Serie A have learned that a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce their creation of a closed, so-called Super League.

"If this were to happen, we wish to reiterate that we - UEFA, the English FA, RFEF, FIGC, the Premier League, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, but also FIFA and all our member associations - will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever.

"We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit; it cannot be any other way.

"As previously announced by FIFA and the six Federations, the clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams.

"We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough."

Planned to come into force in 2024, the remodelled Champions League would involve 36 teams playing 10 group games rather than six. The biggest clubs would also receive an increased share of prize money.

Sources told ESPN that UEFA plan to press ahead with their announcement Monday, and that any breakaway league remains a distant prospect, with national associations UEFA and FIFA both needing to sanction the proposal.

Meanwhile, the European Clubs' Association issued a statement in which it reiterated commitment to working with UEFA on competition reform, adding that a "closed super league model ... would be strongly opposed."

Serie A called an emergency board meeting on Sunday to discuss a newspaper report saying broadcaster DAZN is involved in new plans for the breakaway league, a source told Reuters.

The meeting was called by league president Paolo Dal Pino, and Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport reported that DAZN, which is owned by billionaire Len Blavatnik's Access Industries, has been working on the formation of the league for some time.

The report claims the meeting is being attended remotely, with the three Serie A clubs who could potentially be part of the new project: Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.

FIFA has earlier said that players who feature in any breakaway European Super League would be banned from playing in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup.

It caps a tumultuous week for Serie A after seven clubs submitted a written request for Dal Pino to resign over issues that include his management of plans to sell a stake in the league's media business.

The plans to expand the Champions League are also likely to meet opposition from supporters; ESPN reported last week that fans' groups have already registered their anger over UEFA's proposed changes.

On Sunday, a statement from the Premier League condemned the breakaway plans.

It read: "The Premier League condemns any proposal that attacks the principles of open competition and sporting merit which are at the heart of the domestic and European football pyramid.

Fans of any club in England and across Europe can currently dream that their team may climb to the top and play against the best. We believe that the concept of a European Super League would destroy this dream.

"The Premier League is proud to run a competitive and compelling football competition that has made it the most widely watched league in the world. Our success has enabled us to make an unrivalled financial contribution to the domestic football pyramid.

"A European Super League will undermine the appeal of the whole game, and have a deeply damaging impact on the immediate and future prospects of the Premier League and its member clubs, and all those in football who rely on our funding and solidarity to prosper.

"We will work with fans, The FA, EFL, PFA and LMA, as well as other stakeholders, at home and abroad, to defend the integrity and future prospects of English football in the best interests of the game."

Information from Reuters was also included in this report.