title: Yellowknife

text: Electricity is provided to Yellowknife by Northland Utilities, serving 6,350 residential and 800 commercial customers. Yellowknife operates almost entirely on hydroelectricity from the Snare-Bluefish systems, provided by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC). NTPC's local production capacity is 67.9 megawatts, 30.89 MW from 10 generators at the Jackfish Diesel Plant, 28.8 MW from Snare Lake, and 7.5 MW from Miramar Bluefish.


title: Yellowknife

text: Residential garbage removal is through a user pay system, in which residents are allowed three garbage bags per week; any additional bags must have a purchased tag. The City of Yellowknife Solid Waste Management Facility is located on the Ingraham Trail (Highway 4) north of the city; salvaging is encouraged, and the dump is infamous for the number of still useful items often found in it.


title: Yellowknife

text: The City of Yellowknife provides pressurized potable water throughout the majority of the city, and has a network of gravity-fed sewage lines; trucked water and sewage is provided in areas not serviced by piped infrastructure. Sewage, with the aid of lift stations, is pumped to a series of lakes, referred to as Fiddler's Lake Lagoon, where it is held and allowed to naturally decompose. Water is obtained from the Yellowknife River and is disinfected with chlorine and liquid fluoride is added, but is not otherwise filtered or treated.


title: Yellowknife

text: Yellowknife, while isolated geographically, has a modern transportation system. The Yellowknife Airport is the busiest airport in northern Canada, having 70,699 aircraft movements in 2007 and handling over 400,000 passengers and 30,000 tonnes of cargo yearly. It has two asphalt runways, one strip and another of ; while the Yellowknife Airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency, it is certified for general aviation aircraft only. The Yellowknife airport is designated by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as a forward operating location for the CF-18 Hornet. Despite its shorter runways, the airport can still accommodate 747s and other wide-body aircraft for emergency landings. Air traffic control services, Instrument landing system (Category 1), and radar services are provided by Nav Canada.


title: Yellowknife

text: Yellowknife Transit is the public transportation agency in the city, and is the only transit system in the Northwest Territories.


title: Yellowknife

text: Road construction in Yellowknife is often a challenge due to the presence of permafrost which requires that roads generally be regraded and resurfaced every 10 to 20 years. Most roads in Yellowknife are paved and road width varies from . Winter snow removal is done on a regular schedule by the City of Yellowknife public works department. Speed limits are on most roads, in school zones, and on highways. School zones and playground zones are in effect 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The highway system in the NWT is maintained by the Government of the Northwest Territories. Highway 4 (Ingraham Trail) and Highway 3 (Yellowknife Highway) both run through Yellowknife and are all-weather roads. One well-known, almost infamous, road in Yellowknife is Ragged Ass Road, after which Tom Cochrane named an album.


title: Yellowknife

text: Until 2012, Yellowknife did not have a permanent road connection to the rest of Canada's highway network, as the Yellowknife Highway relied, depending on the season, on ferry service or an ice road to cross the Mackenzie River. With the completion of the Deh Cho Bridge, which officially opened on 30 November 2012, the city now has its first direct road connection to the rest of the country. One still-used ice road connects Yellowknife with the neighbouring community of Dettah, to the southeast across an arm of Great Slave Lake; or a drive via the Ingraham Trail.


title: Yellowknife

text: In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Yellowknife had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.


title: Yellowknife

text: As of the 2016 Census, there were 19,569 people and 7,130 households in the city. The population density was . The 2016 Census found that 22.7% of residents identified as Indigenous. In 2017, the Government of the Northwest Territories reported that the population was 20,834 with an average yearly growth rate of 0.6% from 2007.


title: Yellowknife

text: In Yellowknife, the population is slightly younger at 34.6 than the average age for the rest of the NWT which is 34.9. However, the population is slightly disproportionate in terms of age distribution compared to the national average of 41.0. As of the 2016 figures, 13.9% of residents were 9 or under, 6.0% were from 10 to 14 years old, 13.1% were from 15 to 24, 34.1.2% were from 25 to 44, 22.0% were from 45 to 59, and 10.9% were 60 or older.


title: Yellowknife

text: In 2016, the average household size was 2.7 and the majority of the population with children had either one or two. In 2015 the average income in the city was and the average income for a family was with 7.9% of all families earning less than $30,000. Minimum wage in Yellowknife and the NWT is (2018). Average household expenditures were in 2015. In 2016, the unemployment rate was at 5.9%; the employment rate for males was 80.1%, for females it was 75.2%.


title: Yellowknife

text: The crime rate in Yellowknife for 2016 was 46.7 (per 1,000 persons) for violent crimes, and 167.2 (per 1,000 persons) for property crimes. There were 299 births and 62 deaths in 2014.


title: Yellowknife

text: The 2021 census reported that immigrants (individuals born outside Canada) comprise 3,260 persons or 16.4% of the total population of Yellowknife. Of the total immigrant population, the top countries of origin were Philippines (965 persons or 29.6%), India (200 persons or 6.1%), United Kingdom (195 persons or 6.0%), Vietnam (160 persons or 4.9%), United States of America (110 persons or 3.4%), Germany (95 persons or 2.9%), Zimbabwe (75 persons or 2.3%), South Africa (75 persons or 2.3%), China (75 persons or 2.3%), Bangladesh (65 persons or 2.0%), Somalia (65 persons or 2.0%), and Pakistan (65 persons or 2.0%).


title: Yellowknife

text: Yellowknife is home to 695 recent immigrants (arriving between 2011 and 2016) who now make up 3.7% of the population. Of the recent immigrants 70.5% came from Asia; 15.1% from Africa and 7.2% from both the Americas and Europe. Of the recent immigrants 40.0% came from the Philippines, while 10.8% came from several African countries, 5.8% each from India, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, 4.3% from each of Japan and South Korea and 2.2% from Israel.


title: Yellowknife

text: Yellowknife is primarily populated by European with a population of 11,680 (60.6% of total). The total Indigenous peoples population 4,375 representing 22.7% of the population (12.7% First Nations, 7.0% Métis), and 3.0% Inuit. Other ethnic groups include Filipino with 1,065 residents (5.5% of total), Black with 610 residents (3.2% of total), and South Asian with 510 residents (2.6% of total) with a total visible minority population of 3,230 (16.7% of total).


title: Yellowknife

text: English was the mother tongue of 80.0% of residents and 3.2% spoke French. Of the nine official languages of the Northwest Territories 0.4% spoke Chipewyan (Dene); 0.1% spoke a Cree language; 0.1% spoke Gwich’in; 0.4% spoke Inuktitut; 0.1% spoke Inuinnaqtun or Inuvialuktun; 0.6% spoke North or South Slavey and 1.2% spoke Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib). In total 3.0% of the population said that an Indigenous language was their mother tongue.


title: Yellowknife

text: Not including the 11 official languages there are over 70 different languages that Yellowknifers stated were their mother tongue. These include Indo-European languages (4.2%); Austronesian languages (3.9%); Indo-Iranian languages and Germanic languages (1.1% each); Sino-Tibetan languages and Chinese languages and Indo-Aryan languages (1.0% each). The five main individual languages are Tagalog (3.2%); Vietnamese (0.8%); German (0.6%); Cantonese and Spanish (0.5% each).


title: Yellowknife

text: In the 2001 Census almost 73% of residents identified as Christian while 24% said they had no religious affiliation.. For specific denominations Statistics Canada found that 36% of residents identified as Roman Catholic, 11% as Anglican, 10% for the United Church, about 2% each as Baptists, Lutheran, and Pentecostal, and more than 1% for The Salvation Army. There were also 135 Buddhists, 125 Muslims, and 15 Jews.


title: Yellowknife

text: Other notable attractions include the Ingraham Trail, local fishing lodges, bush plane tours, the unique architecture of Old Town with the Bush Pilots monument, and any of the numerous lakes surrounding Yellowknife, many of which include beaches.


title: Yellowknife

text: The "Yellowknifer", published by Northern News Services, is the major newspaper serving Yellowknife, published twice weekly on Wednesday and Friday. Northern News Services also publishes "Northwest Territories News/North" every Monday, which serves the entire NWT. As well, there is "L'Aquilon", a French language newspaper published weekly. Edge Magazine is also based in Yellowknife where it began it 2011 and covers arts, events, people, culture and economy around the city.


title: Yellowknife

text: Two magazines are based in Yellowknife: "Above&Beyond" and "Up Here", both offering northern-related news and lifestyle articles.


title: Yellowknife

text: No part of the Northwest Territories is designated as a mandatory market for digital television conversion; only CFYK-DT converted its main transmitter in Yellowknife to digital.


title: Yellowknife

text: On 10 August 2012, NASA announced that the section of Mars where the Curiosity of the Mars Science Laboratory mission landed would be renamed Yellowknife, in recognition of the city of Yellowknife. Yellowknife is usually where scientists start geological mapping expeditions when researching the oldest known rocks in North America.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan, together with the northern region of Kuwait, southeastern region of Turkey and the western portion of Iran. Some authors also include Cyprus and Northern Egypt.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The Fertile Crescent is believed to be the very first region where settled farming emerged as people started the process of clearance and modification of natural vegetation to grow newly domesticated plants as crops. Early human civilizations such as Sumer in Mesopotamia flourished as a result. Technological advances in the region include the development of agriculture and the use of irrigation, of writing, the wheel, and glass, most emerging first in Mesopotamia.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The term "Fertile Crescent" was popularized by archaeologist James Henry Breasted in "Outlines of European History" (1914) and "Ancient Times, A History of the Early World" (1916).<ref name="Breasted 1914/1916"></ref> He wrote:


title: Fertile Crescent

text: There no single term for this region in antiquity. At the time that Breasted was writing, it roughly corresponded with the territories of the Ottoman Empire ceded to Britain and France in the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Historian Thomas Scheffler has noted that Breasted was following a trend in Western geography to "overwrite the classical geographical distinctions between continents, countries and landscapes with large, abstract spaces", drawing parallels with the work of Halford Mackinder, who conceptualised Eurasia as a 'pivot area' surrounded by an 'inner crescent', Alfred Thayer Mahan's Middle East, and Friedrich Naumann's "Mitteleuropa".


title: Fertile Crescent

text: In current usage, the Fertile Crescent includes Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, as well as the surrounding portions of Turkey and Iran. In addition to the Tigris and Euphrates, riverwater sources include the Jordan River. The inner boundary is delimited by the dry climate of the Syrian Desert to the south. Around the outer boundary are the Anatolian and Armenian highlands to the north, the Sahara Desert to the west, Sudan to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: As crucial as rivers and marshlands were to the rise of civilization in the Fertile Crescent, they were not the only factor. The area is geographically important as the "bridge" between North Africa and Eurasia, which has allowed it to retain a greater amount of biodiversity than either Europe or North Africa, where climate changes during the Ice Age led to repeated extinction events when ecosystems became squeezed against the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The Saharan pump theory posits that this Middle Eastern land bridge was extremely important to the modern distribution of Old World flora and fauna, including the spread of humanity.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The area has borne the brunt of the tectonic divergence between the African and Arabian plates and the converging Arabian and Eurasian plates, which has made the region a very diverse zone of high snow-covered mountains.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The Fertile Crescent had many diverse climates, and major climatic changes encouraged the evolution of many "r" type annual plants, which produce more edible seeds than "K" type perennial plants. The region's dramatic variety in elevation gave rise to many species of edible plants for early experiments in cultivation. Most importantly, the Fertile Crescent was home to the eight Neolithic founder crops important in early agriculture (i.e., wild progenitors to emmer wheat, einkorn, barley, flax, chick pea, pea, lentil, bitter vetch), and four of the five most important species of domesticated animals—cows, goats, sheep, and pigs; the fifth species, the horse, lived nearby. The Fertile Crescent flora comprises a high percentage of plants that can self-pollinate, but may also be cross-pollinated. These plants, called "selfers", were one of the geographical advantages of the area because they did not depend on other plants for reproduction.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: As well as possessing many sites with the skeletal and cultural remains of both pre-modern and early modern humans (e.g., at Tabun and Es Skhul caves in Israel), later Pleistocene hunter-gatherers, and Epipalaeolithic semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers (the Natufians); the Fertile Crescent is most famous for its sites related to the origins of agriculture. The western zone around the Jordan and upper Euphrates rivers gave rise to the first known Neolithic farming settlements (referred to as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA)), which date to around 9,000 BCE and includes very ancient sites such as Göbekli Tepe, Chogha Golan, and Jericho (Tell es-Sultan).


title: Fertile Crescent

text: This region, alongside Mesopotamia (Greek for "between rivers", between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, lies in the east of the Fertile Crescent), also saw the emergence of early complex societies during the succeeding Bronze Age. There is also early evidence from the region for writing and the formation of hierarchical state level societies. This has earned the region the nickname "The cradle of civilization".


title: Fertile Crescent

text: It is in this region where the first libraries appeared about 4,500 years ago. The oldest known libraries are found in Nippur (in Sumer) and Ebla (in Syria), both from c. 2500 BCE.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Both the Tigris and Euphrates start in the Taurus Mountains of what is modern-day Turkey. Farmers in southern Mesopotamia had to protect their fields from flooding each year. Northern Mesopotamia had sufficient rain to make some farming possible. To protect against flooding they made levees.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Since the Bronze Age, the region's natural fertility has been greatly extended by irrigation works, upon which much of its agricultural production continues to depend. The last two millennia have seen repeated cycles of decline and recovery as past works have fallen into disrepair through the replacement of states, to be replaced under their successors. Another ongoing problem has been salination—gradual concentration of salt and other minerals in soils with a long history of irrigation.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Prehistoric seedless figs were discovered at Gilgal I in the Jordan Valley, suggesting that fig trees were being planted some 11,400 years ago. Cereals were already grown in Syria as long as 9,000 years ago. Small cats ("Felis silvestris") also were domesticated in this region. Also, legumes including peas, lentils and chickpea were domesticated in this region.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Modern analyses comparing 24 craniofacial measurements reveal a relatively diverse population within the pre-Neolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age Fertile Crescent, supporting the view that several populations occupied this region during these time periods. Similar arguments do not hold true for the Basques and Canary Islanders of the same time period, as the studies demonstrate those ancient peoples to be "clearly associated with modern Europeans". Additionally, no evidence from the studies demonstrates Cro-Magnon influence, contrary to former suggestions.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The studies further suggest a diffusion of this diverse population away from the Fertile Crescent, with the early migrants moving away from the Near East—westward into Europe and North Africa, northward to Crimea, and northeastward to Mongolia. They took their agricultural practices with them and interbred with the hunter-gatherers whom they subsequently came in contact with while perpetuating their farming practices. This supports prior genetic and archaeological studies which have all arrived at the same conclusion.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Consequently, contemporary "in situ" peoples absorbed the agricultural way of life of those early migrants who ventured out of the Fertile Crescent. This is contrary to the suggestion that the spread of agriculture disseminated out of the Fertile Crescent by way of sharing of knowledge. Instead, the view now supported by a preponderance of evidence is that it occurred by actual migration out of the region, coupled with subsequent interbreeding with indigenous local populations whom the migrants came in contact with.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The studies show also that not all present day Europeans share strong genetic affinities to the Neolithic and Bronze Age inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent; the closest ties to the Fertile Crescent rest with Southern Europeans. The same study further demonstrates all present-day Europeans to be closely related.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Linguistically, the Fertile Crescent was a region of great diversity. Historically, Semitic languages generally prevailed in the modern regions of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Sinai and the fringes of southeast Turkey and northwest Iran, as well as the Sumerian (a language isolate) in Iraq, whilst in the mountainous areas to the east and north a number of generally unrelated language isolates were found, including; Elamite, Gutian and Kassite in Iran, and Hattic, Kaskian and Hurro-Urartian in Turkey. The precise affiliation of these, and their date of arrival, remain topics of scholarly discussion. However, given lack of textual evidence for the earliest era of prehistory, this debate is unlikely to be resolved in the near future.


title: Fertile Crescent

text: The evidence that does exist suggests that, by the third millennium BCE and into the second, several language groups already existed in the region. These included:


title: Fertile Crescent

text: Links between Hurro-Urartian and Hattic and the indigenous languages of the Caucasus have frequently been suggested, but are not generally accepted.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: Temple of the Dog was an American rock supergroup that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. It was conceived by vocalist Chris Cornell of Soundgarden as a tribute to his friend, the late Andrew Wood, lead singer of the bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. The lineup included Stone Gossard on rhythm guitar, Jeff Ament on bass guitar (both ex-members of Mother Love Bone and later Pearl Jam), Mike McCready (later Pearl Jam) on lead guitar, and Matt Cameron (Soundgarden and later Pearl Jam) on drums. Eddie Vedder appeared as a guest to provide some lead and backing vocals. Pearl Jam's debut album, "Ten", was released four months after Temple of the Dog's only studio album.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: The band released its only album, the self-titled "Temple of the Dog", in April 1991 through A&M Records. The recording sessions took place in November and December 1990 at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, Washington, with producer Rakesh "Rick" Parashar. Although earning praise from music critics at the time of its release, the album was not widely recognized until 1992, when Vedder, Ament, Gossard, and McCready had their breakthrough with Pearl Jam. Cameron would later join Pearl Jam, serving as drummer since 1998, following Soundgarden's initial break-up in 1997, making the five members of Pearl Jam after that point identical to the members of Temple of the Dog other than Chris Cornell.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: The band reformed and toured in 2016 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their self-titled album. It was the only tour they ever undertook.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: Temple of the Dog was started by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who had been a roommate of Andrew Wood, the lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. Wood died on March 19, 1990, of a heroin overdose, the day Cornell got back from a tour. As he went on to tour Europe a few days later, he started writing songs in tribute to his late friend. The result was two songs, "Reach Down" and "Say Hello 2 Heaven", which he recorded as soon as he returned home from touring.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: The recorded material was slow and melodic, musically different from the aggressive rock music of Soundgarden. Cornell approached Wood's former Mother Love Bone bandmates Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament—who were still figuring out what to do after the death of their singer and lyricist—with the intention of releasing the songs as a single. Ament described the collaboration as "a really good thing at the time" for Gossard and him that put them into a "band situation where we could play and make music." The band's lineup was completed by the addition of Soundgarden (and later Pearl Jam) drummer Matt Cameron and future Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready, who was Gossard's childhood friend. They named themselves Temple of the Dog, a reference to a line in the lyrics of the Mother Love Bone song "Man of Golden Words".


title: Temple of the Dog

text: The band started rehearsing "Reach Down", "Say Hello 2 Heaven", and other songs that Cornell had written on tour prior to Wood's death, as well as re-working some existing material from demos written by Gossard, Ament, and Cameron. One such demo became a song for two bands, recorded as "Footsteps" by Pearl Jam and "Times of Trouble" by Temple of the Dog. The idea of doing covers of Wood's solo material also came up, but was abandoned quickly, as the band felt it would make people (including Wood's close friends and relatives) think they were "exploiting his material."


title: Temple of the Dog

text: The release of a single was soon deemed a "stupid idea" by Cornell and dropped in favor of an EP or album. The album was recorded in only 15 days, produced by the band themselves, along with Rick Parashar of London Bridge Studio. Gossard described the recording process as a "non-pressure-filled" situation, as there were no expectations or pressure coming from the record company. Eddie Vedder, who had flown up to Seattle from San Diego to audition to be the singer of Ament, Gossard, and McCready's new band, Mookie Blaylock (named for a basketball player, the band would later be renamed Pearl Jam), was at one of the Temple of the Dog rehearsals, and ended up providing backing vocals on a few songs, with "Hunger Strike" becoming a duet between Cornell and Vedder. Cornell was still figuring out the vocals at practice, when Vedder stepped in and filled in the blanks, singing the low parts because he saw it was hard for Cornell. As Cornell later described it: "He sang half of that song not even knowing that I'd wanted the part to be there and he sang it exactly the way I was thinking about doing it, just instinctively." "Hunger Strike" became Temple of the Dog's breakout single. It was also Vedder's first featured vocal on a record. In the 2011 documentary "Pearl Jam Twenty", Vedder states: "That was the first time I heard myself on a real record. It could be one of my favorite songs that I've ever been on — or the most meaningful."


title: Temple of the Dog

text: "Temple of the Dog", the band's self-titled album, was released on April 16, 1991, through A&M Records and initially sold 70,000 copies in the United States. Ament recalled requesting that A&M include a Pearl Jam sticker on the cover—as they had just picked their new name—because "it'll be a good thing for us", but they refused. The album received favorable reviews, but failed to chart. Critic Steve Huey of AllMusic later gave the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, stating that the "record sounds like a bridge between Mother Love Bone's theatrical '70s-rock updates and Pearl Jam's hard-rocking seriousness." David Fricke of "Rolling Stone" wrote, in retrospect, that the album "deserves immortality." The band members were pleased with the material, as it achieved its purpose; Cornell believed that "Andy really would have liked" the songs, and Gossard also asserted that he thought Wood would be "blown away by the whole thing". Soon after the album's release, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam embarked on recording their own albums, and the Temple of the Dog project was brought to a close, without a promotional tour for the album.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: In the summer of 1992, the album received renewed attention. Although it had been released more than a year earlier, A&M Records realized that they had in their catalog what was essentially a collaboration between Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, who had both risen to mainstream attention in the months since the album's release with their respective albums, "Badmotorfinger" and "Ten". A&M decided to reissue the album and promote "Hunger Strike" as a single, with an accompanying music video that had been previously filmed. The attention allowed both the album and single to chart on Billboard charts and resulted in a boost in album sales. The album ended up being among the 100 top-selling albums of 1992, and it has sold more than a million copies, achieving a platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: McCready, Ament, Cameron, and Cornell later reunited under the name M.A.C.C. to record a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Baby (Land of the New Rising Sun)" for the 1993 tribute album "". The song has since been included as part of the band's live set. In a 2007 interview with Ultimate Guitar Archive, Cornell stated he would be open to a Temple of the Dog reunion, or "some collaboration with any combination of those guys". He also revealed that Temple of the Dog was the reason he joined Audioslave, as the experience made him "keep an open mind" about collaborations with musicians from other bands.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: During their initial existence, the only time Temple of the Dog played a full one-hour set was while rehearsing and writing the material for the album. The band (with the exception of Vedder) performed in Seattle at the Off Ramp Café on November 13, 1990.<ref name="Fivehorizons.com - Pearl Jam: 1990/1991 Concert Chronology"></ref> They also opened for Alice in Chains, following the short lived Seattle group Panic, on December 22, 1990, at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: In the time since the album's release, the band has re-formed for short live one-off performances on occasions where both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam were performing. Temple of the Dog performed "Hunger Strike" on October 3, 1991, at the Foundations Forum in Los Angeles, California; a three-song set on October 6, 1991, at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood for the "RIP" Magazine 5th anniversary party (Temple of the Dog played after secret headlining act Spinal Tap); and "Hunger Strike" on both August 14, 1992, at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, Virginia, and September 13, 1992, at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in Irvine, California (both shows were part of the Lollapalooza festival series in 1992). The band also played "Reach Down" on the latter occasion.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: At a Pearl Jam show at the Santa Barbara Bowl in Santa Barbara, California, on October 28, 2003, Cornell joined the band on-stage, effectively reuniting Temple of the Dog (Cameron had been the drummer for Pearl Jam since 1998) for renditions of "Hunger Strike" and "Reach Down". Cornell also performed Audioslave's "Like a Stone" and Chris Cornell's "Can't Change Me". The version of "Reach Down" recorded that night later appeared on Pearl Jam's 2003 fan club Christmas single. Pearl Jam has also been known to perform, on rare occasions, "Hunger Strike" live without Cornell.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: Cornell's post-Soundgarden band, Audioslave, added "All Night Thing", "Call Me a Dog", and "Hunger Strike" to its live set in 2005. Additionally, Cornell added the aforementioned songs, plus "Pushin Forward Back", "Wooden Jesus", "Reach Down", and "Say Hello 2 Heaven", to his solo live set.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: On October 6, 2009, Cornell joined Pearl Jam onstage to perform "Hunger Strike" in Los Angeles, effectively reuniting Temple of the Dog once again. After this, a fan group emerged on Facebook in April 2010 to encourage a 20th anniversary benefit reunion tour, to begin on April 16, 2011.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: During Labor Day weekend, 2011, Cornell joined Pearl Jam onstage at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin for PJ20 (Pearl Jam's twentieth anniversary celebration). On September 3, he joined them for a four-song set, which included the songs "Stardog Champion" (a Mother Love Bone cover with Cornell on vocals), "Say Hello 2 Heaven", "Reach Down", and "Hunger Strike". The next day, he joined them for "Hunger Strike", "Call Me a Dog", "All Night Thing", and "Reach Down" (which also included Glen Hansard, Dhani Harrison of Thenewno2, Davíd Garza, and Liam Finn).


title: Temple of the Dog

text: On both October 25 and 26, 2014, Cornell joined Pearl Jam onstage to perform "Hunger Strike" at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, during the 28th Annual Bridge School Benefit. The October 26 concert marked the last time that Vedder and Cornell performed the song together.


title: Temple of the Dog

text: On January 30, 2015, Pearl Jam bandmates Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, and Matt Cameron joined Chris Cornell and Mike McCready during the Mad Season Sonic Evolution Concert at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony. The group performed two songs from the album: "Reach Down" and "Call Me a Dog".


title: Temple of the Dog

text: Temple of the Dog finally officially toured in the fall of 2016 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their self-titled album. Vedder did not participate in the tour, citing "family commitments", so, at the band's concert at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on November 21, 2016, the crowd sang his part in "Hunger Strike" and Cornell dedicated the song to him.


title: Oak Island

text: Oak Island is a privately owned island in Lunenburg County on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. The tree-covered island is one of several islands in Mahone Bay, and is connected to the mainland by a causeway. The nearest community is the rural community of Western Shore which faces the island, while the nearest village is Chester. The island is best known for various theories about buried treasure or historical artifacts, and the associated attempts to explore the site.


title: Oak Island

text: The majority of Nova Scotia is a humid continental climate with hot and humid summers, and cold or frigid winters. While there is no weather station on the island, or along Mahone Bay, there is one towards the west in the town of Bridgewater. The average annual temperature given in Bridgewater is , while the precipitation runs at . The island and surrounding coasts can be hidden in fog for as many as 90 days a year. These coasts are also vulnerable to powerful storms which include nor'easters and hurricanes.


title: Oak Island

text: Oak Island is made up of a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, known regionally as the New England/Acadian forests. Wildlife in the Mahone Bay area includes great blue herons, black guillemots, osprey, Leach's storm petrels, and razorbills. Non-specific eagles and puffins are also mentioned. The roseate tern is considered an endangered species in the area protected by the Canadian government. Efforts to restore their habitat such as curbing the population of other bird species have been undertaken.


title: Oak Island

text: The geology of Oak Island was first mapped in 1924 by J. W. Goldthwait, of the Geological Survey of Canada, who interpreted the island as a composite of four drumlins. These drumlins are "elongated hills" which consist of multiple layers of till resting on bedrock, and are from different phases of glacial advance that span the past 75,000 years. The layers on top of the bedrock are mainly made up of "Lawrencetown" and slate till. The former of these two is considered a type of clay till which is made up of 50% sand, 30% silt, and 20% clay. In the main area that has been searched for treasure along with the till lie bits of anhydrite, which become more competent deeper down. Researchers Les MacPhie, and John Wonnacott concluded that the deep deposits at the east end of the Island make up the drumlin formations.


title: Oak Island

text: There are two types of bedrock that lie under Oak Island; the southeastern portion consists of "Mississippian Windsor Group limestone" and gypsum, and the northwestern part is Cambro-Ordovician Halifax Formation slate. Oak Island and the area that is now Mahone Bay was once a lagoon 8,000 years BP, before the sea level rose with the melting glaciers. Dr. Ian Spooner of Arcadia University has stated that the current triangular swamp on Oak Island had once been a cove from the sea. Analysis done of core samples taken from the swamp show that a "significant saltwater intrusion" occurred as recently as the late 1300s or early 1400s. While Spooner said that this was likely from "human manipulation", he did not rule out the possibility of an enormous storm.


title: Oak Island

text: The first known indigenous people in Nova Scotia were the Mi'kmaq, who lived in present-day Nova Scotia and Newfoundland several thousand years ago. The area that encompasses Oak Island was once known as the "Segepenegatig" region. While it is unknown when Oak Island was first discovered by Europeans, the earliest confirmed European residents date back to the 1750s when French fishermen built a few houses on the future site of the nearby village of Chester. Following the Expulsion of the Acadians during the Seven Years' War, the British authorities encouraged British colonists from New England to settle in Nova Scotia. Land was made available to settlers in 1759 through the Shorham grant, and Chester was officially founded that same year.


title: Oak Island

text: The first major group of settlers arrived in the Chester area from Massachusetts in 1761, and Oak Island was officially surveyed and divided into 32 four-acre lots in the following year. A large part of the island was owned at the time by the Monro, Lynch, Seacombe and Young families who had been granted the land in 1759. In the early days of British settlement, the island was known locally as "Smith's Island," after an early settler of the area named Edward Smith. Cartographer Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres renamed the island "Gloucester Isle" in 1778. Shortly thereafter, the locally used name "Oak Island" was officially adopted for the Island. Early residents included Edward Smith in the 1760s and Anthony Vaughn Sr. in the early 1770s. In 1784, the government made additional land grants, this time to former soldiers, which included parts of Oak Island. It was not until July 6, 1818, that the original lot owners' names were mapped for the Nova Scotia Crown Lands office. Oak Island has been intermittently owned by treasure hunters ever since old legends were first published in 1857. The hunt for treasure got so extensive that in 1965 a causeway was built from the western end of the island to Crandall's Point on the mainland, two hundred metres away in order to bring heavy machinery onto the island.


title: Oak Island

text: The most recent owners include a treasure hunter named Dan Blankenship, who initially partnered with "Oak Island Tours Inc.," run by David Tobias. Oak Island Tours eventually dissolved, and in February 2019, it was announced that a new partnership had been formed with a company called the "Michigan Group". This group consisted of brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, Craig Tester, and Alan Kostrzewa, who had been purchasing lots from Tobias. Blankenship owned the island with the Michigan Group until his death on March 17, 2019, at the age of 95.


title: Oak Island

text: Oak Island is populated on a seasonal basis with two permanent homes and two cottages being occupied part-time. While the island remains private property, public access is granted to those who schedule tours ahead of time.


title: Oak Island

text: Oak Island has been a subject for treasure hunters ever since the late 1700s, with rumours that Captain Kidd's treasure was buried there. While there is little evidence to support what went on during the early excavations, stories began to be published and documented as early as 1856. Since that time there have been many theories that extend beyond that of Captain Kidd which include among others religious artifacts, manuscripts, and Marie Antoinette's jewels. The "treasure" has also been prone to criticism by those who have dismissed search areas as natural phenomena.


title: Oak Island

text: Areas of interest on the island with regard to treasure hunters include a location known as the "Money Pit", which is allegedly the original searchers’ spot. Located on the east side of Oak Island, the Money Pit is—or was—a shaft more than 100 feet deep. According to island lore, it first drew the attention of a local teenager in 1795, who noticed an indentation in the ground and, with some friends, started to dig—only to find a man-made shaft featuring wooden platforms every 10 feet down to the 90-foot level of depth.


title: Oak Island

text: There is also a formation of boulders called "Nolan's Cross", named after a former treasure hunter, and a triangle-shaped swamp. Lastly, there has been searcher activity on a beach at a place called "Smith's Cove". Various objects including non-native coconut fibre have been found there. More recent archaeological discoveries in the Smith's Cove area have included an allegedly pre-15th-century lead cross and various wooden earthworks.


title: Oak Island

text: More than fifty books have been published recounting the island's history and exploring competing theories. Several works of fiction have also been based upon the Money Pit, including "The Money Pit Mystery", "Riptide", "The Hand of Robin Squires", and "Betrayed: The Legend of Oak Island". In January 2014, the History Channel began airing a reality TV show called "The Curse of Oak Island" about a group of modern treasure hunters. These hunters include brothers Rick and Marty Lagina of the "Michigan Group". The series has documented finds such as centuries-old coins, an antique brooch, and a lead cross that was allegedly made between 1200 and 1600 A.D.


title: City-state

text: A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as Rome, Athens, Sparta, Carthage, and the Italian city-states during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, such as Florence, Venice, Genoa and Milan.


title: City-state

text: With the rise of nation states worldwide, only a few modern sovereign city-states exist, with some disagreement as to which qualify; Monaco, Singapore and Vatican City are most commonly accepted as such. Singapore is the clearest example, with full self-governance, its own currency, a robust military and a population of 5.5 million.


title: City-state

text: Several non-sovereign cities enjoy a high degree of autonomy and are sometimes considered city-states. Hong Kong, Macau, and members of the United Arab Emirates—most notably Dubai and Abu Dhabi—are often cited as such.


title: City-state

text: Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Ur; Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coast; Ragusa; states of the medieval Russian lands such as Novgorod and Pskov; and many others. Danish historian Poul Holm has classed the Viking colonial cities in medieval Ireland, most importantly the Kingdom of Dublin, as city-states.


title: City-state

text: In Cyprus, the Phoenician settlement of Kition (in present-day Larnaca) was a city-state that existed from around 800 BC until the end of the 4th century BC.


title: City-state

text: Some of the most well-known examples of city-state culture in human history are the ancient Greek city-states and the merchant city-states of Renaissance Italy, which organised themselves as independent centers. The success of regional units coexisting as autonomous actors in loose geographical and cultural unity, as in Italy and Greece, often prevented their amalgamation into larger national units. However, such small political entities often survived only for short periods because they lacked the resources to defend themselves against incursions by larger states (such as Roman conquest of Greece). Thus they inevitably gave way to larger organisations of society, including the empire and the nation-state.


title: City-state

text: In the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) over 80 Free Imperial Cities came to enjoy considerable autonomy in the Middle Ages and in early modern times, buttressed legally by international law following the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Some, like three of the earlier Hanseatic cities – Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck – pooled their economic relations with foreign powers and were able to wield considerable diplomatic clout. Individual cities often made protective alliances with other cities or with neighbouring regions, including the Hanseatic League (1358 – 17th century), the Swabian League of Cities (1331–1389), the Décapole (1354–1679) in the Alsace, or the Old Swiss Confederacy ( 1300 – 1798). The Swiss cantons of Zürich, Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, and Geneva originated as city-states.


title: City-state

text: After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, some cities – then members of different confederacies – officially became sovereign city-states, such as the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (1806–11 and again 1813–71), the Free City of Frankfurt upon Main (1815–66), the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (1806–11 and again 1814–71), the Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1806–11 and again 1813–71), and the Free City of Kraków (1815–1846). Under Habsburg rule the city of Fiume had the status of a "corpus separatum" (1779–1919), which – while falling short of an independent sovereignty – had many attributes of a city-state.


title: City-state

text: In Northern and Central Italy during the medieval and Renaissance periods, city-states - with various amounts of associated land - became the standard form of polity. Some of them, despite being de facto independent states, were formally part of the Holy Roman Empire. The era of the Italian states, in particular from the 11th century to the 15th century, was characterized by the remarkable economic development, trade, manufacture, and mercantile capitalism, together with increasing urbanization，with remarkable influence throughout much of the Mediterranean world and Europe as a whole. During this time, most of the Italian city-states were ruled by one person, such as the Signoria or by a dynasty, such as the House of Gonzaga and the House of Sforza.


title: City-state

text: Examples of Italian city-states during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Republic of Florence, Duchy of Milan, Duchy of Ferrara,


title: City-state

text: Another example of Italian city-states, were the powerful maritime republics: Republic of Venice, Republic of Genoa, Republic of Amalfi, Republic of Pisa, Republic of Ancona and Duchy of Gaeta.


title: City-state

text: In the history of Mainland Southeast Asia, aristocratic groups, Buddhist leaders, and others organized settlements into autonomous or semi-autonomous city-states. These were referred to as "mueang", and were usually related in a tributary relationship now described as mandala or as "over-lapping sovereignty", in which smaller city-states paid tribute to larger ones that paid tribute to still larger ones—until reaching the apex in cities like Ayutthaya, Bagan, Bangkok and others that served as centers of Southeast Asian royalty. The system existed until the 19th century, when colonization by European powers occurred. Siam, a regional power at the time, needed to define their territories for negotiation with the European powers so the Siamese government established a nation-state system, incorporated their tributary cities (Lan Xang, Cambodia and some Malay cities) into their territory and abolished the mueang and the tributary system.


title: City-state

text: In early Philippine history, the barangay was a complex sociopolitical unit which scholars have historically considered the dominant organizational pattern among the various peoples of the Philippine archipelago. These sociopolitical units were sometimes also referred to as barangay states, but are more properly referred to using the technical term "polity". Evidence suggests a considerable degree of independence as city states ruled by Datus, Rajahs and Sultans. Early chroniclers record that the name evolved from the term "balangay", which refers to a plank boat widely used by various cultures of the Philippine archipelago prior to the arrival of European colonizers.


title: City-state

text: The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 towns in the surrounding areas. It was created on 15 November 1920 under the terms of Article 100 (Section XI of Part III) of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles after the end of World War I.


title: City-state

text: After a prolonged period where the city of Fiume enjoyed considerable autonomy under Habsburg rule (see Corpus separatum (Fiume)), The Free State of Fiume was proclaimed as a fully independent free state which existed between 1920 and 1924. Its territory of 28 km (11 sq mi) comprised the city of Fiume (now in Croatia and, since the end of World War II, known as Rijeka) and rural areas to its north, with a corridor to its west connecting it to Italy.


title: City-state

text: Under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine of 1947, Mandatory Palestine was to be partitioned into three states: a Jewish state of Israel, an Arab state of Palestine, and a "corpus separatum" (Latin for "separated body") consisting of a Jerusalem city-state under the control of United Nations Trusteeship Council. Although the plan had some international support and the UN accepted this proposal (and still officially holds the stance that Jerusalem should be held under this regime), implementation of the plan failed as the 1948 Palestine war broke out with the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, ultimately resulting in Jerusalem being split into West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem. Israel would eventually gain control of East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967.


title: City-state

text: The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 when it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors. The Memel Territory was to remain under the control of the League of Nations until a future day when the people of the region would be allowed to vote on whether the land would return to Germany or not. The then predominantly ethnic German Memel Territory (Prussian Lithuanians and Memellanders constituted the other ethnic groups), situated between the river and the town of that name, was occupied by Lithuania in the Klaipėda Revolt of 1923.


title: City-state

text: The Shanghai International Settlement (1845–1943) was an international zone with its own legal system, postal service, and currency.


title: City-state

text: The international zone within the city of Tangier, in North Africa was approximately 373 km (144 sq mi). It was at first under the joint administration of France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, plus later Portugal, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. The international zone was initially attached to Morocco. It then became a French-Spanish protectorate from 1923 until 29 October 1956, when it was reintegrated into the state of Morocco.


title: City-state

text: The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory situated in Central Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II, from 1947 to 1954. The UN attempted to make the Free Territory of Trieste into a city state, but it never gained real independence and in 1954 its territory was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia.


title: City-state

text: In the 20th century West Berlin, though lacking sovereignty, functioned from 1948 until 1990 as a state legally not belonging to any other state, but ruled by the Western Allies. They allowed – notwithstanding their overlordship as occupant powers – its internal organisation as one state simultaneously being a city, officially called Berlin (West). Though West Berlin maintained close ties to the West German Federal Republic of Germany, it never legally formed a part of it.


title: City-state

text: The Principality of Monaco is an independent city-state bordering France. Monaco-Ville (the ancient fortified city) and Monaco's well-known area Monte Carlo are districts of a continuous urban zone, not distinct cities, though they were three separate municipalities ("communes") until 1917. The Principality of Monaco and the city of Monaco (each having specific powers) govern the same territory. Though they maintain a small military, they would still have to rely on France for defence in the face of an aggressive power.


title: City-state

text: Singapore is an island city-state in Southeast Asia bordering Malaysia. About 5.6 million people live and work within , making Singapore the 2nd-most-densely populated country in the world after Monaco. Singapore was part of Malaysia for two years before it was expelled from the federation in 1965, becoming an independent republic, a city and a sovereign country. "The Economist" refers to the nation as the "world's only fully functioning city-state". In particular, it has its own currency, a large commercial airport, one of the busiest transshipment maritime ports in the world, and fully fledged armed forces to safeguard the nation's sovereignty against potential regional aggressors.


title: City-state

text: Until September 1870, the city of Rome had been controlled by the pope as part of his Papal States. When King Victor Emmanuel II seized the city in 1870, Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the newly formed Kingdom of Italy.


title: City-state

text: Because he could not travel without effectively acknowledging the authority of the king, Pius IX and his successors each claimed to be a "Prisoner in the Vatican", unable to leave the papal enclave once they had ascended the papal thrones.


title: City-state

text: The impasse was resolved in 1929 by the Lateran Treaties negotiated by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini between King Victor Emmanuel III and Pope Pius XI. Under this treaty, the Vatican was recognized as an independent state, with the Pope as its head. The Vatican City State has its own citizenship, diplomatic corps, flag, and postage stamps. With a population of less than 1,000 (mostly clergymen), it is by far the smallest sovereign country in the world.


title: City-state

text: A number of other small states share many of these characteristics, and are sometimes cited as modern city-states. Djibouti, Qatar, Brunei, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Malta each have a capital urban center comprising a major portion of the population and the majority of GDP. Each has more than one distinct municipality, with one identified as a capital city, though the same was often the case for historical city-states. Occasionally, microstates with high population densities such as San Marino are cited, despite lacking a large urban centre.


title: City-state

text: Some cities or urban areas, while not sovereign states, may nevertheless be constituent states of a federation, or enjoy a high degree of autonomy. As such, they function as "city-states" within the context of the sovereign state to which they belong. Historian Mogens Herman Hansen describes this aspect of self-government as: "The city-state is a self-governing, but not necessarily independent political unit." A city with more limited self-government may be referred to as an independent city.


title: City-state

text: Some non-sovereign cities which a high degree of autonomy which have been described as city-states include:


title: City-state

text: Some cities that are constituent states in a federation, and as such can be accurately described as non-sovereign city-states with a high degree of autonomy include:


title: City-state

text: In the period of national crisis immediately preceding the American Civil War, Democratic Mayor Fernando Wood proposed the secession of the city as a sovereign city-state to be called the "Free City of Tri-Insula" ("Tri-Insula" meaning "three islands" in Latin), and incorporating Manhattan, Long Island and Staten Island. In an address to the city's Common Council on January 6, 1861, Mayor Wood expressed a Copperhead sympathy with the seceding states and a desire to maintain profitable cotton shipping, confidence that the city state would prosper on the import tariffs that then supplied 2/3 of federal revenue, and especially dissatisfaction with the state government at Albany. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received, especially after the Southern bombardment of Fort Sumter starting on April 12. The war, and especially conscription, was nevertheless often unpopular in the city, sparking the deadly New York Draft Riots. The neighboring City of Brooklyn, in contrast, was staunchly Unionist.


title: City-state

text: In 1969, writer Norman Mailer and columnist Jimmy Breslin ran together on an independent ticket seeking the mayoralty and City Council Presidency, challenging Mayor John Lindsay with an agenda to make New York City the 51st state. When questioned as to the name of the new state, Breslin said the city deserved to keep "New York" and that upstate should be renamed "Buffalo", after its largest city.


title: City-state

text: On 26 February 2003, a bill was introduced by Astoria, Queens Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr., and sponsored by 20 of 51 City Council members, reviving the idea of referendum for secession from New York in the context of the red state vs. blue state divide and opposition to the policies of Governor George Pataki. A committee report was written but otherwise little action was taken, and the bill was reintroduced with one additional sponsor on the same date in 2004. Like Mayor Wood, Council Member Vallone emphasized the fiscal benefits of secession, with revenue now derived not from tariffs, but from Wall Street. Council Member Vallone reintroduced the bill in 2006. In January 2008, Vallone again offered a bill for the secession of New York City from New York. After Mayor Michael Bloomberg testified to New York legislators that New York City gives the state $11 billion more than it gets back, Vallone stated: "If not secession, somebody please tell me what other options we have if the state is going to continue to take billions from us and give us back pennies? Should we raise taxes some more? Should we cut services some more? Or should we consider seriously going out on our own?" The New York City Council planned to hold a meeting on the topic.


title: European Super League

text: The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed seasonal club football competition that initially would have been contested by twenty European football clubs, twelve of them being the competition's founding members. It was organised by the European Super League Company, S.L., a commercial enterprise created to rival the UEFA Champions League, Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA.


title: European Super League

text: The announcement of the European Super League in April 2021 received wide opposition from fans, players, managers, politicians, and other clubs in England, which with six teams was the most represented country in the project. It also received opposition from UEFA, FIFA, and some national governments. Much of the criticism against the ESL was due to concerns about elitism and the lack of competitiveness within the competition, as it would have consisted of only high-ranking teams from a few European countries.


title: European Super League

text: Backlash against the announcement of the league's formation led to nine of the clubs involved, including all six of the English clubs, announcing their intention to withdraw. The remaining members of the ESL subsequently announced they would reshape the project to a more open format. Three days later, the ESL announced that it was suspending its operations, while a legal dispute ensued.


title: European Super League

text: Proposals for the creation of a new super-league competition for European clubs started in 1968 by then UEFA general secretary Hans Bangerter to replace the European Champions Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup and form the "European Football League Championship", a unique club competition combining group and knockout matches, a novelty at the time. Despite that project, in that year UEFA approved to expand the clubs' access to its competitions creating a third seasonal tournament: the UEFA Cup, whose inaugural season took place three years later. The idea for a unique pan-European club competition gained force in the 1970s and gained legal traction at the end of the following decade.


title: European Super League

text: In 1987 Milan AC, Real Madrid and Glasgow Rangers executives planned a league competition with a single round-robin format – dubbed a "Super League" by European mass media since the proposed format of the tournament was the same as that used in league championships, contrasted with the format of the European competitions, based on knockout phases since the mid 1950s – that would be more attractive for international television broadcasters, would be able to allow the teams to earn more income, and would give them more possibilities to progress through it for "economic and management guarantees". It would run parallel to the then three European competitions since the 1991–92 season, but the project was abandoned in 1991 after UEFA announced sporting sanctions "sine die" for the involved clubs, reformed the European Champions Cup introducing a group stage in that season, increasing the overall number of matches, and rebranding it as the Champions League in 1992 for commercial and media purposes. The following year, then UEFA president Lennart Johansson proposed, unsuccessfully, to merge the Champions League, the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup into a unique championship which the better teams in the continent would be involved in. Three years later, clubs such as Ajax, Barcelona, Bayern and Manchester United, to rival the Champions League, secretly planned a "Super League" with 36 "prominent" clubs split into three groups and a play-off stage for the title at the end of the season and a second competition for another 96 teams, called "ProCup" to replace the Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup. Both planned tournaments, based on the North American sports system, would be sponsored by Italian corporation Media Partners, but that project was abandoned after FIFA, UEFA and its affiliated national associations announced sanctions against all involved clubs. In 1998, the concept was pushed forward by Media Partners; however, the plan ultimately never progressed past the planning stage after UEFA moved to expand the UEFA Champions League. Various other proposals were brought forward and also failed to achieve popular approval; amongst these, one included a long-standing ambition by the Premier League to host an overseas "39th game" so as to capitalise on lucrative overseas markets. In 2009, Florentino Pérez, the president of Real Madrid, commenced plans for a super-league competition, as he thought that the Champions League was simply too obsolete and problematic for the quality of the sport, and was "an obstacle preventing clubs from growing their businesses and developing infrastructure".


title: European Super League

text: In 2018, Pérez began discussions with other clubs in Europe, mostly clubs from within Spain, England and Italy, about the idea of a breakaway competition that would also provide strong financial backing for all the clubs involved. The clubs who participated in the discussions, conducted in secret, were primarily focused on exploring options for the league, unless UEFA produced new reforms for the Champions League that would be considered as acceptable for them as well. The need for a new competition increased in 2020, as big-name football clubs began to suffer financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially with ongoing debts; Pérez's Real Madrid was amongst those hardest hit financially by the pandemic in Spain, which led to him advancing the concept into realisation. The new competition eventually drew interest from American investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase, which pledged US$5billion towards its formation.


title: European Super League

text: On 18 April 2021, on the eve of a meeting by the UEFA Executive Committee, which was aiming to revamp and expand the UEFA Champions League by the 2024–25 season in order to increase the number of matches and revenues, following pressure from elite European clubs, Pérez announced the formation of the Super League, also referred to as the European Super League (ESL), via a press release by the twelve clubs who had signed up to be involved, including English clubs (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur), Italian clubs (Inter Milan, Juventus, and A.C. Milan), and Spanish clubs (Atlético Madrid, Barcelona, and Real Madrid).


title: European Super League

text: Within the release, Pérez expressed hope that the new competition would "provide higher-quality matches and additional financial resources for the overall football pyramid", provide "significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues", appeal to a new younger generation of football fans, and improve VAR and refereeing. At the time of the announcement, ten of the founding clubs were in the top 14 of the UEFA club coefficient rankings, with only Italian clubs Inter Milan (26th) and A.C. Milan (53rd) falling outside. All twelve clubs were in the top 16 on the 2021 "Forbes" list of the most valuable football clubs; their combined value was US$4.760+4.750+4.200+4.100+4.000+3.200+2.800+2.300+1.950+1.000+0.743+0.559 round 1billion.


title: European Super League

text: The launch of the ESL included announcement of the leadership of the organisation. The following table below shows each football executive who became involved in the competition's operations, and their role they held within the sport:


title: European Super League

text: According to reports, Gavin Patterson, former BT Sport boss, was approached to take up the role of Chief Executive Officer.


title: European Super League

text: Inspired by European basketball's EuroLeague, the proposed competition was to feature twenty clubs who would take part in matches against each other; fifteen of these would be permanent members, dubbed "founding clubs", who would govern the competition's operation, while five places would be given to clubs through a qualifying mechanism focused on the teams who performed best in their country's most recent domestic season. Each year, the competition would see the teams split into two groups of ten, playing home-and-away in a double round-robin format for 18 group matches per team, with fixtures set to take place midweek to avoid disrupting the clubs' involvement in their domestic leagues. At the end of these group matches, the top three of each group would qualify for the quarter-finals, while the teams finishing fourth and fifth from each group would compete in two-legged play-offs to decide the last two quarter-finalists. The remainder of the competition would take place in a four-week span at the end of the season, with the quarter-finals and semi-finals featuring two-legged ties, while the final would be contested as a single fixture at a neutral venue. Each season of the competition would feature 197 matches (180 in the group stage and 17 in the knockout stage).


title: European Super League

text: On 15 October 2021 it was announced that the European Super League Company, led by Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus, was planning an open league with two divisions of 20 clubs each, intended to compete with the Champions League and Europa League.


title: European Super League

text: Participating clubs would have had access to uncapped solidarity payments, which would increase in line with league revenues and be higher than those of existing European competitions; the official press release stated that this would be "in excess of €10billion during the course of the initial commitment period of the clubs", and founding clubs would receive €3.5billion to support infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the founding clubs would share 32.5 percent of commercial revenues; another 32.5 percent would be shared among all 20 ESL teams, including the five invited teams; 20 percent of revenues would be distributed based on club performance; and distribution of the remaining 15 percent would depend on the size of clubs' broadcast audiences. Clubs would also be allowed to retain gate receipt and club sponsorship revenue. The ESL claimed it would generate income across football and increase overall revenues that would allow bigger clubs to invest more in smaller clubs through transfer fees, with an annual solidarity payment of to the other clubs "to save football, by the great and the modest", also presenting a proposal for a solution to the problems related to the Financial Fair Play imposed by the confederation since 2009 through a more efficient economic control.


title: European Super League

text: On 23 April, "Der Spiegel", which allegedly gained access to the 167-page European Super League contract, revealed Barcelona and Real Madrid were set to receive €60million extra than other clubs over the first two years, whereas A.C. Milan, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, and Atlético Madrid were set to make less than other Super League clubs. "The Guardian" reported that European Super League clubs were promised €200–300 million as a "welcome bonus". It was also reported by "Marca" that there was a €300 million penalty for leaving the project, although the Super League denied this and stated that the quoted sum was false. "Vozpópuli" reported that the "clause is related to the €3.2 billion loan that JP Morgan received" to ensure the project's viability.


title: European Super League

text: On 20 May, "The New York Times" reviewed the founding contract of the Super League and found that while FIFA had publicly criticised a breakaway European Super League, it had held private talks for months with the founders about endorsing the competition; the review reported the need for the Super League founders to strike an agreement with "an entity obliquely labeled W01 but easily identifiable as FIFA", and that the documents said it was "an essential condition for the implementation of the SL project". It also reported that the Super League offered up to twelve clubs to participate in the new FIFA Club World Cup, and considered allowing FIFA to keep $1 billion in potential payouts as a "solidarity payment".


title: European Super League

text: On 31 May, "El Confidencial" revealed it had obtained access to the binding contract signed by the twelve clubs on 17 April. According to the contract, the founding clubs would have had the same number of shares in the limited liability company based in Spain, with the contract reading: "The Founding Clubs have agreed to jointly own and hold equal stakes in 'European League Company, S.L.' ('SLCo') a limited liability company which shall own, manage and operate the SL directly and through a number of subsidiaries (i.e., the SL Companies as this term is defined in Clause 4.3. below)." According to the report, no shares had been sold, meaning that the other nine clubs, despite having publicly backed down from the project, were still involved and are waiting for the case to be taken by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which has been described as possibly being the biggest football ruling since the Bosman case. It also reiterated that there is a penalty of approximately €300 million for breaking the binding contract. The contract already confirmed the Super League's clubs commitment to both domestic championships and league cups, and that the Super League, described as a pan-European competition, would start as soon as recognised by UEFA and FIFA, and with legal protection from European courts to allow their continued participation in domestic leagues and cups.


title: European Super League

text: On 20 June, "The Times" reported that the six English clubs, which remained co-owners and shareholders of the Spanish holding company, had failed to formally leave it, and the project's organisers stated that the competition would "eventually relaunch in modified form". About the binding contract, it was reported, according to those close to the venture, that there is "no mechanism" for the clubs to withdraw, as only unanimous consensus among the twelve founding clubs can dissolve the venture, and any club leaving unilaterally faced unlimited fines.


title: European Super League

text: The formation of the ESL led to widespread condemnation from UEFA, The Football Association and Premier League of England, the Italian Football Federation and Lega Serie A of Italy, and the Royal Spanish Football Federation and La Liga of Spain. All governing bodies issued a joint statement declaring their intention to prevent the new competition proceeding any further, with UEFA warning that any clubs involved in the Super League would be banned from all other domestic, European and world football competitions, and that players from the clubs involved would also be banned from representing their national teams in international matches. In addition, the French Football Federation and Ligue de Football Professionnel of France, the German Football Association and Deutsche Fußball Liga of Germany, as well as the Russian Premier League and Russian Football Union released similar statements opposing the proposal.


title: European Super League

text: UEFA began immediately looking into making further reforms to the Champions League in a €6billion effort to prevent the proposal moving forward. The Premier League and the Football Association released a statement "unanimously and vigorously" opposing the breakaway league but ruled out barring the six breakaway clubs from domestic competitions and preferred to not take legal action against them.


title: European Super League

text: The European Club Association (ECA) held an emergency meeting and subsequently announced their opposition to the plan. Andrea Agnelli, also a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, along with the founding clubs of the Super League, did not attend the virtual meeting. Agnelli later resigned from his positions as ECA chairman and UEFA Executive Committee member, with all twelve Super League clubs also leaving the ECA. On 7 May 2021, UEFA approved reintegration measures for nine clubs involved in that breakaway competition. FIFA later expressed its disapproval in the wake of the negative outcry to the ESL proposal, alongside International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino stating during an address at the 2021 UEFA Congress in Montreux, Switzerland, both in response to the proposal and the clubs' efforts to remain in their domestic leagues: "If some elect to go their own way then they must live with the consequences of their choice, they are responsible for their choice. Concretely this means, either you are in, or you are out. You cannot be half in and half out. This has to be absolutely clear."


title: European Super League

text: Numerous politicians expressed their opposition to the proposals across Europe, the most prominent coming from the British government, with the objections to the ESL uniting political parties completely behind its prevention. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the proposals "very damaging for football" and vowed to ensure that it "doesn't go ahead in the way that it's currently being proposed", a position which was supported by Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer. In addition, the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said in a statement to the House of Commons that "this move goes against the very spirit of the game", and pledged to do "whatever it takes" to stop English clubs from joining.


title: European Super League

text: French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for UEFA's position, stating: "The French state will support all the steps taken by the LFP, FFF, UEFA and FIFA to protect the integrity of federal competitions, whether national or European." The Spanish government released a statement saying they "[do] not support the initiative to create a football Super League promoted by various European clubs, including the Spanish ones." Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi also backed UEFA in their decision, saying he "strongly supports the positions of the Italian and European football authorities."


title: European Super League

text: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Paris Saint-Germain were sought out by the ESL to join; Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were given 30 days, and Paris Saint-Germain 14 days, to sign up to the Super League, but all three rejected involvement in the competition, publicly condemning the concept. Pérez alleged that the three clubs had not been invited. Other French, German, Portuguese, and Dutch clubs were reported to have declined to join the competition.


title: European Super League

text: West Ham United said on their website that they were strongly opposed to the Super League, emphasising their working-class roots and the 150 academy players who had developed to play for the first team. In a statement, Everton criticised the Big Six English clubs joining the Super League and accused them of "betraying" British football supporters. Leeds United also referred to Liverpool on social media as "Merseyside Reds", referencing the unlicenced name used for the club in the "Pro Evolution Soccer" video game series. Before a game between the clubs on 19 April, Leeds players warmed up in t-shirts condemning the competition, featuring the UEFA Champions League logo alongside the caption 'earn it' on the front, and 'football is for the fans' on the back. The shirts had been left on the benches inside the Liverpool changing room, but the players did not wear them. Atalanta, Cagliari, and Hellas Verona reportedly called for the Italian Super League teams to be banned from Serie A; Hellas Verona denied in a statement to have requested such ban alongside Atalanta and Cagliari.


title: European Super League

text: On 3 May, a report from Italian financial daily "Il Sole 24 Ore" noted that the Super League project was officially presented by the Lega Serie A Head of Competition and Operation Andrea Butti, as an alternative to the reform of the Champions League planned by UEFA and initially provided for the 2023–24 season, to FIGC and the all 20 participating clubs in the league championship during the meeting organised on 16 February. The publication, which pointed out that similar debates were presented at the same time by Spanish La Liga, English Premier League, and German Bundesliga board members to the clubs in their respective countries, also noted that the Serie A was favourable to the project from an economic point of view and that FIFA was aware of it, to the point that the eventual Super League winner team would participate in the new FIFA Club World Cup, provisionally called the World Club Competition or World League. About the latter, a 20 May "New York Times" report emphasised FIFA's participation in the European Super League project.


title: European Super League

text: On 22 October, "The Athletic" reported the results of its anonymous survey of clubs from across UEFA's member associations. According to the survey, 66% of clubs reacted negatively to the Super League's announcement, and 56% of clubs said that a Super League would negatively affect their club. A slim majority of clubs believed that the Super League concept had not gone away, and many clubs wanted to see a Super League involve more teams from other nations, institute a promotion and relegation system, and a revised distribution of income.


title: European Super League

text: Despite claims that the ESL would be the "most significant restructuring of elite European football since the creation of the European Cup" and that claims of negative impacts from it were similar to the founding of the Premier League in 1992, commentators had contrasting opinions. Although they noted that the new competition would eliminate financial risk for its founding members by operating on a semi-closed league setup similar to basketball's EuroLeague, which would also eliminate the risk of clubs failing to qualify or being relegated and give these clubs a stable source of revenue and increased value, they also noted it had serious issues.


title: European Super League

text: While "Forbes" contributor Marc Edelman, professor of law at the City University of New York, wrote that the Super League would bring the lucrative U.S. professional sports league model to Europe, Ian Nicholas Quillen, MLS and American soccer contributor for "Forbes", said the system would be "a sinister hybrid of ['closed' and 'open'] league systems that deflects the drawbacks onto most of its domestic league peers", offering "the Rest of Europe the most meager of prizes imaginable in order to justify not [providing stability or support to all participants] while hoarding the potential gains for themselves." Bloomberg News columnist Alex Webb argued a Premier League weakened by the existence of the Super League could negatively affect Britain's soft power.


title: European Super League

text: Commentators also noted how the ESL could render domestic competitions as irrelevant and lower tier compared to the Super League, and that it would destroy the ideas behind promotion and relegation systems; Pérez later countered this with claims that the ESL would later have a system of promotion and relegation. In an opinion piece by Henry Bushnell of Yahoo Sports, the proposed plan was described as "repulsive" but the idea itself was commended; however, the competition structure would strongly need a system of promotion and relegation based on performance in domestic leagues and the UEFA Champions League, and the ESL clubs should share more of its profits with lower status clubs. Writing in "Corriere della Sera", Italian sports commentator Mario Sconcerti called the Super League a "crude idea that goes against the fans." Italian journalist Emanuele Celeste spoke of "a regulation not very faithful to traditional football" and the risk of new future rules in reference to the division of a match into three periods instead of two.


title: European Super League

text: Michael Cox argued in "The Athletic" that the European Super League would help restore completive balance in European Football due to the widening gap between big, rich clubs and smaller, poorer clubs in domestic leagues, and this inequality would only increase as time goes on without a Super League.


title: European Super League

text: Commentary from the women's game was largely negative, with several commentators pointing out that the Super League's one-line mention of creating a women's version of the competition seemed like an afterthought, lacking in any details and with many of the Super League clubs not having well-established women's sides. 2018 Ballon d'Or Féminin winner Ada Hegerberg, one of the first high-profile women players to speak out against the league, tweeted that "greed is not the future."


title: European Super League

text: UK broadcaster BT Sport, one of the networks that hold the rights to the UEFA Champions League and the Premier League, condemned the European Super League and said that it "could have a damaging effect to the long term health of football in the United Kingdom", whilst its competitor Sky reiterated that it has not held talks to broadcast the league. Amazon Prime Video, which owns streaming rights to the Premier League in the UK, stated they had no involvement. DAZN confirmed they were not "in any way involved or interested in entering into discussions regarding the establishment of a Super League and no conversations have taken place." Facebook, Inc. also denied involvement in broadcasting discussions.


title: European Super League

text: Mediapro, who hold the rights to La Liga and the Champions League in Spain, told Reuters that "television broadcasters won't break their contracts with UEFA and national leagues to join the breakaway European Super League project", and it also predicted that the Super League would fail.


title: European Super League

text: The reaction of former Manchester United player, current Salford City co-owner, and Sky Sports commentator Gary Neville (who had defended the leagues vice-chairman Joel Glazer’s ownership of Manchester United just over a year previously) generated strong attention on social media, calling the formation "an act of pure greed" and being especially disappointed at his former club's admission, going on to say that stringent measures must be taken against the founding clubs, including bans from European competitions and point deductions. Neville's former United teammate Roy Keane said that it was motivated by money and greed, and praised Bayern Munich for not taking part.


title: European Super League

text: Portuguese national team members Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United and João Cancelo of Manchester City became the first footballers to oppose their own clubs joining the European Super League. Liverpool midfielder James Milner said in a post-match interview that he did not like the Super League, and wished it would not happen. Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp was also critical of the Super League, although he said he would not resign and instead would "sort it somehow" with Fenway Sports Group, who are the owners of the club. Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson called for a meeting for captains of Premier League clubs to discuss a collective response.


title: European Super League

text: Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said he trusts his club to make the right decisions in relation to the European Super League. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola added that while "it is not [really] a sport if success is guaranteed", UEFA "had failed" in advancing the sport and that footballing institutions "think for themselves."


title: European Super League

text: Following the announcement of the European Super League, shares in Manchester United and Juventus increased 9% and 19%, respectively. After the Super League was suspended, shares in the clubs dropped significantly.


title: European Super League

text: Football Supporters Europe (FSE), a body representing supporters in 45 UEFA countries, issued a statement opposing the creation of the Super League. A snap YouGov poll conducted shortly after the league's announcement found that 79% of British football fans oppose the Super League with only 14% expressing support; 76% of fans of the British teams joining the Super League also expressed disapproval, with 20% expressing support. International fans of the clubs involved as well as international football fans who did not support a particular club were largely supportive of the Super League. Many football fans criticised Tottenham Hotspur's inclusion, as the team has not a won a trophy since the 2008 Football League Cup Final. Barcelona fans hung a banner over Camp Nou which read "Barcelona is our life, not your toy. No to playing in the Super League."


title: European Super League

text: Supporter groups from all six English clubs opposed the league, releasing statements condemning the plans and the clubs for their involvement in the league. On 19 April, a crowd of about 700 fans appeared outside Elland Road despite COVID-19 restrictions, ahead of the scheduled match between Leeds United and Liverpool, to protest against the European Super League. A banner in the stands stated "Earn it on the pitch, football is for the fans." "The Athletic" later reported that the shirts were approved by the Premier League. On 20 April, more than a thousand Chelsea fans joined protests outside Stamford Bridge ahead of Chelsea's game against Brighton & Hove Albion and the team buses of both the clubs were blocked from entering the stadium. Shortly after, it was relayed to the gathered fans that Chelsea would withdraw from the Super League, leading to an outpour of celebration.


title: European Super League

text: On 19 April, Aleksander Čeferin stated that UEFA would begin making "legal assessments" on the following day, and that the organisation would look to ban the twelve Super League clubs "as soon as possible." However, the Super League informed UEFA and FIFA that they had begun legal action to prevent the competition from being thwarted. Jesper Møller, chairman of the Danish Football Association and UEFA Executive Committee member, stated that he expected the three Super League clubs in the semi-finals of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League (Chelsea, Manchester City, and Real Madrid) to be expelled from the competition by 23 April. In addition, he also expected Arsenal and Manchester United to be expelled from the semi-finals of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League. In response, Super League chairman Florentino Pérez said that this would be "impossible" and that the law protects them. On 20 April, ESPN reported that UEFA decided to not ban the Super League teams from the Champions League and Europa League, and the matches would proceed as scheduled.


title: European Super League

text: The Super League also sparked discussion whether it is in violation of anti-trust laws since it contains business practices that are allegedly designed to reduce competition, by creating a protected market that restricts others from entering that may limit competition. The European Commission stated that it does not plan to investigate the Super League for anti-trust violations. Bloomberg News columnist Alex Webb argued that the European Commission's lack of investigation was justified; if a case against the Super League failed, other parties could interpret the case as condoning the Super League, and the European Commission could face popular backlash.


title: European Super League

text: Sports lawyer Daniel Geey speculated that the UEFA and the European Super League as well as the ECA, FIFA, and FIFPro were involved in "a high-stakes game of negotiation", and that the launch of the Super League was not guaranteed. Recalling a conversation with an unidentified lawyer, Sky Sports reporter Geraint Hughes stated that the main arguments for both sides would deal with competition law; UEFA would argue that the Super League would effectively be a closed league and an abuse of power from involved clubs, while the Super League would argue that restrictive conditions imposed by UEFA or FIFA would be anti-competitive. Hughes also stated that, in the lawyer's opinion, the Super League would have a slight advantage in a hypothetical case under current EU law; if there was a change in the interpretation of EU law, then UEFA could win.


title: European Super League

text: On 20 April, a Spanish commercial court based in Madrid with territorial jurisdiction published a "medida cautelarísima" () with legal value and executive into the entire European Union through the 2007 Lugano Convention, ruling that Swiss-based UEFA and FIFA, any other associated football body, and/or any league council directly or indirectly associated with these cannot publish press notes and/or interviews against the Super League project and its founding members, cannot block the launch of the Super League, and cannot sanction any of its founding clubs, its managers personnel, and its footballers, based on articles 45, 49, 56, and 63 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), until the court has fully considered the case. The Super League believed that some of the rules its founding clubs are subject to were not legally sound, and they planned to test its efficacy in the European courts.


title: European Super League

text: On 13 May, the Spanish commercial court referred a "cuestión preliminar" () to the CJEU on whether FIFA and UEFA have violated articles 101 and 102 of the TFEU, denouncing UEFA's monopoly position as the solely governing, disciplinary institution and unique clubs' income distributor, a triple charge referred to as illegal according the European Union competition law. The court also denounced UEFA's abuse of dominant position by opposing the Super League project, such as using coercion to press the founding clubs to abandon the project in favour to UEFA, publishing sanctions against nine of the founding clubs (Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, AC Milan, and Tottenham Hotspur), and threatening the exclusion from all UEFA competitions for up to two years to the three still active clubs (Barcelona, Juventus, and Real Madrid) based in a potential violation of the articles 49 and 51 of UEFA's statutes, which are objected by the Super League as monopolistic since they give UEFA exclusive control in European football. By imposing sanctions, UEFA ignored the injunction previously filed by the Spanish court almost a month before, resulting in the case being taken to the CJEU. On 7 June, the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police notified the Spanish precautionary measure to both governing bodies, ruling them to not execute sanctions against Barcelona, Juventus, and Real Madrid.


title: European Super League

text: On 27 September, after UEFA received an "ultimatum" from the Spanish commercial court to ban it from taking any disciplinary action against Barcelona, Juventus, and Real Madrid; and nullify the sanctions against the other Super League associated clubs; the European governing body announced that it had abandoned its proceedings against the three clubs, and would not request payment of the sums offered by the other nine founding teams. Both UEFA and LaLiga have challenged the judge Ruiz de Lara, arguing that he is not impartial and that in the exercise of his jurisdictional function, he shows a clear bias towards the claims of the plaintiff European Super League Company S.L. ("ESL").


title: European Super League

text: On 15 December 2022, Athanasios Rantos, advocate general for the European Court of Justice, issued an Opinion stating that FIFA's and UEFA's regulations were "compatible with EU competition law", with a final judgement from the Grand Chamber to come in the spring.


title: European Super League

text: Spearheaded by Florentino Pérez of Real Madrid and Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, the Super League was in the works for three years; however, the final phases were rushed, and allegiance among the twelve clubs, instead of the fifteen as originally planned, seemed to have been forged under pressure. The announcement was unexpectedly poorly planned, devoid of real content, and the coalition, liable to break under pressure, came apart quickly.


title: European Super League

text: On 20 April at 7pm GMT, Chelsea publicly signalled their intention to withdraw from the Super League after chairman Bruce Buck met with the players. Thirty minutes later, Manchester City were the first team to formally commence procedures to withdraw from the Super League. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur followed soon after, whilst Chelsea was the last English club to formally announce its withdrawal in the early hours of 21 April. The same day, Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan, and AC Milan confirmed their exits. Three days into its founding, nine of the twelve clubs had announced their plans to withdraw, with just Juventus, Barcelona, and Real Madrid remaining. According to leaked documents, the clubs breaching contract are liable £130million in penalty fees.


title: European Super League

text: The Super League also collapsed due to global politics, with some news outlets, such as the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", wondering whether the intervention of the new


title: European Super League

text: British and Russian governments was the real reason for the collapse, stating: "It was not at all just the protest of the football fans that brought the Super League down: it was also global politics. The idea of having their own league remains attractive for top clubs." As reported by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich allegedly withdrew in light of his relations with Russia, which through Gazprom is a major sponsor of the UEFA Champions League. Manchester City allegedly pulled out as Saudi Arabia, which does not have a positive human rights image internationally, was thought to be a major financier for the league; JP Morgan dismissed the claims to "The Daily Telegraph", and stated it was "sole financing the deal."


title: European Super League

text: After the English clubs withdrew on 21 April, the Super League stated: "Given the current circumstances, we shall reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project, always having in mind our goals of offering fans the best experience possible while enhancing solidarity payments for the entire football community." Andrea Agnelli blamed the failure on Brexit, and stated that it was unlikely the Super League project would proceed in its current form, although he remained convinced of the "beauty of the project." Pérez reiterated that none of the founding clubs had officially left the association, as they were tied to binding contracts, and vowed to work with the governing bodies to make some form of the Super League work. Whilst blaming the English clubs for losing their nerve in face of opposition and the footballing authorities for acting unjustifiably aggressively, Pérez insisted that the Super League project was merely on standby and not over. Barcelona president Joan Laporta echoed Pérez's sentiments that a Super League remains "absolutely necessary" for clubs to survive.


title: European Super League

text: Following the opening of UEFA's disciplinary proceedings against Barcelona, Juventus, and Real Madrid, the three clubs issued a joint statement strongly criticising UEFA, stating that the clubs "will not accept any form of coercion or intolerable pressure, while they remain strong in their willingness to debate, respectfully and through dialogue, the urgent solutions that football currently needs." On 31 May, the Super League, believing that UEFA and FIFA had breached EU competition laws by preventing the clubs from breaking away, filed an anti-competitive complaint to the CJEU against UEFA and FIFA for their proposals to stop the organisation of the competition. With the aim of establishing whether the two governing bodies have the exclusive right to organise competitions, the hearing could take up to two years but the Super League feels confident about it, stating that "we will win that case based on precedent in other sports and it will pave the way for the Super League to eventually relaunch in a modified form."