Boris Johnson forced collapse of European Super League due to Brexit fears, claims Andrea Agnelli

Boris Johnson forced the collapse of the European Super League because he feared it would undermine Brexit, one of the key plotters behind the doomed competition has suggested.

Andrea Agnelli, the chairman of Juventus, peddled the astonishing claim after admitting the reviled tournament would no longer go ahead due to the withdrawal of eight of its 12 clubs barely 48 hours after its launch.

That included the Premier League’s so-called ‘Big Six’, who fell like dominoes on Tuesday night following a storm of protest against the largely-closed competition.

Agnelli, branded a “snake” for his role in the tournament by Aleksander Ceferin, the president of Uefa and godfather to his daughter, said: “I have had speculation to that extent that if six teams would have broken away and would have threatened the EPL (Premier League), politics would have seen that as an attack to Brexit and their political scheme.”

Telegraph Sport has approached the Government for comment on Agnelli’s claims about its motives for opposing The Super League, upon which Johnson had vowed to drop a “legislative bomb” to kill it off.

Agnelli also insisted other clubs were ready to join the competition before the English sides left.

“I’m not going to say how many clubs contacted me in just 24 hours asking if they could join,” he said, declining to name them. “Maybe they lied, but I was contacted by a number of teams asking what they could do to join.”

He was defiant about the nature of The Super League, despite the almost universal condemnation of it.

“I remain convinced of the beauty of that project,” said Agnelli, stating it would have created the best competition in the world. “But admittedly ... I mean, I don’t think that that project is now still up and running.”

Asked if he regretted the clandestine way the breakaway was conducted, he replied: “I don’t think our industry is a particularly sincere, trustworthy or reliable one in general.”