Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti said the Super League clubs were wrong to disregard the opinions of players and fans.
The ‘Big Six’ signed up for the breakaway league on Sunday, only to pull out 48 hours later following backlash from fans, pundits, other clubs and stakeholders.
But Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal could still be punished for the decision to be among the ‘Dirty Dozen’ despite their withdrawal.
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Ancelotti admits he initially thought the news was some kind of joke.
“My immediate reaction was they are joking, ‘Is it a joke?’,” Ancelotti said.
“For every supporter of football it was a strange day, a surprise. We heard about the Super League in the past few months but I was sure it was not going to happen. What can I say? They were wrong.
“The clubs were wrong because they didn’t take into consideration the players, managers and supporters.
“They wanted to build a competition without sporting merit. This is not acceptable because in our culture, we were brought up to have sporting merit. They were wrong – full stop.”
Everton’s owner Farhad Moshiri called for the clubs involved to be docked points but Ancelotti would not be drawn on sanctions.
“I’m not the right person to say if they should be punished. Everyone can do mistakes,” he added.
While Ancelotti is not a fan of the Super League, he does think the Champions League can be improved significantly.
“I think that the Super League as they proposed it is impossible, but a new way of Champions League I think (can be achieved),” he added.
“I think in 2024 there will be a new format for the Champions League and on there I think that they can talk and find the best solution to have this competition more and more exciting and competitive.
“Everyone of us wants the Champions League to be more competitive. It gets exciting from March. It could be exciting from September.
“I think the new format will be better, it will be more exciting from the beginning.
“But I think that the 12 clubs were not happy about that. If they were happy, they could accept this.”
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