Will Super League clubs be punished? How UEFA is set to deal with breakaway dozen

News of the Super League shook football to its core, with Europe's heavyweights announcing that they were to join a tournament to rival the Champions League and therefore altering the football landscape as we know it.

But because the tournament was met with such an overwhelming negative reaction, its plans have now been halted – but could the clubs involved still be punished? Goal takes a look.

What is the Super League & what happened to it?

The Super League is a proposed breakaway European club competition featuring 20 clubs - with 15 permanent ones, called the "founding clubs".

There are 12 founding clubs: six from the Premier League (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham); three from La Liga (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid); and three from Serie A (Inter, Juventus, AC Milan). 

However, just after the Super League announced their plans, the participating clubs were met with furious backlash from supporters and football figures alike. Players, fans and media figures were vocal in their opposition about the Super League plans, as the model had the potential to unbalance the football pyramid forever.

Less than 48 hours after the Super League confirmation, all six Premier League clubs withdrew from the competition citing the negative reaction. Both Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid announced their plans to withdraw on April 20.

This, then, leaves the Super League's existence in doubt, although Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has stated that plans to continue the competition in whatever form are still in place.

Will the Super League clubs be punished & what's been said?

UEFA slammed the Super League proposals, with president Alexander Ceferin even vowing to punish Super League participants and threatening to ban individual players from the World Cup and Euros.

And now, even after the majority of participating clubs announced their plans to withdraw from the Super League, Ceferin still says that all teams will face consequences for initially joining the competition.

Ceferin did praise the clubs who left the Super League first, but maintained that everyone involved should be 'responsible'. He has not confirmed or detailed what the punishments would be.

At the time of writing, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Milan have not formally left.

"Everyone has to take consequences for what they did and we cannot pretend nothing happened," Ceferin told the Daily Mail. "You cannot do something like that and just say: 'I've been punished because everybody hates me.' They don't have problems because of anyone else but themselves. It's not OK what they did and we will see in next few days what we have to do.

"But for me it's a clear difference between the English clubs and the other six. They pulled out first, they admitted they made a mistake. You have to have some greatness to say: 'I was wrong.' For me there are three groups of this 12 -- the English Six, who went out first, then the other three [Atletico Madrid, Milan, Inter] after them and then the ones who feel that Earth is flat and they think the Super League still exists [Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus].

"And there is a big difference between those. But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see.

"I don't want to say disciplinary process but it has to be clear that everyone has to be held responsible in a different way. Is it disciplinary? Is it the decision of the executive committee? We will see. It's too early to say."

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Ceferin went on to laud the fans who were involved in the protests which led their clubs to pull out of the Super League.

Chelsea fans arrived at Stamford Bridge in numbers prior to their Premier League meeting against Brighton holding signs and banners, and similar protests were seen outside of Anfield, the Emirates and Old Trafford.

"Look, honestly speaking I was completely impressed by the reaction of the fans, the whole football community and not just the football community but I would say society. I never seen this," Ceferin added.

"UEFA did its part, the clubs that stood with us did their part. And of course the U.K. government out of all did the big part. But by far the biggest part was done by fans.

"I think it's an important thing. And we have learned a lot from this situation. We will try to speak to as many as possible to see their view but you will never speak with all the groups, as even small clubs from my country have two or three groups."