Qatar 'plans Dream Football League'

World football could be about to experience a major shake-up with the potential introduction of the "Dream Football League" (DFL), according to The Times.

AssociatedThe Khalifa Stadium in Doha would likely host fixtures in the proposed 'Dream Football League'

The report on Wednesday morning said that plans were afoot to launch a 'Dream Football League', a summer tournament which would host 24 teams every two years in an audacious attempt to rival the Champions League and the Club World Cup and, in the process, offer enormous financial rewards for the participating teams.

However, the story has since been claimed as a hoax, with satirical French website Les Cahiers du Football taking the credit for the hoax following a very similar - and entirely bogus - story it published earlier in the week.
Les Cahiers du Football said via its Twitter account on Wednesday: "We published this on the night of Monday to Tuesday at around one in the morning - all of it came from my imagination."
The Times' report said that the burgeoning competition could potentially entice a number of clubs to participate, with organisers expected to offer in the region of £175 million for elite clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United to compete every two-year cycle.
The amounts of money mentioned as being on offer in the DFL would cast a long shadow over the world's top competitions - the Champions League has an annual prize fund of £595 million, with last season's winner Chelsea netting £47.3 million - and would also help many of Europe's wealthiest clubs overcome UEFA's new "financial fair play" regulations.
Officials for UEFA, the Premier League and clubs likely to be involved have so far not commented on the reports, but The Times quotes a source close to the proposed project as saying: "These people have already shown that, if they want something to happen, they will throw enough money at it to make it happen. And the football industry has shown that everything can be bought for the right price."