Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, April 19th. And this is your FT news briefing.

Trillions of dollars of excess savings are sitting in savings accounts around the world ready to be spent.

In some of Europe's biggest football clubs are planning to break away from the Champions League and create an alternative.

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I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day.

Consumers around the world have stockpiled an extra $5.4 trillion in savings from the start of the pandemic through the first quarter of this year.

That could be good news for the post-pandemic economy. Consumers saved money because they spent so much less over the past year due to uncertainty and because so many businesses were shut.

One consumer confidence index shows consumers are increasingly confident about the economic outlook.

That could mean lots of spending on shops, bars and restaurants reopen.

The credit rating agency Moody's estimates that if consumers spent just a third of their excess savings, they would boost global output by just over 2 percentage points this year and in 2022.

European Soccer

I mean football could be in for some major upheaval. Up to 12 teams plan to break away and form a separate super league.

Sources tell the FT that the group includes top clubs like Spain's Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, England's Liverpool and Chelsea and Italy's AC Milan.

The plan is backed by $6 billion in debt financing by JP Morgan and it would be the biggest change to the sport in decades.

The FT Sports Editor Murad Ahmed spoke to me about what's behind the move.

If you were charitable about it you would say that these clubs, the highest earning clubs in the world and they've taken during the pandemic when fans haven't been able to be in stadiums, they've taken huge revenue shortfalls and they're looking for ways to recoup that money.

The uncharitable view is that it's a power grab at a very sensitive time in the development of European football.

Right. Last week there was a big meeting between the biggest clubs in their trade body.

They meant to prepare for today's announcement by UEFA. That's European football's governing body.

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