UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin is ready to sanction clubs that favour the return of the European Super League.
During the Financial Times Business of Football Summit in London, as reported by MARCA, Aleksander Ceferin has launched another attack on European Super League amid reports of the idea potentially gaining a revival. The UEFA President has firmly stated that he would be willing to ban the clubs interested in its revival, from UEFA’s own competitions, including the Champions League.
“I have to say that those speaking about the Super League are not speaking about football. I am sick and tired of this non-football project,” he said, before adding, “First, they launched their nonsense of the idea in the middle of a pandemic. Now, we read articles that they are planning to launch another idea now in the middle of a war,” said Ceferin.
Ceferin’s comments come just a few days after reports surfaced that three clubs in Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus were actively planning to revive the Super League debate, almost a year after they had initially come up with the plan to break away from the UEFA Champions League.
“Do I have to speak more about these people? They obviously live in a parallel world. They criticised UEFA and the ECA [European Club Association]…one of them was chairman of the ECA. I have quotes from where [Agnelli] was praising the system a week before they launched the Super League,” the UEFA president added added.
Ceferin went on to issue a threat to the rebel clubs, suggesting that teams involved in the Super League could be barred from competing in any UEFA acknowledged competition, including the Champions League.
“They can play their own competition, nobody forbids them. But if they play their own competition, they can’t play in our competition,” said the 46-year-old.
Ceferin’s warnings over the Super League certainly point to difficult times ahead for the football’s governing body in Europe, who have recently become the subject of a lawsuit from the Football Union of Russia after their decision to expel Spartak Moscow from the UEFA Europa League and indefinitely ban the Russian clubs from competing in UEFA-accredited competitions.
As the federation continues to lose its influence in football’s seat of power in Europe, it will be interesting to see how the Super League debate transpires over the coming months.