MADRID, 8 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, assured this Thursday that the European Super League “is digging its grave” because, although they claim to be “the saviors of football” and play “victims, they are nothing more than predators” and “confuse the monopoly with unity”.
“We need European unity because Europe is not as united as it should be. The strength of European football lies in this acute feeling of belonging. Adherence to a clear, simple, powerful model, based on common values. There are no giants or modest ones. There are no rich or poor thanks to our system. On the contrary, it is a democracy in which everyone can dream and victories are won on the field and not off it,” said the Slovenian at the UEFA Congress in Paris.
Ceferin took advantage of UEFA's “unique” competition model. “We are humble enough to attribute this indisputable success to a model based on solidarity, investment, unity, sporting merit, promotion. Thank God the majority of leaders realized that we must protect together this model. For the people, for the fans,” he stated.
“Some people are trying to trample on 70 years of history. They are trying to change this European football model despite its success. They pretend to be the saviors of football, when in reality they are trying to dig its grave. They play victims when in reality they are no more What predators,” he asserted against the Super League.
The leader harshly attacked the founders of the project, led by the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez. “They confuse monopoly with unity. They confuse alms and solidarity, and they talk a lot about free markets, but they know nothing,” he criticized, before lamenting that “never before in modern times has Europe” seemed so fragile, so fragmented, so fractured.” “We live in difficult times, but unity is the only thing that can save us,” he added.
“There are those who think that everything can be bought. Everything is for sale and we are all consumers and nothing more. This is a perspective on life, but it is not ours, it never will be. It is not the type of society we want to bequeath to our children. It is not the type of Europe that its founding fathers imagined,” he continued forcefully.
Ceferin accused the precursors of the Super League of “trying to divide” with the “free market, motivated by an insatiable desire to generate ever greater benefits for a privileged few.” “The clubs are free to enter a new competition if they want. Nobody wants to stop them, nobody has told them they can't do it,” he said.
“Everyone can do whatever they want, even join the league that English fans call 'zombie league' or, as I call it, 'pleonexia league', out of the desire to always have more. More money, more power, more prestige, more than anything that feeds the sense of superiority, greed and pride,” he censured.
However, Ceferin was clear and insisted that, “since football fans are not stupid, nothing will change,” because the Super League is “a bad idea.” “You can't buy sporting merit. You can't buy 70 years of history,” he said.
Thus, he took the opportunity to address the new format of men's European competitions for 2024, promising “greater equity, emotion, intensity, emotion and uncertainty”, which is what “makes football such a powerful and beautiful sport.” “There will be criticism at first because habits that date back more than a century will be changed. We are convinced that these changes are necessary and will benefit everyone,” she commented.
Finally, Ceferin presented this summer's Euro Cup as “a green and sustainable tournament, not a white elephant, neither excessively ambitious nor wasteful.” “We will use the existing facilities to minimize the impact on the German taxpayer and on the environment. It will be a great European Championship that we will never forget,” he concluded.