UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin redoubled his attacks against the three clubs that promoted the Superliga and said that it would not matter to him if Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus deviated from UEFA and called their respective managers “incompetent”.
“I would not mind if they left, it is very funny that they want to create a new competition and at the same time want to play the Champions League this season”said Seferin in an interview published this weekend by the magazine “Der Spiegel”.
All three clubs, according to Ceferin, “have simply incompetent managers.” “Those guys have tried to kill football,” he stressed.
The clubs complain, according to Ceferin, that the salaries are too high despite the fact that they themselves have negotiated the contracts.
Ceferin, on the other hand, described as incongruous that the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, “laments and says that the club can only survive with a Super League and then try to sign Kylian Mbappé for 180 million euros”.
On the other hand, Ceferin affirmed that he was threatened by telephone by a Superliga advisor who suggested that the competition be organized by UEFA; When the leader rejected the idea, he told him that the interested clubs had a lot of money and influence and that they were going to sue him if he did not give in.
Ceferin also proposed some reforms of the financial Fair Play in which a mandatory payment would be imposed on clubs that exceed a certain limit in spending. The proceeds from those payments should be shared among the other clubs.
“In the future we want to talk about a competitive balance rather than fair play“, said.
Mess with the World Cup
Mess in sight between FIFA, UEFA and CONMEBOL for the proposal to alternate each year the World Cup with the Copa América, the Eurocup and the different continental tournaments. The president of the highest body of European football, Aleksander Ceferin, has assured in the newspaper The Times that both their federations and the South Americans frontally reject a proposal that they believe “I would kill football.” For its part, FIFA is already activating its pressure measures at all levels to create a favorable climate towards its proposal, and, although he has not spoken directly with the confederations, Arsene Wenger, for example, has already visited the Premier clubs to try to get their support in this regard.
“I hope FIFA comes to its senses, I don't think talking to everyone except the confederations is the right way to approach this. They haven't told us anything, not a call, an email … nothing. We only know what we have seen in the press “, criticizes the president of UEFA, who has dropped that they could block the project. “We can decide not to participate. From what I know, the South Americans think the same. Good luck with a World Cup without our two confederations. I don't think it will ever happen, it goes against the basic principles of football ”.
“We would be killing the players if we asked them to play a one-month tournament every summer, and, if it is every two, we would coincide with the Women's World Cup and the Olympics.”, has explained Ceferin. “The value of these tournaments is that they take place every four years. The fan awaits them, they are like the Olympics, an important event. I don't think our federations support an idea like this. “
“What if the clubs decide to stop giving us players?”
On Tuesday, however, there will be a meeting with the 55 associations present at UEFA to discuss FIFA's plans and learn about the different sensitivities among the members. Of course, Ceferin has already announced what his position will be: “Both competitions, the Euro and the World Cup, should be every four years, because they are interesting precisely for that. I do not think that doubling its periodicity will double the benefits, but yes, surely from an economic point of view it is good for us, but we would be killing football and the players. This would only take us further away from the clubs. “
A conflict in sight that, for him, has already been opened: “In this same selection window, the clubs have already told us that they do not want to let their players go if they have to quarantine on the return, but what would happen if they decide never to give them to us again? I'm not really sure if these people know what is being played with this. “