The vocabulary used by Aleksander Ceferin at a press conference this Monday noon confirms the opening of a conflict.
The UEFA president wore a cold and determined face about the twelve founding clubs of the Super League, a semi-private competition created to everyone's surprise on Sunday evening.
The war of words is on.
But the consequences remain a mystery today.
The Super League, really created?
Monday, past midnight, rumors give way to amazement.
A press release announces the creation of "The Super League" with twelve founding members: Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Juventus, Inter, AC Milan, Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Eleven clubs follow with individual formalization.
Only Barça awaits Monday morning.
Why ?
Its new president, Joan Laporta, was blowing hot and cold on this Super League on Sunday night again.
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"Everything could start in five months": the exclusive explanations of the secretary general of the Super League
Behind the scenes, everything is changing. According to the New York Times, the president of Bayern Munich (absent from the 12 clubs), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge takes the post of Andrea Agnelli on the executive committee of the UEFA, confirming the desires of split of the leader of Juventus. Monday morning, the American bank JP Morgan unveiled its character as the main investor of the competition, to the tune of 3.5 billion euros.
The format of the Super League (two groups of ten before a final phase, 180 games in total) is known.
But the participants are still limited to the number of 12, the founders.
According to our information, the French clubs, including PSG, and German will be consulted in the coming hours, days.
This Monday, the capital club remained silent.
The president of Lyon, Jean-Michel Aulas, evokes on social networks a project which “highlights the virtues of money against the spirit of fair play”.
Another question remains: when will this Super League see the light of day beyond the name?
“In five months, anything is possible,” says Anas Laghari, general secretary of the competition.
UEFA's counterattack
The announcement of the creation of the Super League came on the eve of another: the adoption of the "new" Champions League, from the 2024-2025 season. A formula with 36 clubs instead of 32 and remodeled for more matches and, therefore, more TV rights. Unanimously, the UEFA Executive Committee voted for this new C1, which has been playing for the first time since 2003-2004. Behind, boss Aleksander Ceferin firmly answered questions from the international press during a virtual conference.
In this case, UEFA Ceferin poses as a victim, “betrayed” by “liars” who “only think about the money in their pockets” and who “don't care about solidarity.
For the moment, no one is banned but the leader warns: "There is no negotiation".
The twelve clubs, which he does not mention the name except to recall the recent past in the second division of Juventus Turin, are "welcome" in the new Champions League if they abandon their "insane" project.
And now ?
Although very advanced, the project of this Super League still has several areas of uncertainty. There are thus several questions to which no one really has the answers. The most immediate relates to the calendar: when will this new competition start? “While UEFA announces a new formula for the Champions League, almost the same day, twelve clubs announce the Super League, analyzes Thierry Granturco, lawyer specializing in sports law. It is therefore that they want to go to the end. They would lose face if they got back around the table to negotiate with UEFA. Technically and logistically, they are therefore ready to start next summer, otherwise why declare themselves now? »With which referees? This is an additional question. The whistles depend on the Federations which pay them (or the Leagues as in France).Will they, too, secede?
Paul Pogba, because he plays at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo, at Juventus Turin, two seditious clubs, can they miss the Euro scheduled for next June and July?
“It is a bit early to decide (on sanctions).
The announcement came overnight.
My opinion is that, as soon as possible, the teams and the players must be banned from the competitions of the UEFA ”, thus supports in a personal capacity Aleksander Ceferin, the boss of the European body.
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For our lawyer, it is impossible to get there. “UEFA has its back to the wall, pleads Me Granturco. The European Union's court of first instance, the Luxembourg court, ruled in December that it was forbidden to ban private competitions and prohibit preventing athletes from participating in them. The judgment concerned ice sports. There is also a concomitance of dates: December judgment of the European Union, April creation of the Super League, summer launch of the competition. Europe, in a liberal approach to sport, considers that the federative power no longer has an exclusive monopoly on the organization of competitions. It is now possible in France to create a parallel league to Ligue 1, organized by clubs that wish. "
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"I hope it will be Super fiasco": European fans mad with rage against the Super League
In the short term, can UEFA disappear? It has just revealed the new format of its flagship club event. But what is the Champions League worth without the legendary clubs promoting the Super League? Not much. The broadcasters, who paid rights for an event with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, could turn against the instance since the product no longer has the same value. “Either the system collapses for UEFA, or it goes downhill, predicts Granturco. But how to fight without a legal basis since the law is against it now? My rational vision forces me to say that the Super League will go to the end. Irrationally, this project goes so against football lovers, and therefore their clients, that I dare to believe that it will never exist. "
