Ceferin, on the 'Negreira Case': "The situation is exceptionally serious"

Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA, has described the situation of Barcelona due to the

as "exceptionally serious", as he said in an interview published by the newspaper Ekipa.

“Judging from what I am informed, the situation is exceptionally serious.

So serious, that it seems to me that it is one of the most serious cases in football since I dealt with it", said the Slovenian when asked about the payment of seven million euros to the vice president of the referees by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018.

Ceferin did not go into details about the case because, according to what he says, there is an independent disciplinary commission dealing with it.

However, he stressed that although the case has prescribed for the League, proceedings are underway by the Spanish prosecutor's office.

"The same goes for UEFA, in our organization nothing has prescribed," warned the Slovenian, who did not want to answer the question of whether Barcelona could suffer competitive consequences from UEFA.

"I cannot and do not want to comment on that," said Ceferin, who is in Lisbon for the elections in which he hopes to be re-elected as UEFA president.

However, the investigation into Barcelona announced by UEFA could leave the Catalan team out of the Champions League for a season.

In the event of applying articles 4.02 and 4.03 of the regulations, the organization may penalize "any activity aimed at fixing or influencing the result of a match at a national or international level" and "will declare that said club will not be able to participate in the competition.

This ineligibility is effective for one season only.”

The president of the organization also spoke about the Super League and assured that it is definitely past history.

"Although it seems that some are still trying something, I think it's just to improve their position and try to negotiate something," he said.

The UEFA president emphasized that "there is nothing to negotiate" and that "that story is over, without a doubt."

Ceferin also stressed that he highly respects the three clubs that wanted to form the Super League, but pointed out that if a club has a management that makes wrong decisions, that does not mean that it is against that club, its fans or players.

In addition, he made reference to the fact that two of the three clubs that proclaimed themselves as "saviors of football" are facing legal proceedings for financial corruption and bribery, respectively.

"It is interesting how they would save football," concluded the president.

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