UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has made clear that whoever wants to play in the European Super League will be banned from taking part in the World Cup and European Championship.
News broke on Sunday night that 12 clubs plan to break away from UEFA’s Champions League and form their own league, with a further three founder clubs and five invitees set to join.
“The players who will play in teams that might play in the closed league will be banned from playing in [the] World Cup and Euros,” Ceferin said during a Zoom media conference in Switzerland. “They could not represent national team in any matches.”
Speaking about the European Super League as a whole, Ceferin believes that greed is at the heart of the project.
“I cannot stress more strongly at the moment that UEFA and the football world stand together alongside this disgraceful, self-serving project from a select few clubs in Europe fuelled by greed above all else,” Ceferin stated.
“This idea is a spit in the face of all football lovers and our society as well. We must not let them take it [football] away from us.
“Not only the football world, but society and governments are united. It’s part of our culture. We are all united against this nonsense of a project.
“We have the English FA, Spanish Federation, Italian Federation, the Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A and FIFA, unanimous in opposition to these cynical plans which are completely against what football should be.
“We are all united against this nonsense of a project. Cynical plan, completely against what football should be. We cannot and will not allow that to change.
“The greatest sport is based on open competition, integrity and sporting merit and we will never allow that to change.”
Ceferin is overseeing the remodelling of the Champions League, with more teams and games set to be introduced, but before ending his speech he made sure to highlight Manchester United vice-chairman Ed Woodward and Juventus president Andrea Agnelli, both of whom resigned from the European Club Association after the announcement of the European Super League.
“I have seen many things in my life, I was a criminal lawyer for 24 hours. I’ve seen many people, I’ve never seen anyone like that,” Ceferin said.
“[Woodward] called me last Thursday to say satisfied with reforms and only thing he wanted to speak about is FFP. [Agnelli is] probably the biggest disappointment of all, I don’t want to be too personal, but I have never seen a person who lied so many times as persistently as he did.
“I spoke to him on Saturday and he said these were only rumours, nothing going on. Then he turned off the phone. Greediness is so strong that all the human values evaporate. it’s always good to know in life, who is who.
“Super League is only about money, money of the dozen, I don’t want to call them dirty dozen, but UEFA is about developing football, and about financing what should be financed, that our football, our culture survives, and some people don’t understand it.”
