Ceferin attacks the Super League after re-election as UEFA president
‘It has become a wolf disguised as grandma – ready to DEVOUR you’: Aleksander Ceferin attacks the Super League after being re-elected as UEFA president and brands the breakaway league ‘selfish’ and ‘greedy’
- The initial 12-team European Super League project collapsed back in 2021
- Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are still waging a legal battle with UEFA
- Aleksander Ceferin criticised the Super League backers at the UEFA Congress
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has renewed his attack on the Super League by comparing its backers to the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus continue to push for a Super League, which initially formed of 12 rebel clubs and collapsed in April 2021 after fan protests.
A22, the company behind the Super League, had suggested that European football was on the ‘brink of the abyss’ when outlining a revised 80-team format in February.
It claimed ‘huge imbalances have arisen across our continent’ and said it would deliver a ‘greater distribution of financial resources for the whole pyramid’.
Ceferin attacked their assessment at the UEFA congress in Lisbon, claiming those behind the Super League are disguising themselves as the saviours of football but are instead guilty of being ‘selfish’ and ‘greedy’.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin renewed his attack on the European Super League
New plans for the Super League emerged in February after the breakaway collapsed in 2021
Fan protests led to the Super League collapse but a revival of project was mooted in February
‘Those who promote this project are now claiming that they want to save football,’ Ceferin said.
‘In the space of a few months, the Super League has turned into a character in Little Red Riding Hood: a wolf disguised as a grandmother, ready to eat you up,’ Ceferin said, according to Marca.
‘But nobody’s fooled, because here we have two opposing world views.
‘We have cynicism over morality. We have selfishness over solidarity. We have greed over benevolence. Self-absorption over openness to others. Self-interest over altruism.
‘Shameful lies over the truth. Heirs over builders. Cartel over meritocracy and democracy. Stock prices over sporting merit. The quest for profit over the quest for trophies.
If there is something that we should never forget, and that no one should ever forget, it is this: football is and will always remain the sport of the people.
‘We must put an end to the myth that the privatisation of football is an unstoppable process. It is a present danger.’
Ceferin’s latest criticism of the Super League came after the Slovenian official was re-elected as UEFA president for a third four-year term until 2027.
Spanish league president Javier Tebas had previously drawn the comparison between the Super League and a wolf back in February.
Tebas signalled his support for Ceferin’s comments with a video depicting Little Red Riding Hood.
Ceferin’s criticism of the Super League followed the official being re-elected UEFA president
UEFA had been handed a major boost in December when a senior legal figure advised the European Court of Justice to rule UEFA have not breached EU competition laws.
FIFA and UEFA had said for the Super League project to take place, it should be subject to prior approval from the governing bodies, while it threatened clubs and players who took part in the breakaway league with sanctions.
The Super League Company had launched legal action against UEFA, claiming it had breached EU law through this stance.
The advice from Advocate General Athanasios Rantos comes ahead of a final decision by the European Courts of Justice.
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