MY ACCOUNT
UEFA’s newly re-elected president Aleksander Ceferin has renewed his attack on the Super League and hit back at critics of the Premier League.
Ceferin has held the position since he was elected in 2016 and will now remain in the post until at least 2027 after running unopposed.
During his last term, the Slovenian had to contend with the initial threat of the independent European Super League in April 2021.
Despite its failure when several teams pulled out amid fan protests, high-profile clubs – notably Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus – continue to support the proposal which announced plans for an 80-team format earlier this year.
However, when addressing the UEFA congress in Lisbon on Wednesday, Ceferin offered up a starkly different assessment of the project.
“Those who promote this project are now claiming that they want to save football,” he said.
“It’s a good job nobody has ever died of shame. 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.
“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 must never forget, and that no one should ever forget, it is this: football is and will always remain the sport of the people.”
Ceferin also leapt to the defence of the Premier League, which has been the subject of much criticism.
LaLiga president Javier Tebas suggested that teams in the Premier League are “financially doped”, with others citing it as the cause for the economic imbalance in European football.
“Jealousy is a bad adviser,” Ceferin said. “Before it was UEFA that took the criticism, now it seems that it is the Premier League that is demonised and should be overthrown.
“The Premier League was created through a system of equality and solidarity between its clubs. Rather than a model to be destroyed, it is a model to be imitated.”
