THREATS, INSULTS AIMED AT REBEL CLUBS
The deceptions, distrust and divisions in European soccer erupted in public Monday between teams and even within the clubs breaking away to form a Super League that could leave them and their players outcasts in the global game.
Condemnation of the 12 rebel clubs from England, Spain and Italy even came from Prince William, who followed the British government in railing against moves to split from longstanding structures to play in a largely closed competition rather than Europe’s existing UEFA-run Champions League.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin turned on club leaders he called “snakes” and “liars,” singling out Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli and Manchester United Vice Chairman Ed Woodward for betraying him by reneging on a pledge to stick within existing structures.
Ceferin threatened players from the Super League clubs with being banned from the European Championship and next year’s World Cup.
“They will not be able to represent their national teams at any matches,” Ceferin warned earlier. “UEFA and the footballing world stand united against the disgraceful self-serving proposal we have seen in the last 24 hours from a select few clubs in Europe that are fueled purely by greed above all
else.”
Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, the founding chairman of the Super League, downplayed UEFA’s threat to ban players.
The players “can be assured that this won’t happen,” Perez said in a latenight Spanish television interview. “It’s not going to happen. We won’t get into the legal aspects of it, but it won’t happen. It’s impossible.”
The strident rhetoric from Ceferin was followed Monday by criticism of the Super League even by Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, despite club owner John Henry securing the six-time European champion’s participation
in the new competition.
“I don’t think it’s a great idea,” he said after Liverpool was held by Leeds to 1-1. It’s a result that puts Liverpool two points from the four Champions League qualification places, showing just why Henry would want the team in a Super League where the spot is locked in.
Three of the 12 rebel clubs — Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid — are scheduled to play in the Champions League semifinals next week. Two more, Manchester United and Arsenal, are in the Europa League semifinals. Ceferin said he wants to boot them out as “as soon as possible”
from UEFA competitions, but that will require “legal assessments” that will begin today.
Perez said the new competition is being created to “save soccer” and complained of a campaign to make the Super League look bad by those who would “lose their privileges.”
“We have to explain to everyone that this is not a league for the rich clubs,” Perez said in an interview broadcast on the Spanish television program El Chiringuito de Jugones. “It’s a league to save all the clubs. Otherwise, soccer will die.”
He also said the new league likely won’t start next season if no deal is reached with European soccer’s governing body.
Ceferin led a meeting of UEFA’s executive committee Monday only hours after the 12 clubs announced the Super League project that threatens to split the historic structure of European soccer.
The 12 clubs planning to start the breakaway Super League have informed the leaders of FIFA and UEFA that they have begun legal action aimed at fending off threats to block their competition.
The letter was sent by the group to Ceferin and FIFA President Gianni Infantino saying the Super League has already been underwritten by funding of 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion) from American bank JPMorgan Chase.
Currently, teams have to qualify each year for the Champions League through their domestic leagues, but the Super League would lock in 15 places every season for the founding members. The seismic move to shake up the sport is partly engineered by the American owners of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, who also run franchises in closed U.S. leagues — a model they are trying to replicate in Europe.
UEFA warned the Super League clubs, including Barcelona and Juventus, that legal action would be taken against them and said they also would be barred from existing domestic competitions such as the Spanish league and the Premier
League.
The Super League intends to launch a 20-team competition with 15 founding members. Tottenham from England, Atletico Madrid from Spain, and AC Milan and Inter Milan from Italy are also among the 12 that have already signed.
The breakaway was launched just as UEFA thought it had agreement on an expansion of the Champions League from 2024. The deal was negotiated with the 246-member European Club Association. The ECA leader, Agnelli of Juventus, quit the UEFA executive committee overnight.
“He is probably the biggest disappointment of all,” Ceferin said of Agnelli. “I have never seen a person that would lie so many times and so persistently as he did.”
Spurs sack Mourinho
Dressing-room apathy and growing disillusionment at his tactics cost Jose Mourinho his latest job in the English Premier League, with Tottenham firing the Portuguese coach after 17 months at the London club. His contract was due to run until the end of the 2022-23 season.
Ryan Mason, 29, who had been in charge of Tottenham’s academy, was named temporary manager. Tottenham plays a Premier League match Wednesday against Southampton and then takes on Manchester City in the English League Cup final Sunday in London.