Snakes in football’s grass
Breakaway group told lies to deflect attention from plans
‘Human values evaporate,” said Uefa’s ashenfaced president yesterday as he described a call he will never forget from Manchester United’s Ed Woodward.
On Friday, the smooth-talking exbanker rang Aleksander Ceferin to tell the administrator everything he wanted to hear about his Champions League plan.
“He called me in the evening saying he’s very satisfied with the reforms,” said Ceferin, still reeling with shock at the bombshell breakaway group that will pit 12 superclubs against each other in a closeddoor competition that will see the rich get much richer.
Woodward had been identified by Uefa as a potential chief protagonist in a rebellion, having waged concern just two weeks earlier over commercial rights in the 2024 competition carve-up. However, to Ceferin’s surprise and delight, Woodward assured him he “fully supports the reforms, and that the only thing he would like to speak about is Financial Fair Play”.
Little did he know that the call was a strategic move by the rebels to put European football’s leaders off the scent of potentially one of the biggest betrayals in modern sport.
The next morning, as promised, Woodward, Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, Ivan Gazidis of AC Milan and Pedro Lopez Jimenez of Real Madrid maintained their Machiavellian act, giving the Uefa plans their formal thumbs up during a meeting of the European Club Association.
But, in reality, the quartet were buying time for their clandestine, but long-awaited, Super League deal to be finalised. By Saturday, a “dirty dozen” that also includes Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea were all signed up.
It had been agreed for weeks that the plan would go live on Monday, but the Daily Telegraph understands figures within government first learnt of a potential plan by Saturday.
Frantic exchanges then took place between senior sporting figures on Sunday, before word got back to Uefa headquarters at Nyon, Switzerland, that, despite Woodward’s warm words, a breakaway was back on the agenda.
A disbelieving Ceferin immediately got on the phone to Agnelli, the Juventus chairman and then still head of the ECA. “These are all only rumours — don’t worry, nothing is
I’ve never seen a person that would lie so many times, so persistently, as
he did. It was unbelievable. We didn’t know we had snakes so close to
us. Aleksander Ceferin
going on. I’ll call you in one hour,” Agnelli said. No phone call arrived. Instead the Italian, who chose Ceferin as godfather to his daughter, turned off his phone.
“He’s the biggest disappointment of all,” the Uefa chief said yesterday. “I’ve never seen a person that would lie so many times, so persistently, as he did. It was unbelievable.
“We didn’t know we had snakes so close to us,” is Ceferin’s summary of the sorry saga, but the clues had been there for months, if not years.
Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president, has for the past decade been the most outspoken figure, and his announcement as chairman of the new competition rewards his central role as an architect. In recent months, he seized upon Covid-19 turmoil and the fallout surrounding Project Big Picture last autumn to entice the elite
to join him in signing up for what would amount to the most significant restructuring of elite European football since the 1950s.
In English football, figures at Premier League HQ had been suspicious since last October. United and Liverpool had raised eyebrows by meekly accepting defeat to rival club opposition after their proposals for revolution in domestic football were disclosed.
Oliver Dowden, the UK Culture Secretary, threatened a fan-led review at the time, and, yesterday, having been on a 10pm call with aides on Monday, he agreed that English football had now surrendered its last chance.
“These clubs have decided to put money before fans,” he said. “So today I have been left with no choice but to formally trigger the launch of our
fan-led review of football.”
However, his warnings may do little to put off at least the American ownerships at Liverpool, United and Arsenal.
A “closed shop” NBA or Nfl-style league, where franchise owners enjoy reliable profits and the valuation of teams rise steadily over time, was eagerly seized upon, particularly by United’s co-chairman, Joel Glazer, who becomes vice-chairman of the new competition.
After years of secret talks, the clubs involved are now adamant this is more than an idle threat.
Sources close to the breakaway say the clubs are “absolutely committed to this” and that the organisers want to “work constructively with Fifa and Uefa”, but the clubs involved feel they have no choice.
— Telegraph Group UK