LONDON, April 25: At a time when certain clubs conspired to launch a rebel Super League, one man stepped in to thwart all their attempts. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was betrayed by those previously thought to be trusted friends.
“Psychologically, it was such a shock for me,” he says from Ljubljana. “Similar to the war. You cannot compare, but both were stressful — the tension was similar,” he added referencing the betrayal and the Ten-Day War of Slovenia which he was a part of.
Ceferin’s immediate task was to stop the 12 wealthiest clubs splitting to a closed competition that is the antithesis to European football norms. “Spoiled children cannot destabilize me,” he says. Particularly galling for Ceferin was the deception of Juventus. So close was his relationship with Andrea Agnelli, the chairman of the Italian champions, that Ceferin was godfather to his daughter.
“The worst day was Saturday, because then I realized that it was a pure betrayal, that some people lied to us for years,” Ceferin says. “It was quite strange because I didn’t know what exactly will happen the next day.”
By Sunday, the Super League plan that first leaked in January was being activated by 12 clubs. “I got a phone call from three or four clubs saying, ‘We are terribly sorry, but we have to say otherwise we are out.” Emergency meetings were held by the English, Spanish and Italian leagues. The English Football Association leadership contacted the administration of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seek help to keep the national game intact.
The response was a joint statement by UEFA and the leagues and federations in England, Spain and Italy warning the “cynical project” would be repelled with legal action.
Any clubs joining a breakaway would be banned from playing in existing competitions. But the group dubbed the “dirty dozen” by Ceferin still launched their Super League late Sunday with a website scant on detail — particularly on women’s football — and a logo roundly derided for its cheap look.
Ceferin was enraged. Pushing ahead with a planned briefing on the new-look Champions League, he lambasted the “snakes” at rebel clubs, particularly upbraiding Manchester United vice chairman Ed Woodward and “liar” Agnelli.
It took almost three hours, though, for an English club to make it official, and Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City was the first. By the end of the night, the Super League had been deserted by all of the English clubs and the breakaway threat melted away as Ceferin drove back to Slovenia. (AP)
