Agnelli on Super League, Ceferin and talks with Al-Khelaifi over ‘new tournament’

During his interview with the Financial Times, ex-Juventus President Andrea Agnelli revealed he had held talks with PSG owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi over a new tournament and insists his ‘conscience is super clear.’

Agnelli refused to rule out a return to Juventus during his latest interview with the Financial Times but inevitably had to answer questions about his involvement in the Super League and whether the project can be really put into practice in the near future.

Agnelli revealed he had spoken about a possible new tournament with PSG owner Al-Khelaifi in 2020. Al-Khelaifi is firmly against a breakaway completion and replaced Agnelli as the ECA Chairman in 2021 after the original ESL project was announced.

“I remember flying to Paris in the middle of Covid,” said Agnelli. “Nobody around. Paris deserted. Me and Nasser have conversations about [a new tournament], saying we need change, because we don’t change, we’re dead.”

A spokesperson for Al-Khelaifi, quoted by the FT clarified that the PSG owner was ‘open to reforming competitions but always within UEFA’s framework.’

The Super League project burnt bridges between Agnelli and UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin who had been the godfather of Agnelli’s daughter a few years earlier.

“So what?” That’s a personal thing to do,” said Agnelli.

“I used to speak to Alex three times a day. I had a very strong connection.”

So, why was he so upset?

“I don’t know. The fact that I have an objective and I try and reach it. I don’t compromise,” Agnelli replied.

“My feeling is time is a gentleman. And things will probably, hopefully, be right at one time. If not, again, my conscience is super clear.”

Speaking about the new Super League project carried forward by the company A22, Agnelli said: “Give us time to work. We find ourselves in a b2b b2c situation . . . We need to find the clubs, which is the [business to business] part, because if we don’t have the clubs to participate within the competition, we can’t reach the c, the consumers.

“Since it transformed from a game into a business, [football] hasn’t evolved its governance to governing the business. It’s fair to say the majority of clubs lose money. Yes? Either we’re all incompetent or the system has some shortfalls.”