UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin says Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona are ‘flat-Earthers who think that the Super League exists' and refuses to rule out sanctions for breakaway clubs.
The three European giants haven’t formally withdrawn from the competition that was launched exactly one week ago, creating an earthquake in the football world.
Former ECA Chairman Andrea Agnelli and Florentino Perez were among the architects of the tournament that collapsed within 72 hours.
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin says Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona are ‘flat-Earthers who think that the Super League exists' and refuses to rule out sanctions for breakaway clubs.
The three European giants haven’t formally withdrawn from the competition that was launched exactly one week ago, creating an earthquake in the football world.
Former ECA Chairman Andrea Agnelli and Florentino Perez were among the architects of the tournament that collapsed within 72 hours.
“I felt like I had been put into a washing machine. On Saturday, I went to Switzerland from my home country, eight-hour drive. I had everything ready to speak about the reforms and everything in my speech,” Ceferin told the Daily Mail.
As the ECA President, Agnelli had been negotiating a new Champions League format with UEFA before the Super League was announced.
“I was even thanking Agnelli. I changed the speech four times since. They were preparing stuff they didn’t tell me, the guy [Agnelli] was lying to me saying: ‘It’s not true, it’s not true…’In the end, it happened and I have to tell publicly what happened,” Ceferin said.
One of the reasons why the project collapsed was the reaction from English fans who protested on Monday and Tuesday, forcing their clubs to withdraw from the competition.
“Look, honestly speaking I was completely impressed by the reaction of the fans, the whole football community and not just the football community but I would say society. I never seen this,” Ceferin said.
“UEFA did its part, the clubs that stood with us did their part. And of course the UK Government out of all did the big part. But by far the biggest part was done by fans.
“This joint effort showed that not everything is for sale, that you cannot come with billions and say: “I don’t care about tradition, history the things that you love, because I have enough money I will buy all.” No way! It doesn’t go through.”
Now, the question is: will the breakaway clubs face any sanction?
“Let’s see. Everyone has to take consequences for what they did and we cannot pretend nothing happened. You cannot do something like that and just say: “I’ve been punished because everybody hates me.” They don’t have problems because of anyone else but themselves. It’s not OK what they did and we will see in next few days what we have to do.”