UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has assured that the 12 founding clubs of the European Super League will have to “take the consequences of what they did”, although there is “a clear difference” between the six English clubs, who showed “greatness” by withdrawing from the project, and the other six, and considers that Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Juventus believe “that the Earth is flat and that the Super League still exists”.
“They all have to take the consequences of what they did and we can’t pretend nothing happened. You can’t do something like that and just say ‘I’ve been punished because everyone hates me’. It’s not right what they did and we will see in the next few days what we will do,” he said in an interview with the British Sunday newspaper ‘The Mail on Sunday’.
Furthermore, the Slovenian manager explained that there is “a clear difference between the English clubs and the other six”. “They withdrew first, they admitted they made a mistake, they showed greatness. There are three groups among these 12: the English six, who left first; the other three – Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan – and then those who believe the Earth is flat and that Super League still exists,” he said.
“There is a big difference between them, but they will all be responsible. In what way, we will see,” he warned. “I don’t want to say that disciplinary proceedings will be opened, but it has to be clear that everybody has to be responsible,” he added.
Ceferin also recalled the “stressful” day before the announcement of the new ‘Champions League’, when the Super League scandal broke. “I felt like I had been put in a washing machine. On Saturday, I went to Switzerland from my home country, eight hours by car. I had everything ready to talk about the reforms in my speech, I was even thanking Agnelli. I changed the speech four times since then,” he confessed.
In this regard, he confessed that he was impressed by “the reaction of the fans, the whole football community and society in general”. “I have never seen that before. UEFA did its part, the clubs that supported us did theirs. And, of course, the UK government did a lot, but most of it was done by the fans,” he said.
“I was impressed by the reaction of the UK Government. I had many phone conversations with Prime Minister Johnson and Secretary of State Dowden in those 48 crazy hours. That joint effort showed that not everything is for sale, that you can’t come in with billions and say ‘I don’t care about tradition, I’ve got enough money and I’ll buy it all’,” he concluded.