By Andrew Warshaw
June 7 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferinhas issued a no-holds-barred rebuke of his one-time friend and colleague Andrea Agnelli, saying he is no longer on speaking terms with the Juventus boss for his alleged duplicity over involvement in the European Super League.
Ceferin (pictured left in more understanding times with Agnelli) is godfather to Agnelli’s daughter but has already publicly described the Italian as a liar over his true intentions and objectives in secretly helping to set up the doomed breakaway league.
Juve are one of only three clubs of the original 12 founder members, along with Real Madrid and Barcelona, who have not renounced their decision to form the rebel competition. Indeed, UEFA are being taken to the European Court of Justice for alleged unfair monopoly.
There is little doubt Ceferin feels betrayed by Agnelli, one of the prime architects of the Super League yet who for months insisted the European Clubs Association, which he headed until recently stepping down, was working with UEFA, not against it.
“In this affair, you can rank the protagonists in three categories (of culprit). I put Andrea Agnelli in the first category. It’s personal. In my eyes, this man no longer exists,” Ceferin told So Foot.
“I thought we were friends, but he lied to my face until the last minute of the last day, making sure that I had nothing to worry about when the day before he had already signed all the necessary documents for the launch of the Super League.
“In the second category I place a group of leaders that I considered quite close to me, and I regret that they did not tell me in advance what they planned to do.
“We didn’t know what was happening exactly. From time to time, we have received threats [of a breakaway league]. We didn’t take it too seriously. More so because from our part, we had organised several meetings with the clubs to present their new Champions League reform, which the 12 rebel clubs voted in favour of. But the next day, they revealed their ghost project.”
“I know from a strong source that their initial plan was to stop playing in UEFA competitions, whilst staying in their domestic leagues. But with a B team, meaning they would have competed in their own European competition with an A team. Next, the idea was to withdraw from their domestic leagues in the medium term, to play uniquely in European matches each weekend.”
Agnelli, meanwhile, appears unfazed despite accusations of speaking with forked tongue over the Super League concept.
Defending his position, he told a press conference: “For years I have tried to change European competitions from the inside, because the signs of crisis were evident even before the pandemic.”
“The Super League is not a coup, but a desperate cry of alarm for a system that, knowingly or not, is heading towards insolvency.”
“The agreement between the founders was conditional on UEFA’s prior recognition of the competition. The response was deafening, with offensive terms and arrogant methods, and then it turned to three clubs.”
“It is not with this type of behaviour that football is reformed in the face of this crisis. The desire for dialogue remains unchanged. Other sports have faced changes of this type, and almost all stakeholders agree that the model needs to be changed.
“Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid are determined to achieve a complete reform of the competitions, and above all, in the interest of the clubs that show us fear for this situation.”
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