VIENNA: The Super League project “is over once and for all or at least for 20 years,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said on Wednesday.
“I don’t like to call it Super league because it’s everything but Super League,” said the Slovenian after the Congress of the governing body of European football in Vienna.
Twelve of Europe’s biggest clubs signed up to the proposed new competition last April but it collapsed within days following a fierce backlash from their own players and fans, as well as governments and football’s governing bodies.
Nine clubs distanced themselves from the project but Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus remain on board with the concept.
Ceferin — speaking the day after UEFA announced a revamp of all their club competitions including the flagship Champions League — said the trio had no chance of reviving it.
“For me, this project is over once and for all or at least for 20 years. I don’t know what will happen later,” Ceferin told a press conference.
He declined to comment on UEFA’s disciplinary proceedings against the three hold-outs.
A Madrid judge in April upheld a UEFA appeal and lifted the protection from punishment the Superleague clubs obtained from another Spanish court a year earlier.
Proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) are also underway in response to a query last year from a Spanish judge on whether UEFA is abusing its “dominant position“
“We have to respect the courts and wait for the final decision. We are not in a hurry,” said 54-year-old Ceferin, a sports lawyer before entering football administration.
Ceferin’s “open” model of football received support in Vienna from Margeritis Schinas, the vice president of the European Commission, who attended the Congress.
The CJEU should give its answer at the end of the year.
“They claim we have monopoly and I said many times that nobody has to play in our competition,” Ceferin said on Wednesday.
“No Federation has to be a member of UEFA. They have all the rights to create their own UEFA, they have all the right to play their own competition but of course, in our regulations, if you play another competition you cannot play our competition.
“And this is far from being a monopoly.”
The Super League clubs insisted they wanted to remain in UEFA to continue playing in their national leagues.
Ceferin said he was confident UEFA could deal with the continuing fallout.
“Now, this is a bit of a mess but we will solve it,” he said.
UEFA head Ceferin says Super League ‘is over’
https://arab.news/n4mht
UEFA head Ceferin says Super League ‘is over’
- "I don't like to call it Super league because it's everything but Super League," said Ceferin
- Nine clubs distanced themselves from the project but Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus remain on board with the concept
Morocco part company with coach Regragui as World Cup looms
RABAT: Morocco parted company with coach Walid Regragui on Thursday, three months before the World Cup, with the country’s football federation naming Mohamed Ouahbi as his replacement.
Regragui leaves despite having led the Atlas Lions to the World Cup semifinals in 2022 and to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of this year.
“I leave my post with loyalty, gratitude, and the certainty that I have served my country,” he declared during a ceremony broadcast live on television, confirming weeks of persistent rumors that he was on his way out.
Ouahbi, 49, is promoted to the role having overseen Morocco’s triumph at the Under-20 World Cup in October, with the federation describing the move as “a strategic transition” in the run-up to the World Cup in North America in June and July.
“It’s a desire not to waste time and to take a different direction,” a source close to the Moroccan Federation told AFP.
“By appointing Mohamed Ouahbi and welcoming top-tier reinforcements, we are raising our standards and our demands,” the source said.
Morocco will be in Group C at the World Cup along with five-time winners Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.
They begin their campaign against Brazil at the MetLife Stadium just outside New York City on June 13 and will be hoping to make a big impression at the tournament before co-hosting the 2030 edition with Spain and Portugal.
“Our ambition is to consolidate our place among the best nations in a sustainable way and to perform well from this summer, as well as in 2030,” the leader of the Moroccan federation, Fouzi Lekjaa, said recently.
Regragui was hailed in 2022 after Morocco became the first African nation in World Cup history to reach the semifinals, beating Spain and Portugal along the way.
However, Regragui likely paid the ultimate price for the manner in which Morocco lost the recent AFCON final to Senegal.
His team were beaten 1-0 after extra-time at the end of a match marred by the Senegal team’s decision to walk off the pitch in protest at the award of a controversial late penalty to the hosts.
The penalty award with the game goalless sparked trouble in the crowd involving Senegal fans, 18 of whom were jailed following the disruption.
Real Madrid star Brahim Diaz eventually took the penalty after a long delay but his kick was saved and Senegal went on to win the game.
