By Andrew Warshaw
April 5 – UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was elected unopposed by acclamation for another four-year term today but not before launching a scathing attack on irresponsible club owners, accusing them of running their businesses in a “high-risk even reckless manner that defies all logic and principles.”
Ceferin used his keynote address to the UEFA Congress in Lisbon to cover a wide range of issues that illustrated the “fragility” of the game and the changing state of football’s landscape.
Without naming names, he denounced the way some clubs operate.
“Clubs have been bought up by investment funds, local identities have been lost, and expenditure has gone through the roof, with certain clubs being run in a high-risk, even reckless manner that defies all logic and principles,” he told delegates.
While European football was “reaping the benefits”, Ceferin said, it was “also paying the price.”
He couldn’t resist having another dig at the three clubs who still publicly support the ill-fated European Super League – Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid – and repeated his insistence that the game could only progress through sporting merit.
“Merit can’t be claimed. It can’t be declared or acquired. It can only be earned. Season by season. On and off the pitch. There’s no room for cartels on this continent.”
“We must never forget that football is a public commodity, part of our heritage. It’s one of the last public assets yet to be privatised. It therefore doesn’t belong to anyone, or rather it belongs to everyone. For generation after generation.”
“We must never forget that we have a duty to ensure that the interests of football prevail over the private interests of a handful of privileged individuals.”
Juve, Barca and Real are still persuing their legal case against UEFA, citing an alleged monopoly, but Ceferin poured scorn on their aspirations, saying those backing the project were guilty of “shameful lies”.
“Those who promote this project are now claiming that they want to save football,” he said. “It’s a good job nobody has ever died of shame.
“In the space of a few months, the Super League has turned into a character in Little Red Riding Hood: a wolf disguised as a grandmother, ready to eat you up. But nobody’s fooled. Because here we have two opposing world views. We have cynicism over morality. We have selfishness over solidarity. We have greed over benevolence. Self-absorption over openness to others. Self-interest over altruism. Shameful lies over the truth. Heirs over builders. Cartel over meritocracy and democracy. Stock prices over sporting merit. The quest for profit over the quest for trophies.”
“If there’s one thing that we must never forget, and that nobody must ever forget, it’s this: football is and will always stay the sport of the people.”
“We must explode the myth that the privatisation of football is an unstoppable process. It is a present danger, as we have seen, but together we can and we will inevitably turn the tide of history.”
Ceferin also took the opportunity to defend the success of the Premier League despite the fact that Manchester City have been charged with more than 100 breaches of its financial rules following a four-year investigation and Everton have been referred to an independent commission over an alleged breach of financial rules last season.
Almost in the same breath as denouncing unnamed imprudent club owners, Ceferin leapt to the defence of the English top flight amid concerns it is creating a financial imbalance in European football.
Ceferin said the Premier League should be applauded not lambasted for its success, citing “jealous” attacks – his comments most likely directed, at least in part, at Spanish league boss Javier Tebas as well as the Super League rebels.
“A few months ago, UEFA and its club competitions were being blamed for all the evils in football and the inequalities within the leagues. Today, it’s the English Premier League that seems to be under attack,” said Ceferin.
“Since the British government, supporters and clubs said no to the Super League, the Premier League has been demonised and labelled a Super League in its own right that needs to be toppled.”
“However, the Premier League’s success was not achieved by accident. By adopting an audacious approach based on a vision, a strategy and a lot of hard work, its leaders and clubs developed a remarkable model founded on sporting merit and a highly egalitarian distribution of wealth.”
“Rather than a model to be destroyed, this is a model that should be followed. And let me reassure those who fear that English football will crush everything that stands in its way. The figures do not lie: in the last 20 years, the Champions League has been won on five occasions by English clubs. Only twice in the last decade an English club has lifted the iconic trophy.”
Just like his FIFA counterpart Gianni Infantino at the recent FIFA Congress, so Ceferin listed UEFA’s achievements under his watch. It kind of goes with the territory.
On the women’s game, he declared that “a revolution is under way.”
“We invested five times as much in EURO 2022 as in EURO 2017. Our next task is to adopt minimum standards for women’s national team players. It will be for sure a milestone in the development of the game. A milestone for the players.”
When it came to the continuing scourge of racism, Ceferin went so far as to suggest it was perhaps time to consider criminal prosecutions.
“In cooperation with the Federations and the clubs we would need to target offenders more effectively whenever a player is subjected to racist, homophobic or sexist insults during UEFA competitions. Maybe it is time to go with harsher measures, maybe it is time to put some people in court.”
Ceferin was addressing congress for the first time since UEFA faced severe criticism over its handling of last season’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Paris.
“Nothing can ever be taken for granted,” he said in an apparent reference to the chaos. “No leader can boast an unblemished record. There are always a few stains, a few mistakes that tarnish our reputation. I am no different and UEFA is no different. The most important thing is to understand the mistake and change not to repeat them.”
Shortly afterwards, on being re-elected, the Slovenian lawyer thanked UEFA’s 55 federations “from the bottom on my heart. I promise you I will do my best not to disappoint you.”
And in his closing speech, Ceferin added: “Out of our seven years together, we have had three years of crisis,” referring to the Covid pandemic. “But we are stronger and more united than ever. I will do whatever I can to protect football.”
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