UEFA has doubled its threat with a ban on Super League clubs

The negative reaction to Sunday’s “Super League” announcement was surprisingly strong, vocal and widespread, but it remains to be seen if any of those emotions turn into a tangible action – and I’m not referring to the fan protests, which at the end of the day the least amount of power in this situation.

UEFA, which will lose the most in this proposal, came out strong from the start, threatening wide bans for the teams and players involved. (Although not the fault of the players or coaches, discouraging them from playing for these teams is certainly a useful strategy for UEFA.) However, even UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin acknowledged that UEFA does not really know how much power will pursue any of these threats.

“We are still evaluating with our legal team, but we will take all the sanctions we can and we will inform you as soon as we can. My opinion is that as soon as possible, they should be banned from all competitions and players from all our competitions. ”

-Aleksander Ceferin; source: AS

It should be noted that, according to several reports, including The Athletic and PA, the Super League has already filed pre-trial motions in unnamed European courts against any legal action UEFA may take, banning players or teams from competing in World Cup competitions. ) which he does not administer. The Super League says they want to resolve the differences with UEFA and FIFA through an open dialogue, but clearly we are not at this point yet.

UEFA seems to have the support of all national leagues and governments, but it feels that these types of support are quite malleable and whoever wins will eventually have that support as well. No national league benefits from banning any Super League club from its own domestic competitions.

UEFA’s main threat to the power of these clubs is their ban from the Champions League, which is a bit ironic, as it seeks to give up the Champions League anyway. But banning the three semi-finalists from this year’s edition – PSG, the only ones who are not part of the separatist group at the moment – would be a strong response, assuming they have the legal power to do so. (As far as we know, the teams did not violate real competition rules)

Quotes from a UEFA Executive Committee member named Jesper Møller have made the rounds, but it is not at all clear whether he is talking about something he wants to see happen, hopes to see it happen or even knows it will happen.

“There must be only one extraordinary meeting of the executive committee on Friday. I am waiting for the 12 clubs to be kicked out. [Real Madrid, Manchester City, Chelsea] they will come out and I expect this to happen on Friday and then you have to see how to finish the Champions League. ”

-Jesper Møller; source: DR via Google Translate

I think we’ll find out on Friday?

This should give us time to start analyzing this situation even more rationally. This has not only come out of a vacuum, and the current situation is clearly seen as unbearable for many teams, most of whom are already power brokers of the club game in the world.

The solution may not be Super League. At least not yet and not in this form. But the cork has been removed and the genius has really come out of the glass now.