UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has strongly criticized the supporters of the European Super League, comparing them to the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. Despite Juventus, Real Madrid, and Barcelona still wanting to move forward with the project, Uefa and FIFA have been backed by the European Courts of Justice in their efforts to block the Super League. Ceferin expressed his disdain for the project, saying “It’s a good job nobody has ever died of shame.” A final judgement is yet to come from the European Courts of Justice next spring, but the advocate general Athanasios Rantos said that the rules of football’s European and world governing bodies are “compatible with EU competition law.”
The case was brought forth by the European Super League and A22 Sports Management, who proposed a 12-club league for 2021. Ceferin spoke about this at the Uefa Congress in Lisbon, saying “Those who promote this project are now claiming that they want to save football. 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.” He went on to explain that there are two opposing world views: cynicism over morality, selfishness over solidarity, 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, and the quest for profit over the quest for trophies.
At the meeting, Ceferin was re-elected as Uefa president unopposed for a third term until 2027. He also defended the Premier League from its critics, saying “Jealousy sees everything except the truth. 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, one of the most egalitarian systems in the world. Rather than a model to be destroyed, this is a model that should be followed.”
Ceferin did not mention Uefa’s handling of last season’s Champions League final or its attempts to blame fans for the problems. However, he did acknowledge that all leaders make mistakes and said “No leader can boast an unblemished record. There are always a few stains and mistakes that tarnish our reputation and errors they would love to erase. I am no different and Uefa is no different. The most important thing is to understand the mistake, change and not repeat them.”