UEFA
UEFA could ban Super League players from Euro 2020, WCup
Players at the 12 clubs setting up their own Super League could be banned from this year’s European Championship and next year’s World Cup, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said Monday.
Ceferin spoke following a UEFA executive committee meeting held only hours after the English, Italian and Spanish clubs announced the project that threatens to split European soccer.
“They will not be able to represent their national teams at any matches,” Ceferin said. “UEFA and the footballing world stand united against the disgraceful self-serving proposal we have seen in last 24 hours from a select few clubs in Europe that are fueled purely by greed above all else.”
UEFA’s 55 member federations are gathering for an annual meeting on Tuesday, including 24 nations that are playing in Euro 2020.
“My opinion is that as soon as possible they (the clubs) have to be banned from all our competitions, and the players from all our competitions,” Ceferin said.
Three of the 12 rebels — Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid — are scheduled to play in the Champions League semifinals this month.
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Earlier, the 12 clubs planning to start the breakaway Super League told the leaders of FIFA and UEFA that they have begun legal action aimed at fending off threats to block the competition.
The letter was sent by the group to Ceferin and FIFA President Gianni Infantino saying the Super League has already been underwritten by funding of 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion) from American bank JPMorgan Chase.
Currently, teams have to qualify each year for the Champions League through their domestic leagues, but the Super League would lock in 15 places every season for the founding members. The seismic move to shake up the sport is partly engineered by the American owners of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, who also run franchises in closed U.S. leagues — a model they are trying to replicate in Europe.
UEFA warned the Super League clubs, including Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus, that legal action would be taken against them and said they also would be barred from existing domestic competitions like the Spanish league and the Premier League.
“We are concerned that FIFA and UEFA may respond to this invitation letter by seeking to take punitive measures to exclude any participating club or player from their respective competitions,” the Super League clubs wrote to Infantino and Ceferin in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
“Your formal statement does, however, compel us to take protective steps to secure ourselves against such an adverse reaction, which would not only jeopardize the funding commitment under the Grant but, significantly, would be unlawful. For this reason, SLCo (Super League Company) has filed a motion before the relevant courts in order to ensure the seamless establishment and operation of the Competition in accordance with applicable laws.”
The courts were not named.
“It is our duty, as SLCo’s board members, to ensure that all reasonable actions available to protect the interests of the Competition and our stakeholders are duly taken, given the irreparable damage that would be suffered if, for any reason, we were deprived of the opportunity to form promptly the Competition and distribute the proceeds of the Grant,” the Super League letter continued.
The Super League intends to launch a 20-team competition with 15 founding members but only 12 have currently signed up. The others are Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham from England, Atletico Madrid from Spain, and AC Milan and Inter Milan from Italy.
The breakaway was launched just as UEFA thought it had agreement on an expansion of the Champions League from 2024. Now, the same officials who backed the plans have decided to go it alone while claiming the existing competitions could remain — despite losing their most successful teams, including record 13-time European champion Real Madrid and six-time winner Liverpool.
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“The Competition is to be played alongside existing domestic league and cup competitions, which are a key part of European football’s competitive fabric,” reads the Super League letter to Infantino and Ceferin. “We do not seek to replace the UEFA’s Champions League or the Europa League but to compete with and exist alongside those tournaments.”
How European football is badly affected by the pandemic covid-19?
Watching football matches in European stadiums is always a joyful experience. But the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in significant changes in people's daily lives for the last year. All football leagues in Europe are being held behind closed doors after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus an epidemic in March 2020. According to a study, the combined loss of Europe's major football clubs due to covid-19 is more than 1 billion euros. This shows the extent of the pandemic's impact on European football! This article discusses how European football is badly affected by the pandemic covid-19.
The brunt of covid-19 on European football
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the novel Coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic. Since then the major football leagues in Europe are being played in empty stadiums.
Initially, any limitations on sporting events were ruled out by the British government. But after large outbreaks at Arsenal and Chelsea, the Premier League ultimately agreed to take a 100-day break.
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The domestic leagues in Spain, France, Italy, and Germany were postponed following government directives and the rest of Europe's top leagues took long breaks as well.
Euro 2020 was suspended for one year, while Europe's most prestigious club football competition champions league 2020 completed in the month of August.
Fans were allowed to return to the stadium at the beginning of the year but the plan halted after the second wave of the covid-19 virus and the spread of new variants caused new lockdowns across Europe.
There was a concern that teams will go bankrupt due to the stop of ticket sales, but thankfully clubs have managed to recover some initial losses. We can expect fans will return to the field soon following the start of mass vaccination programs across Europe.
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The financial effects on European football due to covid-19
The loss of matchday and commercial revenue as a result of the scheduling delays has had a substantial effect on European football.
The finances of 43 European clubs were investigated by KPMG, an accounting firm, and it was discovered that net profits dropped 1.2 billion euros last season.
Barcelona, Juventus, and Arsenal are among the top clubs trying to convince their star-studded players to take salary cuts as a result of the covid-19.
Among Europe's elite clubs, Barcelona are in a real crisis. Their current debt is in excess of $1 billion. While, according to the reports, the Premier League clubs are losing nearly $150 million every month because of the ongoing pandemic situation.
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Because of the epidemic, clubs are unable to spend as much as they used to at transfer windows.In the January transfer window, just $327 million was traded, less than half of what was invested in the previous transfer window.
Besides that, the European Football Association suffered a significant financial loss after the cancellation of Euro 2020. To compensate for the deficit, they want at least half of the stadium's overall capacity to be filled during the forthcoming tournament. Only time will tell if this is even possible especially in the midst of the second wave covid-19 across Europe.
The epidemic has resulted in significant financial losses in sponsor and broadcasting deals.However, it is anticipated that the damage predicted at the beginning of the lockdown did not happen.
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Bottom Line
European football leagues are among the most popular sporting events in the world.Billions of euros are spent on the clubs every season.But European football is badly affected by the covid-19. Football leagues in Europe were suspended due to lockdown between March and May 2020.The spectator is a major source of revenue for the clubs.
However, since the games are played behind closed doors, the clubs have missed out on millions of dollars in ticket revenue. Furthermore, due to the economic downturn affected by the pandemic, players are not being traded significantly during the transfer window.Clubs are now more relying on their own academies to form first-team squads. The recession is expected to last much longer unless the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
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Agreement on new Champions League format delayed until April
A decision on the new Champions League format has been delayed until next month after hitting a late stumbling block over how the commercial and broadcasting rights will be sold to European football's elite competition.
UEFA hoped to use an executive committee meeting on Wednesday to ratify the expansion of the group stage from 32 to 36 teams, jumping from six to 10 rounds of matches from 2024.
There is broad agreement between European clubs and domestic leagues on the new format after years of wrangling. But UEFA has to resolve the broad details with the European Club Association over the creation of a joint venture to sell rights to the Champions League, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Clubs will gain a say only in the marketing and television rights sales of the competition, leaving UEFA to still control the sporting and governance aspects, the person said on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks.
UEFA wants a minimum guarantee of revenue to protect its financial position, while also taking a 6.5% cut of the cash generated by the joint venture that would replace Switzerland-based agency TEAM Marketing, which has had exclusive rights from UEFA to sell the Champions League since 1992.
The Champions League currently shares almost 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) each season among 32 clubs, who are split into eight groups of four to start with. The new format will add 100 games as a 36-team single-standings league is created, adding in four more clubs from the current format.
That would guarantee 10 games for each of the 36 teams, against 10 different opponents with balanced schedules based on seedings. The current format consists of six group games against three opponents. The top eight teams would advance to the round of 16. The next best 16 teams would enter a two-leg playoff to complete the bracket. The tournament would also play matches for the first time on Thursdays which has previously been reserved for the Europa League.
While the second-tier competition is envisaged to stay at 32 teams, it is also set to adopt a variation of the "Swiss System" format from chess tournaments. So the number of rounds in the group stage would rise from six to eight.
UEFA confirmed the future of club competitions from 2024 would still be discussed at the executive committee meeting on Wednesday.
"However, any official decision in this respect will only be made at the next UEFA executive committee meeting on 19 April, in order to finalize ongoing discussions," the governing body said in a statement.
European Leagues president Lars-Christer Olsson said last week he received "guarantees that no clubs are taking over the club competitions from UEFA" during a conversation with the governing body's leadership.
"It's UEFA club competitions and they will always have the final say," Olsson said. "That is not handed over to any other body for decision making."
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