Chelsea and Man City were ‘hesitant’ about the European Super League, reveals Alexander Ceferin
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin claims Chelsea and Man City were both ‘hesitant from the beginning’ about joining the European Super League… and says one club only planned to sign up through fear of being ‘the only ones out’
- European football was rocked by the Super League bombshell in April 2021
- Top clubs from England, Italy and Spain joined the project before its collapse
- Ceferin has revealed that Chelsea and City had reservations from the beginning
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Chelsea and Manchester City were both ‘hesitant’ about joining the doomed European Super League and only planned to do so through fear of being left behind, claims UEFA president Alexander Ceferin.
Almost two years ago European football was rocked to its core when 12 major clubs from England, Italy and Spain announced their intentions to join the Super League, a controversial breakaway competition spearheaded by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus chiefs.
As part of the proposed format, 15 founding-member teams would drop out of UEFA tournaments and become permanent fixtures in a new league of 20, leaving them exempt from relegation, while five other clubs would join through a qualification system based on their domestic performance.
Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and City all signed up to the unpopular project, sparking mass protests across England and throughout the continent.
As fans flocked to the streets to call for a U-turn on the Super League, in the end all six Premier League clubs did exactly that, slowly dropping out of the competition one by one in an extraordinary 24 hours.
UEFA president Alexander Ceferin has looked back on the doomed European Super League
Ceferin claims Chelsea, who were still under the ownership of Roman Abramovich (L) at the time, and Manchester City were both ‘hesitant from the beginning’ about the project
All six Premier League clubs pulled out of the project after widespread protests from fans
In the end Real, Barca and Juve were left red-faced when Inter Milan, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid also dropped out, yet it was the six withdrawals from England which proved key.
And during an interview with Gary Neville on Sky Bet’s latest episode of The Overlap, Ceferin revealed that Chelsea, who were still under Roman Abramovich’s ownership at the time, and City were both reluctant to break away from UEFA and sign up to the Super League ‘from the beginning’.
He said: ‘When I arrived in Switzerland, I got a phone call from one of the English clubs saying that we’ll have to join this project. They didn’t like it but didn’t want to be the only ones out.
‘Two clubs were hesitating in England very much, they said they wanted to stay friends with us, our friends from within.
‘Both Chelsea and Manchester City were hesitant from the beginning, and it was one of these teams that called me.’
When discussing the Premier League clubs who backed the project most, Ceferin told Neville: ‘As much as I know, unfortunately your club’s owners [Manchester United] were very much involved and Liverpool as well.
‘I think that those two [Manchester United and Liverpool] were from the English side the most involved [in the Super League]. The last to join were Chelsea and Manchester City. I’m not sure about Tottenham and Arsenal.’
Talk of a potential Super League is still lingering in European football, with A22 Sports Management announcing their plans to revive the project with a new and improved 80-team format last month.
Clubs including Real Madrid have refused to give up on the controversial Super League project
But Ceferin, speaking to Gary Neville (R) on the latest episode of The Overlap, is convinced that any proposal would stand no chance without English clubs
But Ceferin is convinced any breakaway competition stands no chance without the backing of Premier League teams.
‘Without English clubs the Champions League is not the same, and no Super League would exist,’ he continued. ‘German clubs are in the same position as English Clubs, but we didn’t have riots in Germany because no German clubs joined the Super League.
‘If Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund joined, you would see people on the streets, the same way as you saw them in England. France is against. In Spain, out of 20 clubs in the La Liga, 18 are against.
‘When they moaned that they want their Super League – play your Super League. You are three, you can play your Super League. Nobody cares. Nobody wants them, football doesn’t want them.’
