Uefa boss: English clubs will be sanctioned for European Super League involvement
Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and three other English football clubs will be sanctioned for their involvement in the failed European Super League project, Uefa chief Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed.
Ceferin told the Mail on Sunday that the three London clubs along with Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City will face consequences for joining the breakaway league last week.
However, the Uefa boss also said the English clubs may face lighter penalties than their European neighbours as they were the first to pull out of the European Super League.
Twelve of the biggest clubs in world football announced last Sunday they had formed the Super League, however the project was dead by Tuesday evening as clubs began to pull out in the face of a fierce backlash from fans, foreign governments and the private sector.
“Everyone has to take consequences for what they did and we cannot pretend nothing happened,” Ceferin said.
“You cannot do something like that and just say: ‘I’ve been punished because everybody hates me.
“For me there are three groups of this 12 — the English Six, who went out first, then the other three [Atletico Madrid, AC Milan and Inter Milan] after them and then [Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus] who feel that earth is flat and they think the Super League still exists.
“And there is a big difference between those. But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see.”
Investment bank JP Morgan apologised for its involvement in the failed league on Friday, saying it had “misjudged” how the project would be received.
The investment bank had agreed to underwrite £4.3bn in loans for the teams involved and was the competition’s key financial backer.
The fallout from the competition continued in London on Friday as thousands of Arsenal fans took to Emirates Stadium to call for club owner Stan Kroenke to sell up.
Kroenke has long been a target for Arsenal fans who believe he has mismanaged the club since becoming majority owner in 2011.
His decision to bring the club into the European Super League was the final straw for many supporters who hung effigies of the American billionaire and chanted for him to leave as Arsenal played Everton inside the stadium.
Arsenal legend Thierry Henry told the Telegraph yesterday that he no longer recognises the club.
“They have been running the club like a company, not a football club, and they showed their hand,” he said.
“Maybe it’s a lack of understanding of the core football values and maybe the money was too big of a temptation. But whatever it was, they got it wrong. Badly wrong.”