“UEFA has been hijacked by the elite who run the ECA”

The president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas, Europe’s modest clubs were now urged to organize quickly around the newly created European Club Union and “fight” to have a voice in a UEFA that “kidnapped“of the rich club represented by the European Club Association (ECA),

“UEFA has been hijacked by this elite that we are talking about governing the ECA”, a platform led by the president of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the Qatari Nasser Al Khelaifi, Tebas said today at the Professional Football Forum, an event organized in Brussels by the Union of European Clubs.

This body, created six months ago and supported by the European Commission, has several 102 clubs from 32 countries (among them 24 Spanish, 9 English, 2 German and 4 Italian), according to the data offered by the organizers, and aims to be the voice of modest clubs so that they have more weight in the management of European football.

“The way of free from that kidnapping UEFA is the European Club Union”, an association promoted by LaLiga that “if it is not strong in the weeks, whatever happens, the future of European football will be very sad.”

Tebas refers in that comment to the response of the Court of Justice of the European Union (TUJE) in response to a court in Madrid in Super Leaguewhich has no official scheduled date but is expected before the end of the year.

The president of LaLiga, a trained judge, understands that this sentence can go in two directions: “that they give some opening to the Madrid court so that it support for the Super League or not.”

“But whatever happens” we can expect “what will happen next”, which could be a reform of the management model of European football or things continuing as before, so in both cases need to organize modest clubs to gain strength and be a fighter, he thought.

In statements to EFE, Tebas stressed that “whatever happens (…), the political will of the European Union has been decided, that against the Super League“, and referred to a resolution against that project approved by the European Parliament by 597 votes in favor, 36 against and 55 abstentions.

He also appealed to the European Commission’s rejection of the Super League project and the presence at the event in Brussels of the Spanish socialist MEP Ibán García del Blanco, vice president of the European Parliament Sports Group, who said that “Football is not just about big clubs, but about all clubs.”

“This association has to be strong. And we are talking about weeks” because “a way will open there” to debate and change the governance model and achieve a model where UEFA accepts moderate clubs as interlocutors, not only the ECA as it is today.

ECA represents major clubs of Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla, AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Monaco, Roma or Arsenal, but not the other more moderate ones such as the Belgian Union Saint-Gilloise, the English Fullham or the Irish Bohemians, they were the last to be present at the event in Brussels .

Tebas requested that its representativeness respect the logic of “one club, one vote” and clarified that his words were not “an attack on UEFA as an institution”, but on some of its decisions and its “passivity” because UEFA should have said “enough”.

The manager of the Spanish league identified, specifically, the change of national calendars to introduce the Club World Cup into the season and also to the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed between ECA and UEFA, which states “that ECA is the sole representative of European clubs,” he said.

“Besides the lies (…), what’s the problem with other associations? Do they have horns and tails?” asked the president of LaLiga, who assured that in recent weeks there has been intense pressure from the ECA on moderate clubs to undermine the progress of the European Club Union. “There is fear that it will grow,” summary.

Tabas also criticized how UEFA applies the “financial fair play” and considered that “there must be an external audit control” because “every day there are more unbelievers.”

He gave the example of PSG, which now heads the ECA, which “to resolve its income statement selling players, for 45 million euros, to teams from Qatar where 2,000 players took to the field. He has sold three. Incidentally, in Qatar…” “One club, one vote. Let’s look for influence and let’s find it now,” insisted Tebas.

The president of LaLiga also opened himself to the possibility of establishing a salary ceiling at European level, as the general director of Osasuna, Fran Canal, had previously claimed in the same forum, and released the figure to each club of “300 or 350 million euros, which is already a lot.”

“That investor should not lose sleep…but that dream does not destroy the reality of many clubs,” Tebas added, concluding by saying “battles are won by fighting them, not by drinking tea in the living room. ”