Gathered this Wednesday in the noble area of the Metropolitan, the Association of European Clubs (ECA), showed muscle against the Super League. After the executive conclave, the president of PSG and the ECA, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, owner of Atlético de Madrid and member of the management of the European club body, shared with a small group of media, including them EL PAÍS, the master lines that European football will follow in the coming years.
Both Al-Khelaifi and Gil Marín charged against the Super League, the competition that tries to replace the Champions League. “When I met Laporta in Barcelona I told him, when are they going to stop with the stupidity of the Super League?” Al-Khelaifi said with a half smile. “For me, the Super League does not exist. The Champions League is the best club competition in the world. They (Real Madrid and Barcelona) are playing it, we have faced each other in the quarterfinals. I hope they stop it soon because it doesn’t make sense. I have always said that the door to return is open,” the Qatari leader added about the possibility of the two big Spanish clubs becoming part of the ECA again.
“Here we talk a lot about the impact that Real Madrid has in the media, but outside of Spain the Super League is dead. It is important to belong to an institution like the ECA to understand how football works and that it is global. What the ECA, UEFA and the leagues are defending is the protection of the football pyramid, of its structures. If you close the competitions to 15 or 20 clubs you are destroying the dreams of many people,” warned Gil Marín.
One of the battles between UEFA and the ECA against the Super League was that of the monetary items destined for solidarity with the less powerful clubs. With the new format of the Champions League, revenue goes from 3.5 billion to 4.4 billion. And solidarity with those who do not play in the competitions will increase to 74%,” said Gil Marín.
The great novelty of the conclave was the announcement of the creation of a joint venture with FIFA for the Club World Cup similar to the one that the ECA has created with UEFA, in which 51% of the profits go to the governing body of European football and 49% goes to the clubs. In the first edition of the aforementioned World Cup, FIFA has accepted that all the money will go to the clubs. The latter intend that this money does not go through the confederations (UEFA, Conmebol, Concacaf…), nor through the federations to distribute it, but FIFA is not yet very clear that the latter is going to be the case.
“Things have changed a lot, we have a very open relationship with UEFA. President Ceferin’s leadership in bringing clubs closer to UEFA has been very important. We had a very positive meeting with FIFA about the Club World Cup last Friday and we are negotiating the figures,” confirmed Al-Khelaifi, who highlighted the growth of the ECA: “We have gone from 246 to 610.”
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