Search icon

Football

03rd Mar 2022

La Liga chief tears into Super League trio with Putin comparison

Daniel Brown

‘I think they lie more than Putin to be honest’

La Liga president Javier Tebas has claimed that the clubs involved in the renewed talks regarding a European Super League “lie more than Putin”.

It comes after reports that Juventus chief Andrea Agnelli is expected to explain a second version of the Super League in due course, while a legal case is also being pursued against UEFA.

The breakaway competition, involving 12 teams, six of whom were from the Premier League, was created and quickly ended last year following intense backlash from supporters.

However, it now appears that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus are planning to relaunch the idea imminently.

Speaking at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit in London, Tebas insisted he was ‘insulted’ by the renewed talks and that he gets ‘cross’ when he reads about it.

“He [Agnelli] will have to explain it, if he doesn’t explain it, he will be lying,” said Tebas.

“A week ago, I think it was in his house there was a meeting of the three teams. Now they are saying they don’t want fixed slots, Real Madrid are saying they don’t want the first slot. It is false.

“It is very difficult for the English teams to form part of this competition so they are creating a European league with two categories and the national leagues are the second categories.

“There will be two or three people relegated but there will always be the typical teams – Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid. It will be difficult for them to go down.

“They have made enemies of UEFA and the Premier League, whose growth goes against their model. We know this, we have got this information. They can say what they want but this is what they are working on.

“Every time I read about it, I get cross, I think they lie more than Putin to be honest.

“They are insisting that introducing this will not affect national leagues. We must be idiots, we must be dumb. But we all say it hurts the national leagues.

“For me it is an insult, I feel humiliated. They will do huge harm.”

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin also slammed Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid – suggesting that he has grown tired of the incessant Super League talk. He also reiterated that any club who agrees to become involved in the project will be removed from all other European competitions.

He said: “I have to say that those speaking about the Super League are not speaking about football. I am sick and tired of this non-football project.

“First, they launched their nonsense of the idea in the middle of a pandemic. Now, we read articles that they are planning to launch another idea now in the middle of a war.

“Do I have to speak more about these people? They obviously live in a parallel world.

“We are helping in a terrible situation, they are working on a project like that. They can pay whoever they want to write ‘this is a nice project, they are full of solidarity, there will be charity to small ones’.

“This is nonsense and everyone knows it. One of them, after it, called me and apologised – but then they go again. For them, the fans are customers. For us, the fans are fans.”

Speaking about Juve chief Agnelli, Ceferin added: “They criticised UEFA and the ECA, one of them was chairman of the ECA.

“I have quotes from where he was praising the system a week before they launched the Super League.

“They can play their own competition, nobody forbids them. But if they play their own competition, they can’t play in our competition.”

Related links: