Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has hit out at the clubs who intended to form the Super League and pointed out their failure to make their project succeed.
Al-Khelaifi stressed that UEFA managed to come out victorious from this dispute and lamented the three rebel clubs who have yet to abandon the project.
“I will not spend much time talking about 18 April and the ‘not-so-Super League’ because I do not like to focus on fabulists and failures,” said Al-Khelaifi, who is also the new head of the European Clubs’ Association (ECA).
“Together we defended the interests of European football for everyone. We relied on the resolve and strength of [UEFA] president [Aleksander Ceferin], who stood up to the midnight coup. He said ‘we will win’ and we did.
“While the three rebel clubs waste energies, twist narratives and continue to shout at the sky, the rest of us are moving forward.”
Al-Khelaifi went on to break down ECA’s five strategic priorities in the bid to strengthen football in Europe.
“The first priority is to bring urgent financial stability to European football,” said Al-Khelaifi. “Even before COVID, many financial problems affected football.
“Our second priority is to make the ECA’s relationships stronger across the entire football family, particularly with UEFA.
“The third priority is to make the ECA work better for its members – to provide valuable resources for the clubs. We should ask ourselves, what should the ECA provide for its members? For me, right now, not enough. This needs to change.
The fourth pillar is that diversity and inclusion need to be at the core of our new ECA. This could be one of our greatest potential strengths but currently we are falling short.
“Finally, a priority that some people think is invisible, but it should be visible in everything we do: the underlying spirit and values of our organisation and European football.”
