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UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has said all 12 teams will face consequences for initially joining the European Super League but that some teams will face lesser ones for quickly opting out.
The 12 sides — six from England and three from both Spain and Italy — announced on April 18 that they would be breaking away to form their own Super League, in a move that immediately attracted the ire of fans.
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Following fan protests, all six English teams announced within 24 hours that they had revoked their decision to join the league and they were followed by Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan on April 20.
As things stand, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan have not formally withdrawn from the competition.
“Everyone has to take consequences for what they did and we cannot pretend nothing happened. You cannot do something like that and just say: ‘I’ve been punished because everybody hates me.’ They don’t have problems because of anyone else but themselves. It’s not OK what they did and we will see in next few days what we have to do,” Ceferin told the Daily Mail.
“But for me it’s a clear difference between the English clubs and the other six. They pulled out first, they admitted they made a mistake. You have to have some greatness to say: ‘I was wrong.’ For me there are three groups of this 12 — the English Six, who went out first, then the other three [Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Inter] after them and then the ones who feel that Earth is flat and they think the Super League still exists [Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus]. And there is a big difference between those. But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see.
“I don’t want to say disciplinary process but it has to be clear that everyone has to be held responsible in a different way. Is it disciplinary? Is it the decision of the executive committee? We will see. It’s too early to say.”
Ceferin praised the fans who were instrumental in getting their clubs to pull out of the league. Hundreds of Chelsea fans gathered outside Stamford Bridge before their game against Brighton on Monday while similar protests against club owners have been seen at Anfield, Old Trafford and the Emirates this week.
“Look, honestly speaking I was completely impressed by the reaction of the fans, the whole football community and not just the football community but I would say society. I never seen this,” he added.
“UEFA did its part, the clubs that stood with us did their part. And of course the U.K. government out of all did the big part. But by far the biggest part was done by fans.”
He also said that he was keen to meet with fans who had lobbied for teams to stay in the Champions League and not take part in the new Super League.
“I already spoke with my colleagues in UEFA to connect with those fan groups now and start discussing with them. The problem with fans being formally included in UEFA is that there are so many different groups. You have a group of Real Madrid who supported us and groups who supported the Super League. So, you have so many that we have to co-operate with some association which is again a problem,” he said.
“But I think it’s an important thing. And we have learned a lot from this situation. We will try to speak to as many as possible to see their view but you will never speak with all the groups, as even small clubs from my country have two or three groups.”