No Uefa action for now

LAUSANNE • Uefa yesterday decided not to take immediate action against the 12 elite clubs involved in the aborted European Super League, instead choosing to examine its "options".

"The Uefa executive committee has been informed of the latest developments in relation to the Super League, in particular regarding the options available to Uefa and the measures it plans to take," said European football's governing body.

The "closed" breakaway competition, designed to supplant the Champions League, hit the buffers on Wednesday after nine of the 12 clubs - Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan - pulled out of the project amid a global outcry.

Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose president Florentino Perez led the attempted secession, are still refusing formally to capitulate, but the proposal is all but dead in the water.

US investment bank JP Morgan, which agreed to financially back the Super League, yesterday said it had "clearly misjudged" the furore it would cause, with even politicians weighing in on how domestic competitions would be devalued as a result.

"We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future. We will learn from this," it said in a brief statement.

To get the ball rolling, JP Morgan had agreed on a pot of €3.5 billion (S$5.6 billion) to be shared among the first dozen teams to sign up plus another three clubs that had been expected to join them.

Among the many punishments being considered by Uefa would have been the possible exclusion of City, Chelsea and Real, from the Champions League semi-finals which begin next week.

However, such a drastic measure appeared to have been ruled out by Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin who told Slovenian television Pop T in midweek: "There is relatively little chance that next week's matches will not be played...

"If we cancelled the matches, television stations would have compensation demands."

It remains to be seen what the "consequences" promised by Ceferin to the dissident clubs and their leaders will look like, as the Uefa boss did not specify whether they would be judicial, disciplinary or sporting.

But Real coach Zinedine Zidane yesterday scoffed at suggestions his team could have been booted out of the Champions League, calling it "illogical".

"We're going to play in the Champions League as that's our right," the Frenchman said ahead of his side's La Liga game against Real Betis today.

"It's an absurd debate and I don't want to get involved in it.

"All I can say is that we are getting prepared to play the semi-finals of the Champions League (against Chelsea)."

Separately, Uefa yesterday dropped Dublin and Bilbao as Euro 2020 hosts over a failure to guarantee fans' attendance for the June 11 to July 11 tournament.

The four matches destined for Dublin will now be held in St Petersburg and London while Seville steps in to replace Bilbao.

Munich was confirmed as a venue at the 11th hour, joining Budapest, Baku, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen and Rome.

The European Championship from June 11 to July 11 will now be held in 11 different countries, down from the original 12.

Held over from last June due to the coronavirus pandemic, Euro 2020 will now be held in 11 different countries - the first edition to be held in multiple countries.

One of Uefa's demands to host cities was they could not stage closed-door games despite the Covid-19 crisis.

Uefa expressed its "appreciation and gratitude" to Dublin and Bilbao authorities, saying "both are considered as good venues to host future Uefa events".

"While today is a disappointing day for football fans in the city and country, public safety must always come first," said Owen Keegan, chief executive of Dublin City Council.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE