Nasser Al-Khelaifi responds to Florentino Perez claim about Champions League

As the war between UEFA and the Superleague for the future of European football rumbles on in the courts, the battle of words continues too.

On Tuesday, the new management firm, A22, held a meeting with UEFA as they tried to open a dialogue. They were ambushed by a waiting part of various groups though, including fan groups and the European Club Association.

That of course is headed by Paris Saint-Germain CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who has been converted into a public enemy in Madrid. Al-Khelaifi was crucial to keeping Kylian Mbappe in Paris rather than moving to Real Madrid, as well as being a vocal critic of the Superleague, headed by Florentino Perez.

Speaking to Sport, Al-Khelaifi had no problem dripping disdain on the Superleague.

“Unfortunately, as we saw yesterday in our meeting with A22, maybe it will become A23 or A24, a new brand every year. I feel sad for them because yesterday they showed that they don’t understand football and its ecosystem.”

He also responded to a comparison Perez made back in October, saying that under the UEFA system, tennis stars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer would barely have played each other.

“For Nadal and Federer, every match was important, whatever ranking they played against. They never asked for a closed league of top players. They defended the tennis family. Please don’t use their big names to justify the Superleague’s failures.”

“At yesterday’s meeting, the voice of the fan groups was heard loud and clear. They spoke from the heart. Self-interest has no place in football. And I totally agree.”

There is something a little inconsistent about Al-Khelaifi speaking about the interests of fans, when the investment in PSG continues to unbalance football to a degree that may eventually cost football fans.

Ultimately, the Superleague still faces an uphill battle to convince the other big teams in Europe to join their project, which caused the English teams in particular plenty of strife.

Tags Champions League Florentino Perez Nasser al-Khelaifi Paris Saint-Germain Real Madrid The Superleague

1 Comment

  1. “Self-interest has no place in football. And I totally agree”

    All you need to know about this man is that he was a member of this league from the beginning.
    Also, his club bleeds money (in amounts of billions) and bring in way less than they fork out. Meaning there is an imbalance in fair play rules. Mind you, they have no sporting success to back up their lavish spendings, as CL victories bring in around 80 mils to war chests. Instead, states pump in oil money in club, artificially creating the consequences of success. Yeh, football the way it was intended to play. It makes perfect sense that a club without any sporting success can afford wages of messi, neymar, Mbappe and rest of all star gang.

    However, this man became best friend with ceferin just when there was talk about enforcing said fair play rules on PSG and it mystically vanished from agenda. Go figure.

    This man is a backstabber and ceferin is unfit to lead Uefa, as he has put preferential treatement to maintain his profit over rules of sport he was put into play to protect.

    Two crooked people in rotten business.

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