UEFA’s control over European football has never faced an existential threat to its existence quite like the Superleague, but now they may have a much more concerning problem on their hands.
While members of the Superleague have been whittled down to just Real Madrid and Barcelona, the launch of the concept was poor and lacking in planning, making it an easy plan to thwart.
As per Tuttosport (via Sport), the potential European bans facing Barcelona and Juventus could be a poisoned chalice for UEFA. The Old Lady are looking at a potential ban for their inflation of fees to sanitise their accounts, while Barcelona are under investigation for the Negreira case.
However seemingly UEFA fear that if they do expel those sides from European competition, then Saudi Arabia will offer them the chance to compete internationally anyway. Their concern is that more teams may follow them afterwards.
If they were to put together a potential Superleague, Saudi Arabia would no doubt finance it, and if one of the arguments for it was more money, then those figures would skyrocket. The Saudi government is clearly making moves to get involved in football in the biggest way possible, and if they sense weakness in the current power structures, then it would be no surpise to see a coup take place.
