Aleksander Ceferin has rejected reports that clubs from Saudi Arabia could also play in the Champions League in the future.
“Only European clubs can take part in the Champions League, the Europa League or the Europa Conference League,” answered the 55-year-old president of the European Football Union UEFA in response to a question from the French sports newspaper L’Équipe.
Despite the upgrade of the financially strong Saudi league, Ceferin does not see this as a threat to European football. »We had a similar approach from China, who bought players at the end of their careers and offered them a lot of money. The result: Chinese football did not develop further and did not qualify for the World Cup,” explained Ceferin.
“Not the right way”
This summer, a number of stars like Neymar and Sadio Mané moved to Saudi Arabia for a lot of money, which Ceferin is critical of: “That’s not the right way, they should work on training players and coaches, but that’s not my problem .”
In Ceferin’s opinion, only players at the end of their careers and those who are not ambitious enough are drawn to the desert: “As far as I know, Mbappé and Haaland don’t dream of Saudi Arabia,” he said, referring to the superstars Kylian who play in Europe Mbappé and Erling Haaland. “We’ll see what happens, but I don’t believe for a second that this could jeopardize our competitions.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230831-99-23280/2
2023-10-02 12:24:18
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