UEFA chief's quiet rage ahead of ‘fight to the end’
There was an evident anger bristling inside UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin as he tried to manage the aftermath of Sunday's shock breakaway Super League split by 12 of Europe's top clubs.
The always cold stare of the Slovenian had an added factor of rage and his body gestures indicated a man prepared to wage the war of attrition that awaits European football.
But despite all of the signals to the contrary, the legal professional from Ljubljana insisted there was "nothing personal" for him about the bitter row.
Then he paused for an instant, jaw slightly clenched.
"Aside from maybe Agnelli."
Italian Andrea Agnelli, president of Juventus and until Sunday head of the European Club Association, has been at the centre of the intrigue which led up to Sunday's shock breakaway announcement.
Agnelli was not merely an ally for Ceferin in the always murky world of football politics -- these were such close friends that the 45-year-old, a member of the dynastic Northern Italian category of industrialists, asked the Slovenian legal professional to be godfather to his daughter -- a request that was accepted.
The relationship between the two was so close that some in the European game wondered if it had been entirely healthy that the head of the governing body was so pally with the top of the clubs who frequently push for greater influence with Ceferin's organisation.
The UEFA president had laughed off such opinions and indeed when he was re-elected to his position in 2019 he heralded their connection as a warranty against a club breakaway ever occurring.
At that congress, Ceferin boldly declared that there would be no Super League as the pair were within their respective positions. "It isn't a promise, it's a fact," he said.
So it had not been surprising that when rumours began to emerge at the weekend that Europe's big clubs could be going to jump ship from UEFA and start their own private league, Ceferin called up his old pal.
"He explained on Saturday, don't worry, they are just rumours. He said he'd call me in a single hour and then powered down his phone," Ceferin told reporters.
They haven't spoken since.
"Agnelli may be the biggest disappointment of most. I do not need to be too personal but have never seen somebody who would lie so often therefore persistently as he did."
Agnelli did not react to a request for comment on Ceferin's words.
Betrayal was a style Ceferin was to return to frequently and there appeared something cathartic in his denunciation of the 12 clubs that he called "the dirty dozen".
"We could possibly be naive in being unsure of we have snakes near us," he added. "Now we do."
"Greediness is indeed strong. All of the human values evaporate," he said, reflecting on the clubs who had supported his reforms of the Champions League and then leave hours before these were because of be passed.
"I have seen a lot of things in my life. I was a criminal lawyer. I've never seen people like that," he said, "It really is hard to believe the amount of immorality of some individuals."
Did he feel the clubs were never going to register with the new-look Champions League?
"It is very hard to know what are the intentions of such dishonest people," he said.
It may not have already been "personal" with Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, but Ceferin still singled him out.
"Ed Woodward, he called me last Thursday evening and says 'great reforms I fully support it... when obviously he previously already signed another thing," he said.
He talked of sanctions, bans against clubs and their players, never veering from his hardline stance except to remind any wavering clubs that it was not too late to come back to the fold.
But when asked if the game was now at risk of a long war of attrition, he almost appeared to relish the prospect.
"We are sure we are right and we will fight to the finish. If we don't have to fight, if some persons come with their senses then I would be the happiest person.
"But if indeed they don't, we know we are doing the proper thing. Football isn't for sale and we aren't on the market either - ever".
