After a World Cup (and even a Club World Cup), Europe’s elite return to dispute the tournament that is dearest to them, the Champions League. The restart this Tuesday (14) is already in the knockout stage, with two killers: Qatar Saint-Germain x Bayern, still from Munich.
While everyone will have their eyes on the derby – with Copa stars Messi and Mbappé (and Neymar) – UEFA is taking a sideways look at the threat that wants to steal its toy, the European Super League.
For those who don’t remember right, the Superliga appeared like a tornado in April 2021. The idea was to play a parallel championship, in absentia of Uefa, with the richest clubs in rich European football, the crème de la crème, the icing on the cake . In addition to distributing much more money, the tournament also promised a fixed place for 12 founding members of the league — the dream of every club that does not have an oil well.
In four episodes, the documentary “Superliga: The War for Power”, released a few weeks ago by Apple TV+, recalls the four days in which the Superliga was announced, launched and cancelled, causing a stir in Uefa.
As in those war movies between mafia families, there is no good guy in the production. But the closest thing to good manners would be UEFA president, Slovenian lawyer Aleksander Ceferin, who fought fiercely to overthrow the Super League.
And although Florentino Pérez is the main executive among the dissidents, who appears as Ceferin’s greatest antagonist is Andrea Agnelli, who at the time was president of Juventus —with an Italian, the mafia climate in the series is better.
To complete, Ceferin was a personal friend of Agnelli and was even godfather to the young man’s daughter. Ready, Italian with godfather. Mafia in vein.
Another major character in the documentary is revealed only in the final episode: Gianni Infantino, the bald and formerly red-haired president of FIFA. Before Fifa, Infantino was the top dog at Uefa and he knows very well how much the show is worth.
And this mequetrefe Club World Cup that ended in Morocco is a point of contention between Uefa and Fifa. Like Flamengo fans and Palmeiras fans, Infantino loves the Club World Cup. After all, it could be FIFA’s way of having its own Champions League. The problem is that Ceferin does not (or did not want to) “borrow” his prestigious European teams.
However, an alliance was formed to lower the Superliga ball and give smart-ass Infantino some bargaining chip.
As our dear neighbor Marina Izidro showed in her most recent column, the Superliga did not die and is now resurfacing, wanting to include more clubs, with rankings based on merit.
It’s still too early to say the size of the new threat that the Superliga could pose to the Champions League, but it’s good to keep an eye open.
In the meantime, let’s happily watch the first round of 16 clashes. On the one hand, PSG x Bayern, two teams that have always been against the league; on the other, Milan x Tottenham, two members of the Clube dos 12.
Where’s the Super Bowl VAR?
Kansas City Chiefs were champions, Rihanna is pregnant and the person I saw the most on the broadcast was Gisele Bundchen, formerly of Tom Brady, during halftime. Despite having 413 judges on the field, the Super Bowl isn’t immune to human error either.
In the bid that decided the match, the judge saw a non-existent foul against the Philadelphia Eagles, keeping the ball with the Chiefs until practically the end of the match. As the foul is not subject to electronic review, the result stood and the Eagles were defeated. The oval table debate over there must be boiling.
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