Aleksander Čeferin, UEFA president, conceded a long interview with Politico, where he talked about politics with topics like the ban of Russian teams from UEFA competitions, but not for Israeli teams. The interview also covered a hot topic with UEFA in the last few years: the irruption of the European Super League, ESL, the proposed competition between top European clubs that would compete with UEFA Champions League.
The European Super League (rebranded last year as Unify League) was announced by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez in 2021, some English and Italians club supported it initially, but after the huge backlash from fans, all of them withdrew except for FC Barcelona, with their president Joan Laporta being their only advocate apart from Pérez.
UEFA was, naturally, completely against this idea, with Čeferin describing as "elitist" as he chose "stopping this elitist competition which would, in my humble opinion, destroy football as it is" as one of his best greatest achievements as UEFA president.
Čeferin also denied rumours from Barça president Joan Laporta that UEFA was still in negotiations with the ESL promoters, simply saying that they "of course communicate with both clubs from Spain".
"I also had a meeting with Laporta, all fine, but that's no negotiation. The system or the new format [of the Champions League] will not change, this is clear. Both clubs [Real Madrid and FC Barcelona] are always welcome back in the European football family, where they have always belonged."