UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has confirmed the 12 teams involved in the European Super League breakaway are set to face punishment from the governing body.
Manchester United and Manchester City were among the dozen teams to be confirmed as founding members of the new competition a week ago, along with the rest of the Premier League’s big six.
But within 48 hours the six English team all pulled out of the scheme after a huge backlash from supporters, players, managers, pundits, government and the Premier League.
Ceferin now wants all the clubs to be punished for their attempts to break away from UEFA, but he did say he wants United, City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs to be shown leniency after they led the retreat from the league.
In contrast, Ceferin wants the three teams still sticking to their guns with the Super League to face harsh punishments, the clubs are Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus.
“Let’s see,” Ceferin told the Mail when asked about punishments. “Everyone has to take consequences for what they did and we cannot pretend nothing happened. You cannot do something like that and just say: ‘I’ve been punished because everybody hates me.’
“They don’t have problems because of anyone else but themselves. It’s not OK what they did and we will see in next few days what we have to do.
- Solskjaer defends Harry Maguire for calling Man Utd teammate a ‘f***ing idiot’
- Thomas Tuchel names the untouchable player in Chelsea squad
- Timo Werner – Why I can’t score more than one goal for now
“But for me it’s a clear difference between the English clubs and the other six. “They pulled out first, they admitted they made a mistake. You have to have some greatness to say: ‘I was wrong’.
“For me there are three groups of this 12 — the English Six, who went out first, then the other three [Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Inter] after them and then the ones who feel that Earth is flat and they think the Super League still exists.
“And there is a big difference between those. But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see.
“I don’t want to say disciplinary process but it has to be clear that everyone has to be held responsible in a different way. Is it disciplinary? Is it the decision of the executive committee? We will see. It’s too early to say.”
