BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The project of a Super league of European soccer teams “is dead,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a meeting with with journalists in Argentina on Thursday.
The head of Europe’s football association rejected comments made the previous day by Bernd Reichart, the new director general of the company behind the project, A22 Sports Management. Reichart said the breakaway initiative is still standing, though in a different format.
“We are here to talk about soccer, and that (the Super league) is not soccer,” Ceferin said.
A22 Sports Management worked with 12 elite clubs in Spain, England and Italy in a bid to start the Super league in April last year as a challenger to the UEFA Champions League. The original project collapsed within 48 hours. Now the company says Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are discussing a tournament that is based on merits.
Also on Thursday, South American soccer’s governing body CONMEBOL announced it will implement financial Fair Play rules in all its tournaments starting next year.
President Alejandro Dominguez said during the meetings in Buenos Aires that the move was part of a strategy to make soccer more competitive in the region, which next Saturday will see the third consecutive final of the Copa Libertadores be played between Brazilian clubs.
“It has been four years that Brazil has started changing its tournaments. It is not only about having more money, they are working well. We need the rest of the countries to follow that change,” he said.
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