As I sat in the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Thursday night, I would like to say I felt the hand of history on my shoulder, but instead I felt a sick feeling in my stomach at how European football has been irreversibly damaged by the holier than thou brigade at UEFA.
UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe and subordinate only to global overseer FIFA and to the richest clubs on the continent, has effectively created a full-on apartheid system that sees the rich get even richer and their power increasingly unchecked. And they showed their power in beating back FIFA’s bid to commercialize their biggest cash cow: the World Cup.
Greek (and not just) tragedy
In 1971, Panathinaikos made it to the final of the European Champions Cup, the previous name of the UEFA Champions League. The first and only Greek club to do so, they lost 2-0 to mighty Ajax of Amsterdam, who at the time were in their pomp with the late Johan Cruyff. The Greeks subsequently made two semifinals, in 1985 and 1996, but on Thursday played in the continent’s third tier competition, the UEFA Conference League. If the capital club go on to win this year’s competition, they will receive €7 million, not a sum to be sniffed at. However, the club that wins the Champions League takes home €25 million. That is only for winning the whole thing and doesn’t include prize money for earlier wins etc., but you kind of get the divide that UEFA has deliberately created.
I write this because right now Europe’s governing body brought hellfire down on FIFA for a number of reasons and they’re all false, spurious, and downright deceptive.
Destroying football from within (Europe)
Since the UEFA Champions League was launched in 1992, only two sides outside of the ‘Big-5’ leagues [England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy] have won. Ajax in 1995 and Porto of Portugal in 2004. The ‘Champions’ league is actually a misnomer. It’s a league for the winners, runners-up, third, and fourth placed clubs from the ‘Big-5’, with the actual champions from Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Romania, and dozens of other nations having to qualify to be in the money-making league stage. UEFA has gamed the system to keep the wealth and power at the top, leaving ‘minnows’ from Albania, Hungary, and Poland not even dreaming of winning the whole thing.
UEFA created this cabal to ensure that the ‘big clubs’ from the ‘Big-5’ don’t create their own super league, the latest threat being just five years ago. To survive, in 2022 UEFA changed the competition format to give more money to the ‘big clubs’ and relied on FIFA intervention and support to make sure they they remained relevant.
Yet just four years later, they threatened to boycott FIFA competitions due to that organization proposing to increase investment in global football by selling off 20% of its World Cup commercial operations to private investors. As one German football writer said on Sport1 last week, “FIFA saved UEFA by stopping the Super League, UEFA pays back by stopping super money.”
UEFA starts up its money train band wagon
As soon as the British media whipped up a hatestorm to the FIFA proposal, new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his latest gaffe. Bad enough that he was boasting about jogging with tarnished athletics star Mo Farah on X, he then wrote something that made even the most hardened anti-FIFA mind boggle.
“Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands,” he said in a post, overlooking the fact that only four out of 20 teams in the English Premier League are owned by locals, with the ‘investors’ for the other 16 hailing from shires including Florida, Riyadh, Vienna, and Beijing.
Burnham was cashing in to build credit with the ‘footballing public’, to try to last at least as long as predecessor Keir Starmer. Because even he knows what UEFA’s ultimate aim is and it’s not protecting football.
Why UEFA fought FIFA
UEFA is solely concerned with money and control, nothing else. It is also staving off two major issues that need to be resolved by September: Russia’s return and Israel’s suspension.
UEFA knows that it will face uproar from the usual screeching heads by allowing even Russian girls back into continental competition, as explained here and once the boycotts kick off, it will lose millions because those not too inclined towards peace in Ukraine will make sure their voices are heard.
In ‘showing off’ by standing up to FIFA right now, it can force the global governing body to backtrack on allowing Russia to return to the footballing family. And the reason is simple: the biggest TV markets are in Europe and FIFA needs them to keep the money flowing. This UEFA power play effectively neuters FIFA from any future moves to increase funding to all its 211 member nations.
And there is the Israel question, soon to be faced in furious technicolor by Ireland. The Irish men’s national team will play their Israeli counterparts in two neutral venues as cities in Israel are unsafe for matches, while Dublin has also been deemed “too volatile.” UEFA’s avoidance of responsibility over the Israel question has put them at odds with FIFA and nations in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America. They have punished Israeli football fans for racist and offensive behavior, yet allowed clubs and teams from the country to continue despite the response to the October 7 terror attack by Hamas and the bombing of Iran and invasion of Lebanon.
FIFA’s plan to offer their biggest show’s commercial rights to private bidders was the ideal stage for UEFA to throw a tantrum and con fans and encourage in line sports media fanboys and girls to attack the global owners of football.
UEFA ‘saves the day’ and sinks itself?
UEFA has been allowed to kick the can down the road, in relation to the abovementioned in-house conundrums, and won plaudits from the Eurocentric European sports media. By having lapdogs like the BBC back UEFA attacks on FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, UEFA is ensuring that more money stays in Europe while appearing to care about football.
Yet, pretending to be the saviors of football could yet backfire on the European body. UEFA is terrified of having to put those vehemently against Russia’s return back in their proverbial boxes, because money will be lost. It does not want to offend Israel as business and political supporters in Europe will make UEFA pay financially. As soon as this media cycle passes, questions will need to be answered and the rulers of European football have no answers. Indeed, they will depend on FIFA to help out, again.
As for suggestions that they should set up a new global governing body, UEFA has zero interest as it’s bad for business. The noise around FIFA’s commercial sell off was simply to make sure that when the cake is being divided up, they’ll make more money from it, and that FIFA will back down over Russia, and the public will forget that Israel are still in competition.
Far from breathing a sigh of relief early on Saturday when FIFA released a statement saying its business plan had been shelved, UEFA began the countdown to having to deal with its own burning issues. The ‘thunderous barrage of criticism’, to quote a BBC football writer, directed by UEFA at Infantino will not see the champions of Greece, Ireland, Poland, or Russia, dream of becoming champions of Europe. The ‘barrage’ is poorly aimed flak, meant to distract, from a pair of incoming missiles that could derail the UEFA money train.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.