Are Real Madrid at risk of being banned from Champions League after Super League fiasco?
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has stated that Real Madrid, Juventus and Barcelona face the harshest punishments for their ringleading role in the European Super League.
Real Madrid are just one tie away from their first Champions League final since 2018. And even if the most successful club in European Cup/Champions league history goes on to lift their 14th title, there is the possibility it will not be able to participate in the competition next year.
Following the fallout over the controversial European Super League, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has stated that the 12 clubs involved in the now-failed breakaway competition are set to face sanctions, with the strictest punishment likely to be reserved for the so-called ring-leaders of the project, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus.
“For me there are three groups of this 12 - the English Six, who went out first, then the other three [Atlético Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan] after them and then the ones [Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus] who feel that Earth is flat and they think the Super League still exists. And there is a big difference between those,” Ceferin said in an interview with the Daily Mail on Sunday.
“But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see. I don’t want to say a 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.”
Real Madrid Champions League ban a real possibility
As we wait to hear the extent of the UEFA punishment, speculation has naturally grown that the European governing body could go as far as banning Madrid and Juventus from next season’s Champions League due to the leading role of their respective presidents, Florentino Pérez and Andrea Agnelli, in the Super League fiasco. On the eve of Madrid’s semi-final meeting with Chelsea on Tuesday, coach Zinedine Zidane described such a scenario as “absurd”. But it is certainly a real possibility if recent history is anything to go by.
Related stories:
In recent years, UEFA has banned Manchester City and AC Milan from European competition. AC Milan were slapped with a one-year sanction from the Europa League for breaking UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, while City were handed a two-year ban from the Champions League in 2020 for serious FFP breaches. Given how serious Ceferin considers the misconduct of the Super League ringleaders, a one-season Champions League ban for Madrid and Juventus cannot be ruled out.
If the two clubs were handed such a ban, they would likely take an appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), which overturned City’s Champions League ban last year, allowing the club to partake in this year’s Champions League.