Ceferin has the wrong man in Al Khelaïfi

When Real Madrid dumped PSG out of the Champions League at the Santiago Bernabéu, PSG president Nasser Al Khelaïfi went down to the dressing rooms to have a row with referee Danny Makkelie for allowing play continue in the build-up to Karim Benzema's first goal of the night. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the incident involving Benzema and Gianluigi Donnarumma, it was an unusual occurrence.

Head of ECA

A club president going down to have a go at the referee shows a lack of restraint, an aggressive personality, and makes for a complex individual. It speaks badly of the character who did such a thing, but that character happens to be the chairman of the ECA (European Club Association), the clubs' representation at UEFA - the exact axis of the UEFA-Super League conflict.

The chairman of the ECA was until recently the president of Juventus, Andrea Agnelli, himself a friend of Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA. Agnelli went behind his friend's back with Florentino Pérez and others to concoct the failed Super League project. As a consequence, Ceferin replaced him with Al Khelaïfi. Since then, Al Khelaïfi has been invested with a responsibility that goes beyond that of presiding over PSG. He now also represents all European clubs before UEFA.

Failed Super League

But his attitude at the Bernabéu during the week, where he provoked a scene worthy of grassroots football, is all the more unpresentable. A perfect storm. The Super League appears to be a bad invention. I celebrated its failure at the very start, but that failure came with the unintended consequence of Al Khelaïfi, who had already been abusing UEFA's leniency with regard to financial fair play, being elevated to the position for which Agnelli proved unworthy.

The ugly incident involving the referee at the Bernabéu disqualifies him definitively from the job and leaves Ceferin hanging by a thread, abandoned by his great protégé, who has behaved like the perfect thug.