Premier League being ‘demonised’ by European critics, claims Uefa’s Ceferin

The Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, has praised the Premier League for its financial success and said it is being demonised by critics who claim it is damaging competition with Europe’s other leagues.

Ceferin, elected unopposed for a third term at Uefa’s congress in Lisbon on Wednesdayyesterday, said the threat of a European Super League remained a “present danger” and described the owners of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus as “cartels above meritocracy and democracy” for their leading roles in the plot.

He suggested the original plan to form a breakaway league, thwarted in April 2021, was caused by “jealousy” towards the financial domination of Premier League and England’s top division was a model the rest of Europe should follow.

“Jealousy is a bad adviser,” Ceferin said in a speech to the congress. “Before it was Uefa that was criticised, now it seems that it is the Premier League that is demonised and should be overthrown. Since the British government, supporters and clubs said no to the Super League, the Premier League has been demonised and labelled a Super League in its own right that needs to be toppled.

“However, the Premier League’s success was not achieved by accident. By adopting an audacious approach based on a vision, a strategy and a lot of hard work, its leaders and clubs developed a remarkable model founded on sporting merit and a highly egalitarian distribution of wealth, one of the most egalitarian systems in the world. Rather than a model to be destroyed, this is a model that should be followed.”

Ceferin cited the relative failure of English clubs in European competitions this season as evidence the Premier League is not dominating despite its financial advantage, with Italy providing the most