Steve Parish says ‘greatest enemy’ UEFA creating a Super League ‘by stealth’

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish says UEFA is “the greatest enemy of domestic leagues that exists” and is busy creating a Super League “by stealth”.

Parish has criticised the way European football’s governing body distributes money to teams involved in its competitions – and those outside them – and says it is impossible to tell the difference between UEFA’s plans for a revamped Champions League and the Super League which created such outrage last year.

The new-look Champions League, set to begin in 2024-25, is controversially set to reserve two places for clubs based on historic coefficient rather than league position in the previous campaign.

The expanded competition – poised to feature 10 group stage matches per club instead of the current six – also places pressure on the very existence of domestic cups which provide revenue for clubs not involved in Europe. Parish suggested UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was “picking the pockets” of these clubs.

“To hear Mr Ceferin paint UEFA as the saviour of football and the supporter of fans was quite incredible,” Parish said at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit.

“If you asked pretty much every football club in Europe outside of the gilded 20 that are in the European Club Association, most people would tell you that UEFA is the greatest enemy to domestic leagues that exists.”

Asked if he subscribed to that view, Parish said: “Totally. You’ve got a completely opaque ExCo (executive committee).

If you asked pretty much every football club in Europe outside of the gilded 20 that are in the European Club Association, most people would tell you that UEFA is the greatest enemy to domestic leagues that exists.- Steve Parish

“You’ve got the ECA, which is 20 clubs who