UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has been a busy man since the shutdown but he appears to be getting more vocal as the days go by.
At first, leagues were told UEFA would NOT interfere in how they finished their season. As soon as Belgium tries to call their league as it stands, the European governing body quickly stepped in and were fuming.
Mixed messages, no transparency and lack of leadership from the top at UEFA has done nothing to help our leagues out. A lack of understanding to this point about the plight many clubs are in out with the perceived top five has compounded things further.
Ceferin has spoke this morning about the need for UEFA to be involved in any domestic leagues decision to continue with or end their season.
After talks with Belgium, Ceferin is now demanding to know individual league’s plans before rubber stamping anything.
“We at UEFA are ready to think about the many different situations that can occur in individual leagues, in individual countries, during these months,” he said. “Different solutions may need to be sought in different countries, and we are aware of this. But we have made it very clear that we will not tolerate arbitrariness.” Ceferin told STV.
“We cannot allow anyone to make their own decisions without consulting and talking to UEFA. We cannot allow someone to simply say to himself that he will no longer play, while also determining who will play our UEFA European competitions. We can’t go this way, we had to make it very clear.
“I heard about the Belgian Union, we spoke and further explained their point of view and they realized that they had done wrong. After that, they will present their case to UEFA, tell us all about their concerns and problems, and then we at UEFA on the Executive Board will decide the case. I think that such a procedure is the only right one. You cannot stand for unity and solidarity only when it is in your interest.”
“We have always taken care of everyone who came to us with any desire for help – and now. when things are different, we expect everyone to come to us first, he said. “In fact, I have no personal interest in saying that any league should end on the field.
“If this is not possible for objective reasons, it will not be possible. But we have to be the one to give the final score because then we are accepting clubs in our European Cups. I believe that certain situations are extremely complex in some countries.
“We will not harm anyone, you can be sure. But we want to know everything in advance and I made it clear to everyone that I no longer want to read in the media how anyone has decided.”
We will not harm anyone suggests the threat of expelling leagues from European competitions is off the table.
We’ll have to wait and see what the SPFL decide on Wednesday, we’re likely to get leaks with UEFA having to be informed and things could become clearer in Scotland by the end of this week.
Unprecedented times needs clear leadership and it’s about time the people running our game stepped up.
That is a pretty big boot Cerefin has to extract from his mouth, good luck son.