UEFA president Aleskander Ceferin is absolutely furious, and who can blame him.
Imagine being the toppest dog in all of UEFA and being very, very clear about one thing, and that one thing being that domestic league matches for UEFA member nations should remain exclusively within those member nations and absolutely not be played overseas for money. He is really, really clear about this.
Just look how clear he is.
“League matches should be played on home soil; anything else would disenfranchise loyal match-going fans and potentially introduce distortive elements in competitions.
“Our consultation confirmed the breadth of these concerns. I would like to thank the 55 national associations for their constructive and responsible engagement on such a sensitive issue.”
Absolutely spot on, isn’t it? Absolutely impossible to argue with any of that. There are ethical and moral issues at play here, there is the clear and dismissively casual sidelining of match-going fans and most obviously there is the fundamental distortion and warping of the sporting integrity of any league that no longer features all clubs playing the same number of home and away games against each other.
And the thing with the sporting integrity of a league’s fixture list is that it’s a very binary thing. You either have that integrity or you don’t. You can’t tinker with it a little bit and still be just about okay. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. You can’t be slightly pregnant, and you can’t slightly tinker round the edges with sporting integrity.
We’ve very much enjoyed all the dark grumblings about the Premier League fixture list this season, for instance. Arsenal had a difficult start, didn’t they? Now Liverpool have got a very difficult run of games, haven’t they? These things are true. But they are not a conspiracy, and they do not impede the fabric of the league, because when the season comes to its end Arsenal will have played the other 19 Premier League teams home and away, and so will Liverpool.
It is the standard Fixtures Day joke, and one that now finds itself under existential threat. Which is perhaps the one silver lining from all of it.
But we’re being dramatic to worry so much. UEFA are on top of this. Their top man has come out and said it will not be happening. Bad luck to Villarreal and Barcelona who had their eyes on a little jaunt to Miami in December. No dice, Milan and Como, with your scheme to pop off to Australia for one game during a massive climate crisis.
You’ve been sent (literally) home with your tails between your legs and no mista… Oh, wait, Ceferin’s not finished. Probably about to drop some more truthbombs on you and your nefarious plans.
“While it is regrettable to have to let these two games go ahead, this decision is exceptional and shall not be seen as setting a precedent. Our commitment is clear: to protect the integrity of national leagues and ensure that football remains anchored in its home environment.”
Oh. Well that’s f*cked all that other stuff directly into the sun, hasn’t it? We’ve not seen the video of this bold and clear yet in the end weak, meaningless and downright cowardly statement, but we assume Mr Ceferin was dressed in a hotdog costume before going on to insist we’re all trying to find the guy who did this.
If we didn’t want to set a precedent that allowed domestic matches in top European leagues to be played overseas, we simply would not set a precedent that allowed domestic matches in top European leagues to be played overseas.
You can regret it all you like. You can call it exceptional all you like. The toothpaste is out of the tube now, and there is no way to get it back.
Ceferin has chosen the ‘no way to prevent this’ approach to trying to absolve himself of the blame that will land. He knows he’s opened Pandora’s Box here. He must do. And he’s decided his best route to try and weasel out of responsibility for it is to act like he is entirely powerless.
It’s an undeniably bold choice for the actual president of actual UEFA to attempt.
But he’s also probably right. This day has felt like it was inevitably coming for at least 15 years now. It was as far back as 2008 that the Premier League first touted the infamous ’39th game’ idea to capitalise on its vast – and vastly lucrative – overseas audience.
In a vaguely ironic little twist of fate, that sheer global heft of the Premier League has now rather lessened the need and desire for the English league to seek actual competitive overseas games. Bluntly, the Premier League doesn’t any longer need it; it boasts an absurd financial dominance over all its rivals anyway.
Mid-table Premier League teams are now able to compete with and beat even the giants of continental football to the biggest signings. The saltiness emanating from Bayern Munich about suddenly no longer being able to just cherry-pick the very best German talent when they feel like it because Newcastle is more appealing might be hilarious to observe, but their frustration – while tribal and hypocritical – is also kind of understandable.
So now, inevitably, as the Premier League’s financial dominance grows, the rest will look to take whatever drastic action they feel necessary to try and bridge an already cavernous and constantly expanding gap.
There’s pretty much no chance of German league games going overseas given the club ownership structures in place there, but everything is up for grabs everywhere else thanks to this non-precedent precedent. Villarreal, Barcelona, Como and Milan may be ‘regrettable’ and ‘exceptional’ now, but Ceferin’s apparent conviction that this represents both the start and end of such experiments is for the birds.
One could even, if one were so inclined, argue that issues of fairness are now only further exacerbated by trying desperately to pull the drawbridge up behind the four teams you are going to let cash in on an overseas game. The thought that by allowing these two games you have to at least allow everyone else in those leagues the option is grimly compelling.
But mischief aside, of course a precedent has been set. To claim otherwise while in the active process of setting it is nothing more than disingenuous doublethink.
