When Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin attends the first games of the new Champions League this week, it will be with a considerable security detail. This has led to grumbles from federation staff, especially since very few people outside football know what he even looks like. There have probably only been two moments when the Slovenian official was properly in the public eye.
One was when the Super League was launched in April 2021 and Ceferin admirably defended the spirit of European football in a defiant media appearance, all while lambasting executives as “snakes” and “liars”. Less publicised from that day was the fact Uefa were also in the process of approving the changes to the Champions League we are going to see enacted this week.
This directly led to the second time, as Ceferin was inexplicably put front and centre of Uefa’s launch video at the group-stage draw. There was no doubting who the star was supposed to be, given there were even jokes at Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s expense. The many actual football stars in the video weren’t given anything like the same status. If it seems ironic to complain about that and also start a discussion about the same star-filled competition with talk of a football administrator, it is only because there is a lot more at stake here than who will win the trophy in May.
The modern Champions League has shown that question doesn’t really warrant proper analysis until the last 16, and that it will still be won by a club with a revenue of over €500m anyway. Probably Real Madrid, or Manchester City. Such predictability has fostered some of the reasons we’re here.
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