UEFA has built football’s apartheid system – now it wants to play savior

Europe’s governing body keeps wealth at the top while using FIFA, Russia, and Israel to defend its power As I sat in the Olympic Stadium in Athens on Thursday night, I would like to say I felt the hand of history on my shoulder, but instead I felt a sick feeling in my stomach at how European football has been irreversibly damaged by the holier than thou brigade at UEFA. UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe and subordinate only to global overseer FIFA and to the richest clubs on the continent, has effectively created a full-on apartheid system that sees the rich get even richer and their power increasingly unchecked. And they showed their power in beating back FIFA’s bid to commercialize their biggest cash cow: the World Cup. Greek (and not just) tragedy In 1971, Panathinaikos made it to the final of the European Champions Cup, the previous name of the UEFA Champions League. The first and only Greek club to do so, they lost 2-0 to mighty Ajax of Amsterdam, who at the time were in their pomp with the late Johan Cruyff. The Greeks subsequently made two semifinals, in 1985 and 1996, but on Thursday played in the continent’s third tier competition, the UEFA Conference League. If the capital club go on to win this year’s competition, they will receive €7 million, not a sum to be sniffed at. However, the club that wins the Champions League takes home €25 million. That is only for winning the whole thing and doesn’t include prize money for earlier wins etc., but you kind of get the divide that UEFA has deliberately created. I write this because right now Europe’s governing body brought hellfire down on FIFA for a number of reasons and they’re all false, spurious, and downright deceptive. Read more The dirtiest man in clean sport has made Russia his personal enemy Destroying football from within (Europe) Since the UEFA Champions League was launched in 1992, only two sides outside of the ‘Big-5’ leagues [England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy] have won.

Ajax in 1995 and Porto of Portugal in 2004. The ‘Champions’ league is actually a misnomer. It’s a league for the winners, runners-up, third, and fourth placed clubs from the ‘Big-5’, with the actual champions from Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Romania, and dozens of other nations having to qualify to be in the money-making league stage. UEFA has gamed the system to keep the wealth and power at the top, leaving ‘minnows’ from Albania, Hungary, and Poland not even dreaming of winning the whole thing. UEFA created this cabal to ensure that the ‘big clubs’ from the ‘Big-5’ don’t create their own super league, the latest threat being just five years ago. To survive, in 2022 UEFA changed the competition format to give more money to the ‘big clubs’ and relied on FIFA intervention and support to make sure they they remained relevant. Yet just four years later, they threatened to boycott FIFA competitions due to that organization proposing to increase investment in global football by selling off 20% of its World Cup commercial operations to private investors. As one German football writer said on Sport1 last week, “FIFA saved UEFA by stopping the Super League, UEFA pays back by stopping super money.” UEFA starts up its money train band wagon As soon as the British media whipped up a hatestorm to the FIFA proposal, new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham made his latest gaffe. Bad enough that he was boasting about jogging with tarnished athletics star Mo Farah on X, he then wrote something that made even the most hardened anti-FIFA mind boggle. Read more Russia’s football exile is ending – but Europe may not survive the comeback “Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands,” he said in a post, overlooking