European football can flourish only with integrity: al-Khelaifi

European Club Association (ECA) chairman and Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser al-Khelaifi addresses the ECA General Assembly on Monday..

A couple of days after a handful of rich clubs came together briefly to announce the Super League, Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari President Nasser al-Khelaifi was elected as chairman of the European Club Association. Al-Khelaifi, in his first ECA General Assembly as the chairman on Monday, called the clubs behind the “not-so-Super League” as “fabulists and failures” who aimed for a “midnight coup”, and reaffirmed that he represented “every single member – all 247 clubs – big and small”. “And while the three rebel clubs waste energies, twist narratives and continue to shout at the sky, the rest of us are moving forward and focusing every energy on building a better future for European football – together as one,” he said, referring to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, who still haven’t renounced the competition. “As you know, for the 9 Clubs who asked to come back into our family, the ECA Board has re-integrated them into our structures with renewed commitments to strengthen our Association. I welcome them back to the ECA family. “The ‘not-Super League’ was defeated was through integrity, togetherness, and protecting the interests of every member of our European football community. These values need to define the ECA every single day. “Every club is respected equally at the ECA. And sporting merit based on open competition has been the foundation of our system – clubs of all sizes deserve a chance to chase their dream in open competition. These values can never be compromised.” With Covid-19 impacting the financial stability of the sport world over, al-Khelaifi identified five strategic priorities with an aim to strength European football — financial stability, stronger relationships, meaningful member-benefits, diversity and inclusion, and renewed football spirit and values. “The first priority is to bring urgent financial stability to European football. Even before Covid, many financial problems affected football. However, the pandemic has magnified them all,” he said. “To start with, the ECA is working hand-in-hand with UEFA to put in place a multi-billion Euro debt fund to allow clubs of all tiers to accelerate their recovery from the financial devastation of Covid,” he said, adding that a “UEFA-ECA fund for future crises is being examined”. “The ECA has also championed a separate initiative to re-distribute around 50 million Euros per year for the benefit of smaller clubs not participating in European club competitions.” Al-Khelaifi also backed new Financial Fair Play (FFP) to ensure “stable, sustainable, inclusive and competitive football pyramid”. As part of his address, al-Khelaifi also spoke about the need to work with UEFA “to better optimise revenues from club competitions”. “We will also work with UEFA on ways to maximize the value of the new post-2024 format – known as ‘the Swiss model’ – and to improve club relationships with national associations, which is in everyone’s interests,” he said. He added: “We have important challenges to solve, the most urgent of which is the international match calendar – this needs honest engagement, not unilateral and self-interested decisions.” Al-Khelaifi spoke about the need to remove politics from football, put an end to racism, invest more in women’s football, and focus on developing youth programmes. “The only way to truly include everyone is to remove politics from football and to put an end to racism. “In addition, reflecting all of Europe means investing more in women’s football, rather than it being treated as a separate tier or an after-thought. As you know, starting this new cycle, men’s European football will invest more in the UEFA Women’s Champions League every year – this needs to be the first step of many. “The reforms that we push for in European football need to be focused more around the principle of inclusion. I am happy to announce that the ECA Board has approved the expansion of our membership to include more professional clubs in our ECA network, so the ECA can be a resource for more European professional clubs.” Concluding his address, al-Khelaifi reaffirmed his call for unity. “We will shortly begin various plenary sessions and our ECA Awards tomorrow, which celebrate all our members not just the winners. Unlike previous years, we will not break into subdivisions or closed groups because I want us to be together as one ECA. “Over the past few months, European football has faced challenges like never before. People have tried to divide us, they have tried to separate us, they have tried to make us weaker. They have failed.” “If all of us continue to work together with integrity, fully committed to our ideals, fully committed to each other as fellow clubs, and fully committed to the ECA, then European football can only flourish.”