Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has taken aim at UEFA and called for football’s governing bodies to be regulated.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin earlier on Thursday defended reforms to the Champions League, and once again hit out at clubs that were involved in the failed European Super League proposals.
However, Parish voiced some sympathy towards Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli and Barcelona president Joan Laporta, as he pushed for UEFA to be reined in and more power to be given to clubs outside of Europe’s elite.
“I wish 10 per cent of the scrutiny that is shone on the Premier League and governance in the UK is shone on the governance at UEFA,” Parish told the Financial Times Business of Football Summit
“To hear this morning Ceferin paint UEFA as the saviour of football and the supporter of the fans was quite incredible.
“If you ask pretty much every football club outside of the gilded 20 that run the European Club Association (ECA), most people would tell you UEFA are the greatest enemy to domestic leagues that exists.”
Parish added: “You’ve got a completely opaque ExCo (executive committee), people from individual clubs with far too much say, far too much pressure.
“You’ve got the ECA which is 20 clubs that decide everything and you’ve got a tournament in the new Champions League proposals that looks so much like the Super League you can’t tell the difference. In fact in some regards, they’re worse.
“If there is one thing Mr Agnelli, Mr Laporta and me can agree in, clubs should run tournaments and the governing body of the game should govern the game.
“While we have this inter-locking where FIFA and UEFA, the people in charge, and there’s nobody over the top to govern and regulate it, then I think we’re in trouble.
“We seem to be sleepwalking into it while Mr Ceferin picks all our pockets, frankly.”
