Alexander Ceferin dismantled the argument that the Premier League's success is a threat to clubs in Europe, shooting down the Super League hopefuls once more.
The English top flight is by far and away the richest in the world with their most recent TV deal with Sky worth over £5billion. Other top leagues, like La Liga, Serie A and the German Bundesliga, only generate a fraction of that revenue and as the Premier League grows into an NFL-style Goliath, those in favour of a breakaway European Super League have claimed it is necessary to level the playing field.
Ceferin has made no bones about his opposition to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus - the only clubs yet to withdraw from the initial Super League project - and he's taken that argument apart. At a UEFA Congress on Wednesday, he said the Premier League should be applauded not attacked for its success.
The Slovenian said: "We must never forget that jealousy has never been a good counsellor. A few months ago, UEFA and its club competitions were being blamed for all the evils in football and the inequalities within the leagues. Today, it's the English Premier League that seems to be under attack.
"Since the British government, supporters and clubs said no to the Super League, the Premier League has been demonised and labelled a Super League in its own right that needs to be toppled. However, the Premier League's success was not achieved by accident.
"By adopting an audacious approach based on a vision, a strategy and a lot of hard work, its leaders and clubs developed a remarkable model founded on sporting merit and a highly egalitarian distribution of wealth - one of the most egalitarian systems in the world. Rather than a model to be destroyed, this is a model that should be followed."
He also highlighted the statistics which showed that despite the English league's financial dominance, its clubs had by no means dominated at continental level. He added: "Let me reassure those who fear that English football will crush everything that stands in its way.
"The figures do not lie: in the last 20 years, the Champions League has been won on five occasions by English clubs. Only twice in the last decade an English club has lifted the iconic trophy with the big ears..."
He pointed out that Italy had the most quarter-finalists in this season's Champions League and Europa League, with Belgium having the most representatives left in the Europa Conference League. This season 17 countries, 17 domestic leagues from everywhere in Europe played the round of 16 of UEFA club competitions. Football is still for everyone," he added. But it is true that jealousy sees everything except the truth."
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