As if Peter Lawwell and Celtic didn’t have enough on their plate at the moment – the Champions League is melting down today.
Sky Sports and many other outlets are reporting that Europe’s biggest clubs are planning to imminently announce a breakaway, closed-shop European Super League.
The broadcaster believes 12 clubs from across Europe, including six of the biggest in England, have pledged to sign up for the controversial proposals.
Incredibly, it’s backed by $5bn dollars from American bank JP Morgan.
It’s all designed to compete with the Champions League, which had been set to announce a new format from 2024 tomorrow, as we discussed yesterday.
Explosive stuff. It’s also prompted a furious reaction from UEFA, the Premier League, the English FA amongst other major bodies around the continent.
UEFA and other organisations said in a joint statement: “We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit; it cannot be any other way.
“As previously announced by FIFA and the six Confederations, the clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams.”
Where do Celtic fit into all this Champions League chaos?
Well, that’s the $5bn question isn’t it? I’d love to know what Celtic think of all this and where they fit into the discussions.
Outgoing CEO Lawwell has been Executive Board Member of the European Club Association since 2014. He’s also been a member of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee since 2015 and was elected as one of ECA’s four representatives on UEFA’s Professional Football Strategy Council in 2017. [ECA]
He’s at the heart of power when it comes to UEFA competitions. How involved he is in firefighting all this or promoting Celtic’s interests is unknown. As alluded to at the start of the article, it’s not as if the eye can be taken off the ball with the club closer to home.
The club are in a definite rut, compounded by today’s dire defeat to Rangers. All these plans were reported on and statements issued while the match was unfolding at Ibrox.
Dominic McKay starts tomorrow to begin a transition that will result in Lawwell stepping down this July.
Celtic won’t want to skip a beat with regards to the goings-on at European level. With Lawwell leaving, McKay may have to very quickly get up to speed on those matters and make friends across Europe.
I’m sure the club would much prefer this wasn’t all happening at a time when our influence is potentially diminished.
It’s just one more thing supporters will want to have clarity on this week.
In other news, John Kennedy’s worst Celtic decision today.
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