Birthday time is approaching. In two weeks, Nasser Al-Khelaifi will celebrate his one year at the head of the ECA, the European Club Association. The story does not say if he planned to organize a big party to celebrate the day he knocked off Andrea Agnelli’s head and sentenced the Super League to purgatory. It’s because the boss of Paris Saint-Germain is in a festive mood these days. Take his latest idea to give a facelift to the C1, subject to The Athletic : “an opening ceremony of the Champions Leaguewith a match during the opening night where the winners face a great team”, a bit like the Superbowl, which he intends to compete with.
A suggestion like any other in line with what Al-Khelaïfi governance has been for a year. “He gives his opinion easily, without using too many words or making detours to explain what he likes or dislikes,” says Daniel Rommedahl, director of football at FC Copenhagen and member of the ECA board. He knows where he wants to go as president. From what little we know, this idea of a ceremony hasn’t really been debated yet, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be either. Without going into the Manichean story, the CEO of the Young Boys of Bern, Wanja Greuel sells us a “way of working and a whole transparent process”.
“There is a good collaboration, abounds Rommedahl. The atmosphere is more relaxed than a year ago at the ECA. With a more frank and inclusive dialogue. We, the medium and small clubs, we feel a little more at the same level as the big clubs. »
Sincere or opportunistic opponent of the Super League?
A status of great lord that the leaders of French football also attribute to him within the framework of the agreement between the LFP and CVC Partners, for the creation, in the off-season, of a commercial subsidiary in which the Luxembourg company will hold 13% against 1.5 billion euros. At the time of cutting the cake, PSG was entitled to claim the largest share, author of 350 million euros: it finally sat on 150 million euros to ensure a better distribution of riches.
For a behind-the-scenes source – not a huge fan of NAK – either case is a smokescreen. A matter of opportunistic posture, the first of which would precisely be that of gravedigger of the Super League in the name of sports justice. “Nasser made a barter, he exchanged the extremely significant circumvention of financial fair play, which bothered him a lot since he recruited Neymar and Mbappé against his firm opposition to the Superleague project. »
Even better. In the updated version of financial fair play validated by the ECA, the “salary cap” will limit club spending, in particular on salaries, to 70% of their income in its version completed in 2025. The previous years will correspond to a period adaptation which surprisingly stick to the PSG agenda, since the clubs will be able to go up to 90% in 2023 and 80% in 2024. Two years is also the duration of the new contract that the club would offer Kylian Mbappé .
“It’s completely normal that [Nasser Al-Khelaïfi] brings the interests of PSG into the discussion, tempers Greuel. Just as it is normal for Oliver Kahn to bring up Bayern Munich’s interests in discussions. But deep down I’m 100% sure he’s involved against the Super League. »
In the opinion of the camp of skeptics, there is necessarily a wolf and this conviction that, when the time comes, NAK will turn around to finish off the sheep with his counterparts from Real, Barça and Juve. But the recent protrusion of the boss of the ECA in an interview with the BBC suggests that this hypothetical plot-twist is not in the pipes. With a Godwin 2.0 point along the way, even if it means making a fuss of it, you might as well do it thoroughly. “With ESL or non-ESL – I hate to say Super League – it’s about three clubs. They know there is no chance. People are dying in Ukraine and have nowhere to sleep, and we are fighting for the Super League? »
Nasser shows the muscles in front of Florentino
Symbolic: the president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, already made the same moral judgment, at the beginning of March, when the slingers were again pointing the tip of their noses. The alliance extends to finance since The Times revealed in February the existence of negotiations conducted in his corner by Al-Khelaïfi with UEFA and two private companies concerning the marketing of European rights to the Champions League around 15 billion euros for the period 2024-2027 . Solo discussions in which the ECA board does not participate, we were able to have confirmation. But its members await the president at the turn. “We hope that we will be present in the discussions to talk about redistribution [des droits TV] when the time comes”, slips Wanja Greuel
Strengthened by his circumstantial friendship with Ceferin, NAK no longer hesitates to let loose in private. Evidenced by his outburst against the referees of the round of 16 return from Paris to the Bernabeu. The inappropriate attitude does not pass, in Spain, where editorialists hastened to denounce an abuse of power, fearing a certain complacency of UEFA in its investigation. A month after the events, Nasser and Leonardo have still not appeared before the disciplinary committee of the European body. They were not finally summoned on March 29, as was planned, and no new date has been set by UEFA.
In public, Al-Khelaïfi puffs out his chest. At the BBChe recounts this moment when, during the last Real-PSG, “he was very hard” with the father of the Super League, Florentino Pérez, yet eager to renew the dialogue.
“I want to play these games, the big games, of course I want to. I know what the public wants. But we cannot say “you are a small club, you are excluded”. It has to be an open system. »
Al-Khelaïfi as the little brother of the poor, there is enough to make a regular interlocutor of the Parisian smile. “I know very well that we are in an election campaign period and that everything is allowed in terms of demagoguery but hey… Soon he will be defending football in the territories. Let’s stop. It’s a communication error, nobody believes it and everyone laughs. »
Small ECA clubs feel safe
Not the managers of second-tier European clubs. Daniel Rommedahl: “I feel ‘secure’ in relation to the Super League because there is very strong opposition to the project. The positions taken by PSG and Bayern Munich at the time were very important and had an impact on the future. There is this feeling that they are working on a model that is better than the super league. »
On this last point, there is debate. Among the reforms supported by Nasser, that of the new Champions League, horizon 2024, is far from the communist model that the Parisian president sells in his interviews. If we dive into it, it is even very close to this Super League which he fights ardently (we think in particular of the group stage with 36 teams and the two places granted to clubs with high coefficients). “The biggest mistake that was made was especially when more places were given to big clubs in the Champions League a few years ago,” minimizes the leader of Young Boys. After a year of Al-Khelaïfi presidency, the time is therefore not yet for reproaches at the table of European clubs. The immunity of the big winners.