- UEFA has come out aggressively against plans for a new
European Super League in football. - Some have compared its response to the ESL to the softer approach it has taken to racism in football.
- A former player says UEFA can only react in such a way when something "challenges their power structure."
UEFA had a stern response to the proposed launch of the European Super League, with the organization's president Aleksander Ceferin calling it a "spit in the face of all football lovers," and accusing clubs who plan to join of being "snakes."
Almost immediately after UEFA's aggressive response to the new league, some players are already questioning why European
On Sunday, 12 of Europe's biggest soccer teams, including FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Juventus, announced they had agreed to join the European Super League - a breakaway competition that features no relegation or promotion intended to rival the Champions League.
UEFA immediately condemned the plans, saying it would expel teams involved from their domestic leagues and ban players from competing for their countries.
Speaking on Monday, Ceferin then described the proposal as "disgraceful" and said it was "fuelled by greed."
"It's a nonsense of a project," he said. "This idea is a spit in the face for all footballer lovers and our society. We will not allow them to take this away from us."
In comparison, UEFA took almost a month to ban Slavia Prague's Ondrej Kudela, who racially abused Rangers defender Glen Kamara during a match in the Europa League in March.
Kudela was handed a 10-match ban, the minimum punishment possible, while Kamara was also given a three match ban for attacking Kudela in the tunnel after.
The former Newcastle United star Shaka Hislop, now a pundit for ESPN, pointed out the difference in UEFA's reaction between the two incidents, slamming the organization for losing their voice on racism.
"On one hand, I applaud UEFA's strong response [to the Super League plans] and agree with it," said Hislop.
"But it shows that UEFA are capable and willing of producing a strong response based on little more than speculation and circumstantial evidence when it directly challenges their power structure, the monopoly that they hold over football.
"On the other we are two weeks out from Ondrej Kudela and Glen Kamara being suspended over that racism row. So at least we now know that [UEFA] can take strong, unilateral action, propose banning of players from European and World Cup action.
"Yet when faced with the issue, or when so many in football call for that very response when addressing racism in the game, they seem to lose their voice.
"So on behalf of Glen Kamara, and other every black player who has been abused and will be racially abused playing this game we love, I want to seriously ask, where is this backbone from UEFA?"
Harvard-educated Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford also touched upon the same issue following his side's 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Monday.
"It's amazing the amount of opera that comes in to the game when somebody's pockets are being hurt," he said.
"It's a shame it's not like that with all the other things that go wrong at the minute, with racism and stuff like that."
UEFA did not immediately reply to Insider's request for comment.