Chelsea, Man City and Real Madrid to be kicked out of Champions League, Uefa member claims
Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid will be expelled from the Champions League this week, according to Danish Uefa member Jesper Moller.
Moller says he expects the trio of teams who are still involved in the semi-finals of the competition to be kicked out on Friday, after they announced their involvement in the controversial breakaway Super League.
“The clubs must go, and I expect that to happen on Friday,” Reuters reported Moller saying. “Then we have to find out how to finish (this season’s) Champions League tournament.”
Moller, the head of the Danish FA, said there would be an extraordinary executive committee meeting on Friday to decide their fate. If the three teams were to be cut from the tournament it would leave Paris Saint-Germain as de-facto winners – although PSG are also thought to be considering joining the Super League project.
The same rules would be expected to apply in the Europa League, where fellow Super League founders Manchester United and Arsenal are among the last four. Roma and Villarreal are their respective opponents.
Uefa has reacted strongly to the Super League proposal, which was announced on Sunday evening. The new tournament would see participating clubs forgo the Champions League, Uefa’s flagship club competition, in favour of a league in which money and power was centralised among its founding clubs who would be assured of their place and financial rewards regardless of performance.
Uefa president Aleksandar Ceferin accused Manchester United executive Ed Wooward and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli of being “snakes”, and said the plans “spat in the face” of ordinary fans.
“We’re still assessing with our legal team but we will take all the sanctions that we can and we will inform you as soon we can,” Ceferin told a news conference on Monday. “My opinion is that as soon as possible they have to be banned from all our competitions and the players from all our competitions.”
Real Madrid are due to meet Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals, with Manchester City drawn against PSG. Earlier the Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, evaded giving any strong opinion on the Super League or his club’s involvement.
“I’m here to be in the hardest competition. That’s why I came here. That’s what I love, to play the toughest competitions in Europe. That’s why I’m at Chelsea,” Tuchel said.
“I don’t get involved with all these subjects around us, I’m a bit sad all these subjects are there now, I thought we could talk about Man City and more important the Brighton game [on Tuesday evening]. That’s maybe not the case today.
“I want to play these club competitions, I trust the club to make the right decisions and it’s too early to judge everything and it’s not my part. On my badge from Chelsea it says I have to play my role. My role is to be a coach, to be focused and we have an important game coming up tomorrow.”
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