"Football doesn't need emperors": The UEFA boss attacks Infantino again

"Football doesn't need emperors," UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin told FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Tuesday, after the failure of his ultimately aborted project to open the organization to private investors.

"Yes, let's develop, innovate, make our clubs and competitions even more successful, but let's never forget that football is bigger than those who run it. We are its guardians, not its owners. No one has the right to sell their future," said the head of European football's governing body at the European Football Clubs (EFC) general assembly in Copenhagen.

"My friends, I think it's time to say 'enough is enough'"; "football doesn't need emperors," insisted Aleksander Ceferin, in open war against his FIFA counterpart without ever mentioning his name - absent from the congress and represented by Secretary General Mattias Grafström.

Ceferin compared Infantino to the emperor in Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Emperor's New Clothes".

"We all know this story. An emperor is convinced he's wearing magnificent clothes, clothes that, according to him, only fools or the incompetent could not see," he said. "His court pretends to believe this story until a child says aloud what everyone can see: 'The emperor is naked.'"

UEFA, whose president is leading the anti-Infantino revolt, is considering filing a complaint for "disloyal management" against the head of FIFA -- an offense punishable by five years imprisonment, which requires demonstrating that he intentionally harmed FIFA's interests --.

"Imagine that one of your senior executives is secretly negotiating the sale of one of your crown jewels, and that your board, your players and your supporters know nothing about it. Once you find out, what would your board do?", the UEFA chief asked on Tuesday in Copenhagen about Gianni Infantino's ultimately aborted project to open the organization to private investors.

Nasser al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain and also president of the EFC, lamented that time was being wasted "dealing with these problems and issues".

"Football works when we listen to each other, when we show transparency," said the Qatari, who is close to Ceferin.

AFP