Ceferin: ‘projects like the Super League are not the answer’

However, the project collapsed in 72 hours as a heavy backlash from the football world forced the majority of the founding members to leave the proposed platform.

In a new report called 'The European Club Football Landscape', UEFA points out that it gave €558m (almost £482m) a year in solidarity payments from the Champions League in the 2018 to 2021 cycle. 

The solidarity €558m (£480m) sum is divided into €108m (£93m) for clubs who do not progress beyond the Champions League qualifying rounds, €32m (£27m) for the clubs knocked out in the play-offs, €130m (£112m) in youth development funding for clubs across Europe who have not qualified for any UEFA competition, €269m (£254m) for assumed costs and subsidies for the Europa League and €21m (£18m) for UEFA which is fed back to national associations.

"Reports of 10 billion dollars over 23 years and wildly misleading claims of a tripling of solidarity need to be put into proper context, even if they never come to pass," the report stated.

"Without going into detailed calculations, a modest growth rate of five per cent a year (well below historic and current rates) would be expected to generate more than 28 billion dollars in (UEFA) solidarity over 23 years. Needless to say, $10bn is not three times $28bn."

In the foreword to the report, Ceferin wrote: "This report outlines how broadcast penalties, empty stadiums, reduced commercial revenues, and the collapse in transfer profits have led to a projected €8.7bn (£7.5bn) shortfall in professional club revenues, with pain shared equally among top and lower-tier clubs, only partly compensated by cost savings.

"Competition structures that destroy value, offering to give with one hand while taking away with five hands, are certainly not the answer.

"The whole football ecosystem, at professional, amateur and youth levels, has been heavily disrupted by the pandemic. This requires concerted efforts and a co-ordinated response throughout the football pyramid. Solidarity, not self-interest, must prevail and will win the day."

The report stated the importance of FFP and said it was "sobering" to think what would have happened if the Covid crisis had struck in the early part of the last decade.

It said future rules would "need a much stronger focus on the present and the future" rather than the past and that wages and transfer fees "must be reduced to acceptable levels".

"It is time to act. Severe situations require strong and swift responses," the report said.

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