The PSG boss is on the front line as a dissident European club union threatens the ECA of which he is also president.
Freshly re-elected at the helm of the European Club Association (ECA) which he has led since 2021, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi has had to deal with a dissident union since last April. The Union of European Clubs (UEC) was then created to rebalance the forces present on the continental chessboard, deploring an ECA policy favorable exclusively to historic and richly endowed clubs.
Recently, the UEC sent a letter to 400 clubs to present its projects while discrediting the ECA, boasting of having already rallied 121 clubs to its cause, when only six groups have made their membership public until now. then: Osasuna (Spain), Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium), Lokomotiva Zagreb (Croatia), FK RFS Riga (Latvia), Maccabi Netanya (Israel) and Bohemian FC (Ireland).
“ We want to give a voice in the governance of European football to clubs that are not represented or are inadequately represented in existing structures. », trumpets the UEC, denouncing the intimidations of the ECA to maintain control over European trade unionism and its privileged relations with UEFA and FIFA. An ECA which under the presidency of Andrea Agnelli had participated in the blossoming of the now annihilated Super League project to compete with the Champions League.
The ECA is fighting back
Nasser Al-Khelaïfi obviously did not fail to react to this offensive by the new union, publishing a press release this week that seemed like a settling of scores. “ The document (from the UEC, editor’s note) makes ill-informed, misleading and derogatory statements without any understanding of the facts. At a time when European football needs more than ever to be more united, this document is a new demonstration of the radicalism of certain individuals at the origin of this separatist and divisive initiative.. »
The ECA, which since 2008 has brought together 330 affiliated clubs under its banner, prides itself on being “ the only legitimate representative organization of European clubs until at least 2030 » with the major football institutions. And to brandish the threat of exclusion of possible members associated in the future with the UEC. “ Clubs are completely free to choose their affiliations, but the collective strength of clubs requires that there be unity within the organization “, which categorically refuses to be ” mined ” over there ” dual membership » from one of its affiliates.
