"Nadal and Federer never asked for a closed League with the best players" - PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi sends stern message to European Super League clubs
Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has publicly opposed the idea of the European Super League, taking a sly dig at Real Madrid president Florentino Perez in the process.
Real Madrid president Perez recently floated the idea of the European Super League, insisting that it was a good idea to pit heavyweights more frequently against one another. He used the example of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, claiming that those high-profile clashes were never boring (via Cope).
5 out of the 12 founding members of the proposed 'Super League' will be playing Europa League football (at best) for the rest of this season https://t.co/VNmYfuQuRv
At a UEFA convention on Wednesday (November 9), PSG president Al-Khelaifi firmly opposed the idea of the European Super League, recalling Perez’s words and pointing out the fundamental differences. The PSG chief said (via Marca):
“There is talk of Nadal and Federer. I have a little experience in tennis as a former player. Let me tell you that Rafael and Roger are two of the greatest athletes in the history of the sport. This is not because they have played together all the time.
“It's because they worked so hard. Every match was important, whatever ranking they were playing against. They never asked for a closed league of top players. They defended the tennis family. Please don't use their big names to justify their failures.”
As things stand, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus are the three leaders of the European Super League project. The Parisians, led by Al-Khelaifi, on the other hand, have emerged as the UEFA Champions League’s greatest champion.
PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi insists Champions League is still fiercely competitive
An argument has been raised that the UEFA Champions League has lost its competitive edge, something the European Super League would be able to fix. PSG president Al-Khelaifi used the recently-concluded Champions League 2022-23 group stage as an example to show how wrong the assessment was.
That’s something that a European Super League would never give you.
Benfica have played their heart and souls out in this group stage. Both PSG and Benfica deserve to go through first place. Neither team did anything wrong.
Two phenomenal teams no one will want to play.
Al-Khelaifi said:
“We heard that the Champions League is not exciting enough and that European football is completely broken. But they keep playing the tournaments (referring to Madrid, Barça and Juventus), I don't understand. Last week, in the case of my club, the winner of the group was decided at the last minute: congratulations to Benfica, deserved winner. And all the teams in Group D could have been top or bottom of the group. But apparently that's not exciting enough and they have the solution.
“They say that the Champions League is not competitive enough. But many big clubs have not qualified from the group stage. This could have been my team: this is football. No club has a divine right to win.”