Real Madrid’s participation in this season’s Champions League is in jeopardy with reports that UEFA want to expel them from the competition after their role in the botched European Super League.
According to Spanish publication Deportes Cuatro, the 13-time winners are also facing the prospect of being banned from next term’s tournament too.
UEFA chiefs reportedly also want the same fate to happen to Juventus with a decision on the fate of both clubs happening on Friday.
The move would be seismic considering the duo are among the elite of European football.
The severe stance is taken in the view that Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez and Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli were the ‘leaders of the European Super League project’ and were the catalysts for the attempted betrayal.
UEFA have the power to impose this ban but there is a reported split among the boards chiefs about what to do. Some executives seek constant dialogue with Real and Juve and open to forgive them for their grave misdemeanours.
Speaking on Wednesday, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin revealed there is a ‘small possibility’ that next week’s Champions League semi-final between Real and Chelsea may not go ahead as punishment for their role in the European Super League.
Real and Chelsea were both part of the ‘Dirty Dozen’, the 12 European giants who announced their intention to form a breakaway competition on Sunday night.
However, strong protests from fans, players, managers and pundits led to the idea collapsing and its founder, Agnelli, admitted the project was in tatters on Wednesday after all six Premier League clubs dropped out.
Attention has now turned to what punishment the 12 clubs, which included all of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’, three clubs from Spain and three from Italy, would face for their role in the scheme.
Three of the 12 – Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid – are still in the Champions League while Arsenal and Manchester United are competing in the Europa League semi-finals.
One option that has been put forward is those clubs still involved in UEFA’s flagship club competitions could be disqualified, especially as Real Madrid have not formally withdrawn from the Super League.
Ceferin, who called the breakaway group ‘snakes’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘greedy’ over the past few days, has admitted there is a chance the semi-finals will not go ahead but warned broadcasting deals make it unlikely.
‘The key is that this season has already started, so broadcasters would come at us for damages if we don’t play the semi-finals,’ he said on Slovenian TV channel 24UR.
‘So, there’s a relatively small possibility that this match isn’t played next week. But, things could be a little different in the future.’
When asked about Real Madrid president Perez’s outburst on Wednesday night, in which he said he would never want a UEFA president like Ceferin, the Slovenian replied: ‘Well, that’s more incentive for me to stay.
‘He wants a president who obeys whatever he says, who listens to him and who does what he thinks. I do what I think is good for European and world football.’
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