Governing Bodies
REVENGE TIME AS UEFA APPLY THE BIG STICK ON SUPER LEAGUE REBELS…SET TO CHANGE EURO HOST CITIES
Uefa meets on Friday (April 23) with revenge on some members’ minds following the attempted Super League breakaway, while the fate of some Euro host cities is also on the agenda.
In the space of 48 emotional hours, between Sunday evening and Tuesday evening, European football’s governing body, aided by fans and politicians, quelled a mutiny by 12 English, Spanish and Italian clubs who presumed to form their own quasi-closed which would have threatened Uefa’s own Champions League and the federation’s governance of the game.
Nine clubs, including all six in England, subsequently withdrew and even if Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid, whose president Florentino Perez led the attempted secession, are still refusing formally to capitulate, their proposal no longer looks credible.
Their setback showed money does not inevitably win in football and some want to make sure that the defeated big clubs fall as hard as possible.
Danish executive committee member Jesper Moeller on Monday suggested throwing Manchester City, Chelsea and Real Madrid out of this year’s Champions League semi-finals.
That drastic measure seems unlikely to be approved.
“There is relatively little chance that next week’s matches will not be played,” Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin told Slovenian television Pop TV.
“The key thing is that the season has already started. If we cancelled the matches, television stations would have compensation demands.”
But while Ceferin said he wanted to “rebuild the unity” he did not rule out some form of payback.
“I can’t go into details, we are discussing it with our legal department,” he said.
Power redistribution
Meanwhile, another Uefa member, Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish Liga, urged restraint.
“Everyone wants to cut everyone’s head off,” he said on Thursday.
“We have procedures. We don’t need to rush into things.”
“The most important thing is these clubs have been sanctioned by their own fans. The sanction is the blow to their reputations.”
The fiasco has already redistributed power within Uefa.
Andrea Agnelli, Juventus boss and one of the promoters of a Super League, has relinquished both the presidency of the European Club Association (ECA) and his seat on the Uefa executive committee.
Bayern boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was rewarded for his loyalty when he filled the vacant Uefa position.
Another executive committee member whose club refused to join the rebels, Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, took over the powerful ECA reins on Thursday.
The two men are now the leading club representatives in decisions on the commercial management of the Champions League, which was radically reshaped on Monday.
Uefa’s executive committee approved a new format for the Champions League which had been proposed before news of the uprising broke.
It will be introduced from 2024, with the number of clubs in the group stage increasing from 32 to 36.
Euro host questions
In the immediate future, Uefa has to finalise the organisation of the Euros, postponed from last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic and due to start on June 11 in 12 cities, each in a different country.
So far nine cities have agreed to Uefa’s demand that fans be allowed at every match.
The three holdouts, Bilbao, Dublin and Munich, have been threatened with losing their matches.
The issue was on the agenda on Monday, but Uefa postponed a decision until Friday.
On Wednesday evening, however, the Basque organisers said that they had received a letter from Uefa saying Bilbao was being replaced.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said earlier in the month that Covid-19 restrictions imposed by the Basque region made it “impossible” to admit fans to the San Mames stadium.
Basque officials said they are considering legal action to recover the 1.2 million euros ($1.4 million) they had spent.
The RFEF wants to keep Bilbao’s four matches in Spain and has proposed Seville as an alternative, if the Andalusian regional authorities are more accommodating on spectators.
The Irish government, concerned by the high numbers of Covid cases in the country, is not at all optimistic about hosting fans at matches in Dublin.
“We just think June is too soon,” Irish Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told Today FM radio on Wednesday.
Budapest, St Petersburg, Baku, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, Rome and London have all promised crowds at between 25 per cent and 100 per cent of capacity.
Munich has also not yet been able to guarantee that fans would be able to attend matches.
-AFP
World football governing body, FIFA, today clocks its 122nd anniversary, celebrating more than a century of overseeing and expanding the global game.
Founded on May 21, 1904, in Paris, France, FIFA began with just seven member associations — France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
From that modest beginning, the organisation has grown into the most influential sports governing body in the world, with 211 member associations spread across all continents.
Over the decades, FIFA has transformed football into a truly global phenomenon through competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Club World Cup, youth tournaments, and developmental programmes aimed at growing the game worldwide.
The organisation has also witnessed remarkable milestones, including the expansion of the men’s World Cup from 13 teams in 1930 to 48 teams beginning from the 2026 edition to be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
FIFA’s journey has equally reflected football’s growing influence beyond sport, with the game becoming a major tool for diplomacy, social inclusion, youth empowerment, and economic development across the world.
As FIFA celebrates 122 years of existence, attention is now focused on the future of the game, technological innovations, expanded competitions, women’s football growth, and the continued globalisation of football.
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UEFA has issued a lifetime ban to Petr Vlachovsky, a Czech women’s soccer coach who secretly filmed his players, the governing body announced on Tuesday.
Czech media reported that the coach was convicted in May 2025 and initially received a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban for filming FC Slovacko’s players in changing rooms, the youngest of whom was 17.
In a statement, UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) said it had decided to ban Vlachovsky “from exercising any football-related activity for life” following the appointment of an Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector to investigate allegations of potential misconduct.
“The CEDB further decided to request FIFA to extend the abovementioned ban on a worldwide level and to order the Football Association of the Czech Republic to revoke Mr Petr Vlachovsky’s coaching licence,” the statement added.
FC Slovacko did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Football players’ union FIFPRO welcomed the ban as well as UEFA’s request for world soccer governing body FIFA to impose an international ban on Vlachovsky.
“This outcome sends a strong and necessary message that abusive and inappropriate behaviour has no place in football and that safeguarding the well-being of players must remain a priority at every level of the game,” FIFPRO added in a statement.
Vlachovsky had also previously served as coach of the Czech women’s Under-19s team.
RELATED STORY: https://sportsvillagesquare.com/2026/04/08/outrage-as-male-coach-who-secretly-filmed-women-players-still-free-to-work-in-football/
-Reuters
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Southampton have been kicked out of the Championship playoff final after being found guilty of spying on semi-final opponents Middlesbrough, the English Football League said on Tuesday.
Middlesbrough, who lost 2-1 to Southampton on aggregate in the semi, have been reinstated and will face Hull City on Saturday in what is dubbed the world’s richest soccer match.
Promotion to the Premier League, even with an immediate relegation, is estimated to be worth in the region of 200 million pounds ($268.10 million) over three seasons.
Southampton, who admitted the charges, were also found guilty of filming training sessions involving Oxford United in December and Ipswich Town in April during the regular season.
They have also been deducted four points from the start of next season in England’s second tier.
“An Independent Disciplinary Commission has today expelled Southampton from the Championship play-offs after the club admitted multiple breaches of EFL regulations related to the unauthorised filming of other clubs’ training,” the EFL said.
“Southampton admitted breaches of Regulations requiring Clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.
“The effect of today’s order is that Middlesbrough are reinstated into the 2026 play-offs and will proceed to the play-off final against Hull City. The final remains scheduled for Saturday 23 May, with the kick-off time to be confirmed.”
The EFL confirmed that Southampton could appeal against the decision and that “parties are working to try and resolve any appeal on Wednesday 20 May.
“Subject to the outcome, it could result in a further change to Saturday’s fixture,” the statement said.
‘BORO CALLED FOR SOUTHAMPTON EXPULSION
Middlesbrough had called for Southampton’s expulsion after having a training session at their Rockliffe Park site filmed 48 hours ahead of the first leg of their playoff semi-final with Southampton which ended 0-0.
The north-east club said they welcomed the decision.
“We believe this sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct,” the north Middlesbrough said in a statement.
“As a club, we are now focused on our game against Hull City at Wembley on Saturday.”
Southampton were relegated from the Premier League last season and were struggling in the early part of this campaign until a storming finish in which they went unbeaten in 19 league games to finish fourth and enter the playoffs.
The south-coast club are the first to fall foul of the Football League’s regulation 127 — brought in after Leeds United were found guilty of spying on Derby County seven years ago, an offence for which they were fined 200,000 pounds.
-Reuters
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