‘I had to leave’: concerns raised over state of Uefa amid cronyism claims

After Champions League final horrors fears are emerging of degraded competence and nepotism under Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin

Focus on familiar hires: UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin during the UEFA Nations League Finals draw at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin. Pic: PA Wire

The Champions League final on 28 May between Liverpool and Real Madrid, hosted by Uefa at the Stade de France in Paris, promised to be a gleaming showcase for the heights of European football, culture and heritage. The final was the first held in a full stadium since the pandemic and since the elite competition was saved for Uefa – the confederation of Europe’s national football associations, including the English FA – from last year’s “super league” breakaway attempt by 12 top clubs.

But the near-disaster that enveloped the 75,000 attending the match instead exposed a nightmarish mess of calamitous planning, disorganisation, brutal French policing and crime in the deprived Saint-Denis area. In the fallout, and outrage at the efforts by Uefa and the French authorities to blame Liverpool supporters, closer scrutiny has since turned on the performance of Uefa itself under its president, the Slovenian lawyer Aleksander Ceferin.