UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has made the final verdict on the possibility of organizing the Champions League in Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) in the future.
Sharing with Daily Sabah, president of European football’s governing body, Aleksander Ceferin emphasized that there will be no Champions League final held in Saudi Arabia. That is 100% certain at least until his term ends.
Speaking at the Spobis Sports Business Congress in Hamburg, Ceferin declared: “Not during my tenure, although I won’t be here forever.”
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in sports. Especially football, when the Saudi Pro League has signed contracts with a series of top stars, the peak being Cristiano Ronaldo with a contract worth 200 million Euros per year.
Besides, this country is also constantly racing to host major tournaments including the 2034 World Cup and a future Formula 1 race. Most recently, they reached an agreement with the Spanish and Italian Football Federations to host the Super Cup final of these two countries in Saudi Arabia.
Although there are continuous moves to approach European football, UEFA president Ceferin does not consider Saudi Arabia a danger to them. However, he believes that the Arabs’ recruitment of low-performing stars from the old continent is not the right strategy.
“If you mainly buy players who can no longer play in Europe and overpay them, are you developing your young players?
European fans usually do two things: they follow their clubs and national teams and they follow the top leagues. They don’t follow the players.” UEFA president emphasized.
