Cliff Notes – Barcelona seek closer UEFA ties after Super League failure
- Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed the club’s intention to reestablish relations with UEFA and rejoin the European Football Clubs (EFC), signalling a potential setback for the European Super League project.
- Relations between UEFA and Barcelona deteriorated in 2021 when the club was a founding member of the Super League, leading to their departure from the EFC.
- Laporta emphasised a commitment to “building bridges” between the Super League and UEFA, though he did not confirm Barcelona’s exit from the Super League initiative.
Barcelona seek closer UEFA ties after Super League failure
Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed the club want to reestablish links with UEFA and rejoin the European Football Clubs (EFC) in a move which will come as a blow to the European Super League project.
Relations between UEFA and Barcelona broke down in 2021 when the Catalan club emerged as one of 12 founder members of the Super League, a rival competition to the UEFA-organised Champions League.
Barça also left the EFC, known as the European Club Association (ECA) until this week, at the same time.
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However, after attending an EFC event in Rome on Wednesday, Laporta said the Spanish champions want to improve relationships with both organisations again.
He stopped short of saying that means Barça will leave the Super League project, which also still includes Real Madrid, but a renewed relationship with UEFA and the EFC would complicate the club’s involvement.
“We are committed to building bridges between the Super League and UEFA,” Laporta said at an event in Barcelona on Thursday.
Joan Laporta (left) is seeking to rebuild ties with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin (centre) and PSG president and EFC chair Nasser Al-Khelaifi. Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“Barça’s position is clear. Those affected and those concerned are already aware of that. We are in favour of pacification because there is a way forward for the clubs in the Super League to return to UEFA.
“We feel very close to UEFA and the EFC. It is important that we are there and that we implement everything that can be improved, both in UEFA and in the EFC.”
Asked if this week’s developments would eventually end the Super League, a source at Barça insisted the idea is to find a way to move forward which is beneficial for all parties.
The Super League quickly unravelled after its launch four years ago. The six English teams withdrew, followed by Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus, leaving just Madrid, whose president Florentino Pérez fronts the project alongside the company A22, and Barça.
It rebranded itself as the Unify League in 2024 but has received little support following the restructuring of the Champions League last season.
UEFA, whose president Aleksander Čeferin has met with Laporta several times in recent months, is the governing body for European football and, in addition to the Champions League, also administer the Europa League and the Conference League.
The EFC is an organisation that is officially recognised by both UEFA and FIFA as the sole, independent body for football clubs within Europe.
It is chaired by Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who met with Laporta this week, and includes around 800 clubs from around the continent.
Barça were among the 16 clubs in the ECA when it was founded in 2008, but left the organisation on the back of the failed Super League launch in 2021.