We can all see that squashing the ESL was a big moment in football history, but the fall-out could be just as important.
There will be hopes that this leads to more positive reform which makes the entire game more competitive, but it’s also possible that UEFA just give the 12 ESL clubs what they want in the Champions League.
It’s also worth pointing out that the idea of the ESL will be floated again in a couple of years if the people behind it feel like they’ve got away with everything, so there’s an appetite to see some real-life consequences.
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There has been some talk of those clubs being kicked out of the Champions League this year, but that would eliminate Man City, Chelsea and Real Madrid, so PSG would automatically win the competition.
Obviously that would send quite the message, but UEFA also mainly care about money and it would be madness from a fiscal standpoint, so it appears that there won’t be any bans this year, and there was never any real plan to do that either:
Despite many fake news in the last days, UCL semifinals Real Madrid-Chelsea and Manchester City-PSG will go ahead regularly.
UEFA won’t ban any club for this season. The matches have never been suspended. ? #UCL
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 23, 2021
The wording of that does make it sound like there could be future sanctions, so it will be interesting to see if UEFA have the guts to do anything major.