A Super League by stealth and Man City’s day in court: the battle for football’s soul starts here
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City begin a Premier League independent commission hearing one day before the Champions League campaign kicks off
The latest format of the wealthiest club football competition on Earth begins this week, the extended Champions League born of a decade of conflict in the European game, in an era of expansionism and the proxy geopolitical battles being fought in the sport.
It is quite a drum roll for the latest iteration of the elite level of the game. So much so that the administrators fighting these battles might have begun to think of themselves as the key protagonists. Uefa’s expensively produced trailer for the 2024-’25 season featured Gianluigi Buffon, Luis Figo, Rodri and others − but its central role was modestly reserved for the shy Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin.