Liverpool to Avoid Two-Year UEFA Champions League Ban

According to a report from ESPN, Liverpool FC, along with the clubs that have pulled out of the planned breakaway Super League, will avoid the maximum punishment under the organisation’s disciplinary pathway, a two-year ban from the Champions League or Europa League.

Over the past 10 days, UEFA have been in conversation with the 12 clubs in an effort to agree a lesser sanction and extract a formal definitive commitment not to pursue the Super League effort. Liverpool, along with Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are understood to have agreed, with Inter Milan were close to an agreement.

The remaining four clubs in the “Super League”— Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona and AC Milan, could face the UEFA disciplinary process for, among other things, violating Article 51 of the statutes, which states that “No combinations or alliances between... clubs affiliated, directly or indirectly, to different UEFA Member Associations may be formed without the permission of UEFA.”

This is in line with prior comments from UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, who adopted a softer tone towards the clubs that had pulled out of the project after a crazy 48 hours:

For me it’s a clear difference between the English clubs and the other six. They pulled out first; they admitted they made a mistake.

For me, there are three groups of this 12 — the English six, who went out first, then the other three [Atletico Madrid, Milan and Inter] after them and then the ones who feel the Earth is flat and they think the Super League still exists [Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus]. And there is a big difference between those. But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see.