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UEFA president: 'Super League will not happen'

Harold Cunningham - UEFA / UEFA / Getty

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is adamant that a supposed plan to form a standalone Super League of Europe's top clubs will never come to fruition.

"The Super League will not happen. It is in a way a fiction now or a dream," Ceferin, who also serves as vice-president of FIFA, told BBC Sport's Richard Conway.

A trove of documents provided by Football Leaks and unearthed by a syndication of worldwide outlets earlier this month shed a shocking light on reported plans by 11 clubs to break away from UEFA and their respective football associations in order to found a Super League as early as 2021.

Those 11 teams, revealed in an alleged agreement to be Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Chelsea, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Liverpool, and AC Milan, would own differing stakes in the league and would be safe from relegation for 20 years.

In the hopes of convincing Europe's elite to remain under UEFA jurisdiction, Ceferin suggested the governing body could tweak the current format of the Champions League in order to satisfy the tournament's perennial heavyweights as well as Cinderella-story hopefuls.

"We have some ideas. All I can say is that any Super League is out of the question. Participation stays. And everybody will have an opportunity to compete in every European competition," he said.

Ceferin was joined in the BBC interview by European Club Association chairman Andrea Agnelli, who also holds the same role at Juventus. Though the Serie A champions were listed in the reported Super League agreement, Agnelli denies having any knowledge of a secret pact signed by Europe's top clubs.

"I can confirm we have never seen, never discussed, never been involved in the creation of this document," Agnelli said. "We are fully engaged with UEFA in shaping the game going forward."

Arsenal have also publicly refuted the idea of joining the separatist competition in recent days. Managing director Vinai Venkatesham admitted earlier this week that the club did take part in Super League talks but added the Gunners have no interest in "any competition that weakens the Premier League."

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