No fear, Ceferin's tough message against Cristiano Ronaldo and the sheikhs

Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival in the Arab League has broken new ground in world football. Not only financially, as he received more than 200 million euros and a contract to be the spokesman for the region around the world for several years. But it also opened the door to the big stars who want to retire without setbacks in a football that will give them everything they want without having to work so hard.

Ronaldo has been followed by players like Karim Benzema, Hakim Ziyech and N'Golo Kanté, all of whom can boast European championships in recent years with Real Madrid and Chelsea. But the pile of money they have been given to be in this new middle-eastern sensation is too much. And it seems that many of the European clubs are not going to be able to resist this kind of negotiations unless the sheikhs themselves own those teams.

The most recent case is that of Manchester United and Sheikh Jassim, who has shelled out more than £6 billion to get his hands on the Red Devils. An unimaginable figure that only the most powerful clubs in Europe could compete with, but they are not interested to see if they can bear to have a professional club as big as the Old Trafford club. Nor would they pay as much attention to it as those nouveau riche in the continent's sport who have already had success stories such as Manchester City who have endured several seasons of failure to win the UEFA Champions League under Josep Guardiola.

The reality is that UEFA has already begun to observe this phenomenon and despite the fact that they are taking away important stars for their next competitions, they seem to be in no hurry to take action to prevent the exile of these players who still have a lot to give on European pitches.

What did Ceferin have to say on the subject?

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, speaking to the Invictos website, said he was not concerned that Arab cheques are signing big stars from Europe as they should be setting up football academies and developing young players in their own territory and not buying up established players in the big leagues. He also said they should take a cue from the Chinese league who a few years ago decided to do the same thing and went bankrupt in a short period of time.