The fierce competition between the presidents of the French clubs Paris Saint-Germain and the Italian Juventus, Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Andrea Agnelli, respectively, will move to the field when they meet, on Tuesday, in the first round of the group stage of the Champions League football competition.
The confrontation between the two presidents comes more than a year following Al-Khelaifi opposed the European Super League project, which was launched by Juventus with 11 of the largest clubs in the old continent, most notably Real Madrid and Barcelona, the Spanish.
The two clubs have somewhat similar paths, as they dominate the league competitions in their countries, although Juventus did not win the Calcio title in the last two years, and they regularly fail in the prestigious continental competition.
But in April 2021, during the announcement of the launch of the Super League competition, which quickly aborted, the friendship between the two men turned into a fierce competition, prompting Agnelli, who described Al-Khelaifi in 2019 as a “distinguished professional”, to resign from the presidency of the European Club Association to receive Al-Khelaifi took office in his place.
Al-Khelaifi, along with Bayern Munich officials, leads the opposition to this project, which competes in the European Champions League.
The two young presidents mobilized their weapons in much the same way. The 46-year-old Italian came to the presidency of Juventus in 2010, a year before the 48-year-old took over the management of the new and very strong Paris Saint-Germain.
But neither of them managed to win the main goal, which is the European Champions League title. Juventus lost the final twice in 2015 and 2017, while the Paris team lost it once in 2020.
And both teams have some issues with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules. Because of this, Paris Saint-Germain was fined 10 million euros last Friday, while Juventus was fined 3.5 million euros.
While the two men are committed to fair play in their struggle over the Super League project, both of them lost their nerve following the bitter elimination from the prestigious continental competition.
Agnelli criticized the referees following being knocked out of the quarter-finals of the 2017-2018 edition (0-3 back in Turin, 3-1 back in Madrid), because of a penalty kick in the last minute for the Royal Club to frustrate Rimontada “Bianconeri”.
For his part, following becoming one of the strongmen in European football, Al-Khelaifi was accused last spring by the European Union (UEFA) of “showing aggressive behavior and trying to enter the referees’ dressing room”, also in Madrid in the second leg of the final (1- Zero back in Paris, 1-3 back in Madrid).
But only the Brazilian sporting director of the Parisian club, Leonardo, was banned for one match.
And it seems that the paths of Al-Khelaifi and Agnelli have begun to differ in the last two years. Nasser managed to retain the jewel of his international team, Kylian Mbappe, who was close to moving to Real Madrid, and his club also regained the title of the league champion, which he abandoned in 2021 in favor of Lille.
On the other hand, the “Old Lady” team failed to win the league title in the last two years, following extending its control over it for nine consecutive seasons. His bet on Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo was not successful to lead him to the continental title, but rather he weighed the club’s financial accounts.
The scion of the Agnelli kingdom (which holds the reins of car manufacturer Fiat) has been somewhat conservative in the media since the aborted start of the European Super League. He is also facing difficulty due to the disappointing results of Juventus, who were eliminated from the final price of the Champions League in the last three editions, and were satisfied with only fourth place in the last two seasons in the Italian League.
And the ancient “old lady” team was affected by a somewhat unusual bout by changing the coach three times in three years: Maurizio Sarri in 2019, Andrea Pirlo in 2020, then returning Massimiliano Allegri in 2021.
Al-Khelaifi was not better than Agnelli, as three coaches have rotated in the technical management of the Parisian club in the past two years: German Thomas Tuchel (December 2020), Argentine Mauricio Pochettino (summer 2022), and Christophe Galtier.
The two presidents have a lot to do, but the phone contact between them still exists, as they completed a loan deal for Argentine international midfielder Leandro Paredes from Paris Saint-Germain to Juventus this summer.
