Montreux (Switzerland) (AFP) – Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was on Tuesday elected to UEFA’s executive committee and replaced Juventus supremo Andrea Agnelli as a representative of the European Club Association (ECA).
Rummenigge, whose term of office lasts three years, replaces Agnelli, who quit as ECA president amid plans for a new Super League with the Italian set to be vice-president of the controversial new competition.
The 65-year-old Rummenigge was elected during an UEFA congress meeting in Montreux, Switzerland.
He replaces Agnelli, who stepped down as head of the ECA as the body said it “strongly opposes” plans for a breakaway Super League featuring 12 of the continent’s biggest clubs, including Juventus.
German teams Bayern and Borussia Dortmund have both said they will not join the breakaway clubs, six of which are from England, with three each from Spain and Italy.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was quick to praise Rummenigge as one of the “true lovers of football” as European football’s governing body fights the planned Super League.
In a statement on Monday, Rummenigge made it clear he is opposed to the new plans and “does not think” the breakaway competition will solve the European clubs’ financial problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The German Football Association (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL) have slammed the Super League, and Ceferin clearly recognises an important ally in Rummenigge.
Bayern Munich, who won the Champions League last season, are the most prominent European club to not have joined the Super League.
Rummenigge is the second German voted onto UEFA’s executive committee alongside German FA vice-president Rainer Koch, who was re-elected Tuesday for another four years.
