In the meantime, the South American Championship of Champions, kicked off in 1948 after years of deliberation and organisation and set into motion the antecedent of the Copa Libertadores.

[5] The UEFA document on the history of the European Cup confirms that Jacques Ferran and Gabriel Hanot, journalists for the French sports newspaper L'Équipe, were the founding fathers of the competition.

[7] In interviews to the Brazilian sports TV programme Globo Esporte in 2015 and Chilean newspaper El Mercúrio in 2018, Ferran said that the South American Championship of Champions was the inspiration for the European Cup: How could Europe, which wanted to be ahead of the rest of the world, not be able to accomplish a competition of the same kind of the South American one?

In the 1970s, Ferran provided analysis in favor of the renovation of French football, which was adopted by the Federation President, Fernand Sastre.

Michel Platini paid tribute to him: I never considered Jacques Ferran as a journalist in the field, but as a football philosopher.