Lausanne (AFP) – The battle over the future of the Champions League will resume on Monday and Tuesday when the European Club Association (ECA) meets in Geneva and the leadership faces rebellion from members.
ECA, led by Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli, is closely involved in proposals to reshape Europe’s main club competition from 2024.
The proposals were presented by European football’s governing body UEFA in May although details had leaked earlier.
The reforms include the introduction of weekend fixtures, four groups of eight, and a tiered system with relegation and promotion that would see the top six teams in each group automatically qualify for the following year’s competition.
ECA, which boasts of “more than 230 members”, faced an outcry from many of those clubs and from national leagues which would be hit hard by the scheme.
“A semi-closed league with more matches… threatens to enormously impoverish the Spanish league,” said Javier Tebas of La Liga.
England’s Premier League issued a statement saying: “The domestic game should continue to be the priority for professional clubs.”
Opponents say the plan is designed to guarantee the income of a handful of big clubs.
“This reform would especially harm medium and small clubs,” said Wanja Greuel, the president of Young Boys of Berne, the reigning Swiss champions.
“It eliminates the access to the top flight of European competitions through domestic leagues. Fans will gradually lose interest in domestic leagues and those leagues would be further economically damaged.”
Last month UEFA announced it was cancelling a meeting with the ECA and the European Leagues, a wider body representing more than 900 European clubs, scheduled for September 11.
– ‘It will kill the dream’ –
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said he wanted to “collect feedback” from member federations.
The cancellation of the meeting “reveals strong opposition,” said Bernard Caiazzo, president of French Ligue 1 club Saint Etienne, who are outspoken opponents of the plan.
“When you close the supreme competition to 90 percent of clubs, you kill the dream for a middle-sized club reaching it,” said Caiazzo.
He gives the example of Lille, who dramatically improved last season, finished as French league runners up, but who from 2024 “could no longer experience this fairytale of moving from 17th place in Ligue 1 to the Champions League in the space of 14 months”.
On Friday, both UEFA and the ECA struck a cautious note.
“We need to take into consideration the clubs’ feedback,” ECA secretary general Michele Centenaro said. “Domestic football (leagues) must be protected and, at the same time, we must try to better reward European cup performances.”
I believe this is a slippery slope and a step toward a continental super league. I have heard this issue debated on SiriusXM for over a year and I do not love the idea. The hosts on SiriusXM have stated some the the issues mentioned in this article and that is it may cause harm to domestic leagues. Unfortunately everything is driven by money these days so may not be any way of preventing it.
Not so slippery slope, this proposal is already half way down the hill!
European Super League has been in the making for probably 20-30 years. it’s a rich man’s club and, the way I see it, it is a matter of when, not if.
Surely, Barcelona cannot be bothered to play against Crvena Zvezda, Slavia Praha, and Ferenzvaros.
Barcelona-Bayern and Liverpool-Juventus every week-now that’s a money maker.
When the European Super League comes to fruition, then I think we will see the allocation of the team’s best players towards those Tuesday and Wednesday matches. Sala and Firmino will play against Bayern, but will get a rest on Saturday versus Burnley.
Brave New World, this…
They already have a Super League, the round of 16 in UCL. At least now there’s the slim chance of a Cinderella story every so often. With the proposed promotion/relegation model for the new UCL it will make those unlikely as it will be more difficult to even get in….of if they do qualify for the next round out of a group of 8 rather than the current 4.
And it will destroy the domestic leagues. The Barcelona-Bayern matchups are great now because isn’t often. If they played multiple times every year it would get stale….just look at the preseason ICC tournament here. Novelty has worn off and ticket sales and interest fading.
*or if they do *harder to qualify for the next round out of a group of 8 rather than the current 4.
If this happens, or something like it, surely fans are going to get very tired of watching the same handful of clubs play against each other over and over again. When these teams face off now, they’re big events, but when they become routine it will be boring. It’s a power struggle between the domestic leagues and the European competitions, who is going to win?