Zurich, April 29 (BNA) The European leagues asked UEFA on Friday to scale back its plans to add more Champions League matches and help teams qualify based on their historic performance in the competition, the Associated Press reported.
“Increasing more than 50% of matches will harm the vast majority of clubs and benefit very little,” UEFA president Klaus Thomsen said after a meeting in Istanbul. “We need fewer rounds.”
The divisions within European football come a year after UEFA with the leagues thwarting a breakaway from the Premier League by elite clubs that would benefit from planned changes to the Champions League from 2024.
The competition is set to expand from 32 to 36 teams, with two slots set aside for teams with a solid European record in five seasons who fail to qualify based on their position in the domestic league.
The group of European leagues met to formalize their opposition to safety net places for the biggest clubs, and told UEFA that all Champions League spots must be based on qualification secured from the previous season’s domestic results.
UEFA has been urged before major meetings in Vienna next month that it should back down from expanding the group stage, growing only from six to eight matches per team instead of the ten envisaged from 2024 based on a single ranking format.
The proposed places for two teams based on UEFA “factor” points are worth tens of millions of dollars in prize money and will reward an elite team that has had a bad season, and also ensures that broadcasters can still show the biggest teams in the Champions League. These teams still have to finish in one of the places to qualify for the Europa League – or win the domestic cup – to reach the Champions League instead of finishing lower and jumping over the higher-ranked opponents.
But the group of European leagues wants to completely withdraw historical performance venues from the format to ensure that all centers receive sporting merit in the previous season. The exemption is where, as now, the actual winners of the Champions League if they fail to qualify through the league.
“On the whole issue of the Europa League, we have seen football in Europe unite and agree on certain things including that it is sporting merit that takes us from one level to another and we should not have closed leagues and we should not move in that direction,” Thomsen said. “You can argue that it’s only two positions and there are no big jumps now but you left the basic principle and in the end I am confident that UEFA will move in that direction as well.”
Thomsen, chief executive of the Danish League, is a member of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee, which will meet on May 10. The Committee submits formal proposals for approval by the Executive Committee of the European Governing Body, which will meet later that day in Vienna, Austria.
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