By Andrew Warshaw
September 8 – In a move that could have wide-ranging repercussions and cause a potentially hugely damaging split, the umbrella organisation that represents the Continent’s top leagues has angrily rejected UEFA’s reforms of the Champions League and Europa League.
In a hard-hitting statement issued ahead of a meeting in Amsterdam to be followed by a press conference, the European Professional Football Leagues accused UEFA of breaching the terms of the deal that governs European club competitions.
Last month UEFA announced that it was giving four guaranteed Champions League group-stage slots to the top four leagues – currently Bundesliga, La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A – and redistribute the prize money to better reward traditional success in European football.
The reforms were drawn up after widespread consultation with Europe’s leading clubs designed, in part, to stave off the much-threatened introduction of a closed-shop Super League. But the talks did not, it would appear, include the leagues to which those clubs belong and which are directly affected by the proposed changes.
While the European Club Association this week welcomed what it described as a “good compromise”, the EPFL, which represents all Europe’s major leagues, says the changes, to come into effect from the 2018-19 season, were made “without the support and consensus” from domestic leagues and would cause a massive rift between the haves and have-nots.
“This decision will have a detrimental impact on domestic competitions and will lead to an exponential growth in the financial and sporting gap between the biggest clubs in Europe and all the others,” a statement from the EPFL board of directors said.
“As a result of the decision taken by UEFA, the EPFL believes that UEFA has breached the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations.”
Under current rules, no major domestic games can be played in the same time slots as Champions League or Europa League matches.
But threatening to start arranging domestic fixtures to go up against UEFA-organised games, the statement added: “In the event that the EPFL were to terminate the MoU as a result of such breach, this would give all European leagues total freedom to schedule their matches as they see fit, including on the same days and at the same kick-off times as UEFA club competitions.”
The EPFL threat to ignore the new agreement comes just a week before UEFA elects a new president in Athens after being in limbo ever since Michel Platini was banned last year. The statement from EPFL’s board calls on the new president, who will be either Slovenia’s Aleksander Ceferin or Dutchman Michael van Praag, to “reconsider the reforms” and to talk urgently with the leagues.
Yesterday, both the Danish League (Divisionsforeningen) and the Danish Football Association (DBU) called for the changes to be reversed arguing that they favour the biggest clubs whilst the others would had their qualification chances impaired.
“The process was wrong; the result is wrong. A fundamental change of the format has been rushed through UEFA and the ECA (European Club Association) even though a new UEFA President will be elected in a weeks’ time and even though there are no publicly elected leadership in UEFA,” Claus Thomsen, CEO of the Danish League and vice-president of the association of European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), stated.
“The process reflects a change that initially moves huge amounts to the 20 biggest clubs in Europe and at the same time ensures that sporting success of others cannot change it. The price is paid by the rest of Football-Europe, damaging all national tournaments. Furthermore, we expect the second round of reforms to be in the like of a European Super League and by establishing it under a joint company, co-owned by the ECA and UEFA, it is ensured that no competitor can prevail.”
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