By Andrew Warshaw
December 15 – Potentially vital concessions have been made by UEFA aimed at pacifying Europe’s leagues over their fierce opposition to proposed changes to the Champions League.
Ever since last summer, the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) have been stepping up their objection to a three-season deal struck between UEFA and the European Club Association and starting in 2018 whereby more group stage places will be set aside for teams from the top four leagues and fewer for clubs from smaller leagues.
Additionally, a club’s coefficient in terms of how it has performed historically in European competition will determine, under the same deal, how much money it receives.
The EPFL recently warned that unless UEFA scraps or least renegotiates the arrangement by mid-March it would no longer guarantee keeping leagues fixtures away from the same dates as European games.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin promised to re-examine the issue and UEFA now appear to have agreed a compromise, removing the 20% contribution of the national association coefficient to ensure clubs are ranked on their individual merit, avoid punishing strong teams from poorer leagues and stop rewarding average sides just because they come from elite countries.
This, UEFA said in a statement, would “avoid further unfair advantage for clubs of top-ranked associations and penalisation of clubs with good individual performances but weak association coefficient.”
Additionally, while clubs’ history of previous success will still contribute to how much prize money they earn, it will not help them get seeded. Among plans outlined by the UEFA executive committee, all league champions knocked out in the Champions League qualifiers will be given a second chance by creating a dedicated champions route into the Europa League. An extra €50 million per season will also be diverted from Champions League prize money to the Europa League.
Whether the compromise is strong enough to end the simmering dispute and bring the leagues onside remains to be seen but Ceferin at least appears to be following up on his promise.
In a further amendment, Champions League games will take place at two different kickoff times from 2018. Currently, all games are played Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 20:45 CET allowing for exceptions for earlier start times when necessary.
But for the competition cycle running from 2018-21, two matches will kick off at 19:00 CET with six starting at 21:00 CET, time slots that are similar to those already used on Thursdays in the Europa League.
The change was made to allow “fans opportunities to watch more matches,” though UEFA did not specify if the new times would extend beyond the group stage.
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