Euro leagues body next for ascencion to UEFA’s increasingly crowded top table

By Andrew Warshaw at Soccerex, Manchester

September 6 – The election of two new club representatives as members of UEFA’s inner sanctum has not been lost on Europe’s major leagues who are now anticipating similar treatment.

For several months, the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) have been pushing for a greater say in UEFA’s decision-making process and came to an agreement in May – in theory at least – that their demands would be met.

This week, the new chairman of the European Club Association, Juventus boss Andrea Agnelli, and Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis were both elected to the UEFA executive committee which next meets on September 20.

Their election gave the clubs a crucial voice within the UEFA administration and all eyes will now be on UEFA’s extraordinary congress – also on September 20 – to see whether UEFA keeps its promise to hand one executive commitee position to the EPFL as well.

UEFA will have to tweak its statutes to accommodate the change but Danish league CEO and EPFL vice-president Claus Thomsen (pictured) told Insideworldfootball on the sidelines of the Soccerex sports business conference: “We have an agreement with UEFA and we expect that to be ratified by the Congress. 

“That agreement says we are entitled to UEFA exco membership as well as other committees including club competition planning. Then there is the whole question of distribution of income which provides competitive balance.”

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