By Andrew Warshaw in Manchester
March 3 – European clubs who fail to qualify for the Champions League should be given a greater percentage of the tournament’s revenues, according to Arsenal’s next opponents in the competition.
And Fernando Gomes (pictured), vice-president of Porto, also believes there should be English League-style parachute payments for clubs who fail to quickly regain their Champions League status.
At present between 75 and 82 per cent of Champions League money goes directly to the 32 group stage finalists, with only 6.5 percent being distributed down the domestic leagues.
Gomes says this is distorting football and serving only to ensure that the same clubs grow bigger. “The model of distribution needs to change.
“It needs to change to give teams that don’t go in the Champions League a chance to balance the competition domestically and in Europe.”
While Champions League money represents no more than roughly 10 per cent of revenue for English clubs, for clubs like Porto the figure is more like 25 percent.
“In one year we could lose €18 million (£16 million/$24 million) if we are not in the Champions League,” Gomes told the Soccerex conference.
“How can we survive without this money?”
UEFA’s Marketing manager Guillaume Sabran says changing the distribution process would not be easy.
“Champions League clubs expect to have more not less revenue from the Champions League,” he said.
Meanwhile, as England faced Egypt in Wednesday’s prestige friendly at Wembley, the controller of ITV Sport, Niall Sloane, said friendlies were becoming more and more obsolete in the international calendar.
“Scheduling is becoming a real problem,” said Sloane.
“Whenever there are friendlies, top clubs are swift to pull players out which makes you question their value.”
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