Europe’s clubs battle over Champions League reform

The European Club Association (ECA) will on Monday and Tuesday resume in a meeting in Geneva, to battle over the future of the Champions League which has attracted rebellion from members.

The ECA, led by Juventus chairman, Andrea Agnelli, has laid out proposals to reshape Europe’s main club competition from 2024, presented by European football’s governing body UEFA in May.

UEFA’s Director of Competitions, Giorgio Marchetti, said there was “no pressure to make a decision” and discussions would continue into 2020.

According to him, five or six large influential European clubs within the ECA have a large part in the reform proposal but each tries to get it endorsed by the other so as not to lose credibility.

Among these are Agnelli’s Juventus and other big clubs worried that income from the domestic leagues they dominate will stagnate.

“It’s interesting to PSG because it creates wealth for all of football,” said Victoriano Melero of Paris Saint-Germain.

Barcelona and Ajax are in favour and Real Madrid is reportedly backers as well.

Smaller clubs on the ECA executive, Lyon, HJK Helsinki and Legia Warsaw are also in favour. As well as Marseille supporters.

In Italy, Roma and the two Milan clubs abstained in an Italian league vote on the plan.

In Germany, Bayern Munich, one of the presumed authors of the scheme, and Borussia Dortmund have spoken against it.

This summer, ECA held “club forums” at which it continued to present an unchanged scheme despite repeated hostile reactions.

After a meeting of its executive board on August 16, ECA said in a statement: “Our members have made clear that the current structure of UEFA Club Competitions is not serving the interests of the majority of clubs, particularly those outside of the largest domestic competitions.”