Europe’s professional leagues declared war on Uefa over its revamp of the Champions League on Thursday after condemning its decision
to hand four permanent places each to England, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) – members of which include the Premier League – threatened to tear up their Memorandum of Understanding with the governing body which prevents domestic matches being scheduled on European nights.
The EPFL accused Uefa of driving through the change to its elite club competition without consulting Europe’s leagues and called on whoever is elected its new president next week to overturn the decision.
Uefa announced last month that the four largest football nations would be guaranteed half of the 32 spots in the Champions League from 2018 following negotiations with the European Club Association.
That means more clubs from smaller leagues losing places in the lucrative competition, something the EPFL declared would “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”.
It said in a statement following a meeting of its board of directors in Amsterdam: “The European Leagues believe the way this process has been conducted by Uefa to be unacceptable for an organisation that claims to be the governing body of football in Europe.
“A major change in European football has been announced without the support and consensus of the organisers of domestic league football in Europe. 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.
“As a result of the decision taken by Uefa, the EPFL believes that Uefa has breached the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations. 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.
“Finally, the EPFL calls on the new Uefa president, to be elected next week, to reconsider the reform relating to Uefa club competitions. The European leagues stand ready to meet the new Uefa president to discuss these matters.”
Thursday’s meeting was attended by representatives of the Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Scottish Professional Football Leagues, French Professional Football League , Liga Portugal, Dutch Eredivisie, Russian Premier League, Swiss Football League, Swedish Professional Football League, Danish Professional Football League and Italian Lega Serie B.
Italy’s Serie A – clubs from which gained most from the revamp having had just three Champions League spots (only two of them guaranteed) – was not represented at the meeting.
The EPFL MoU with Uefa was drawn up to ensure the highest possible television viewing figures for its European club competitions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...nding-four-permanent-champions-league-places/