Juventus’ Agnelli succeeds Rummenigge as ECA head

GENEVA: Juventus president Andrea Agnelli was elected head of the European Club Association in place of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Rummenigge, who is also chairman of Bayern Munich, had headed the 162-strong ECA since it was created nearly a decade ago but decided to not stand for re-election.

“I believe Andrea (Agnelli) is the right person to succeed me in this position,” Rummenigge said of the Italian on Tuesday.

Agnelli and Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis were also elected to represent the ECA on the executive committee of European football’s governing body UEFA.

“It has been a very fruitful couple of days,” said Agnelli of the ECA’s general assembly in Geneva.

“We’ve discussed club competition and the current formats of the Champions League and Europa League.

“For the Champions League, the majority (of clubs) are in favour of the new format. The Europa League might need some revisions, we’ll work with clubs to further analyse that.”

Turning to the Club World Cup, Agnelli was more outspoken, saying the “current format is useless”.

The ECA vote came a day after UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin had warned that “nobody is above the law” when it comes to adhering to the body’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.

The Slovenian, addressing the ECA, added: “UEFA are at your side to ensure that the participants in our competitions are all treated equally.”

Agnelli said that “from a first wave of FFP, most of the results have been achieved, including a reduction of losses”.

“We are currently discussing (future plans) with Ceferin. What I want is a Financial Fair Play rule 2.0.”

Asked about the UEFA probe into Paris St Germain over their huge off-season transfers, Agnelli said: “With the current set of Financial Fair Play rules, UEFA have opened an investigation into PSG. It’s up to them to sanction.”