Europe to resist Super League takeover
Europe’s top football leagues say they will resist any moves toward an elite Super League atop a threetier structure of domestic and multi-nation regional divisions.
Amid concern that a few wealthy Champions League clubs are driving change, the European Professional Football Leagues group wants talks with the next Uefa president soon after the election next Wednesday.
‘‘It is urgent,’’ EPFL chairman Lars-Christer Olsson said yesterday. ‘‘It’s only the leagues defending the European values in European football.’’
The influence of European Club Association members like Real Madrid and Juventus was seen in a new deal for Champions League entries and multibillion-dollar annual prizemoney distribution announced by Uefa last month for the 2018-21 seasons. It kept the 32-team format but the details favoured storied clubs from Spain, Germany, England and Italy.
Olsson, a former Uefa chief executive, expects clubs now to push for more changes that suit a wealthy few and threatened national leagues.
‘‘I can also see a risk they are trying to introduce this three or four-tier system in Europe as they have been talking about,’’ Olsson said.
More talks are planned – and more radical proposals are expected – within months when Uefa and ECA leaders begin to shape the Champions League for three seasons from 2021.
ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said this week clubs would stay and work ‘‘under the umbrella’’ of Uefa, when asked if a breakaway Super League backed by Chinese investors was possible.
Still, a Uefa-controlled Super League is an option with, Olsson suggested, Fifa also joining in to expand its Club World Cup currently sponsored by Chinese online retailer Alibaba.
The traditional European football structure already faces upheaval with a mid-season break for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
While Champions League matches on Saturdays would be popular with non-European broadcasters and sponsors, Uefa resisted them in recent talks despite the promise of increased revenues. Uefa also presented its deal as a success as it kept all matches in midweek – until the final on a Saturday – and ‘‘keeps the dream alive’’ for all national champions to qualify.