Fears over Champions League plan to expand
A NEW-LOOK Champions League will tear apart the fabric of the English domestic game and is part of a ‘never-ending creep’ towards a European super league, according to Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish.
UEFA has proposed an increase of 100 matches in the competition and four extra matchdays from 2024, which Parish and EFL chairman Rick Parry fear would kill off the League Cup.
Parish spoke out at a clubs advisory platform meeting of the European Leagues group on Wednesday.
“We seem to be expected to accept these proposals because they are not as bad as they could have been and, whilst I congratulate particularly this body in working to remove many of the excesses, I can’t quite buy into that thinking that we should be ever so grateful that it’s only an extra 100 games,” he said.
“This would have a quite devastating effect on domestic competition in England. This proposal will probably see the end of the League Cup in its entirety or reduced to some kind of youth competition.”
UEFA controversially proposes to grant two of the extra four places in the new-look Champions League group phase to clubs based on historical co-efficient. This would effectively provide a safety net to big clubs in the event of a poor domestic season, as long as they have done enough to qualify for either the Europa League or the Europa Conference League.
Parish added: “The creep is never-ending. We are seeing with the co-efficient and the calendar principles that are being attempted to be ingrained so that next time things can be changed even more and domestic competition in the end takes a secondary seat to a European super league.”