Third Euro competition could close financial gap

for a decision is a meeting in Dublin on 3 December.

Agnelli sits on the Uefa executive committee and is also the chairman of Italian club Juventus.

Details of how clubs would qualify for a new competition have not been decided, the ECA and Uefa said. Uefa and European clubs have previously agreed not to change the Champions League until 2024, but wanted to modify the Europa League in 2021 when a new round of broadcast and sponsor deals begin.

The plan for three competitions would create 16 new places and take 16 teams from the current 48-team Europa League group stage.

Change is being driven in part because of clubs from an elite group of wealthy leagues dominating Uefa club competitions. Even the second-tier Europa League has been won only by Spanish or English clubs for the past seven seasons.

ECA vice chairman Dariusz Mioduski said a third competition could help close a growing “financial gap and participation gap”.

“Increased participation by smaller and medium associations has been achieved,” said Mioduski, a director at Polish club Legia Warsaw.

Europe had three club competitions from the 1960s until 1999, when the European Cup-winners’ Cup was abandoned. It was incorporated into the Uefa Cup, which was rebranded as the Europa League in 2009. The Europa League is mostly played on Thursdays, while the Champions League takes Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is unclear which days a third competition would be played on.