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Uefa ratifies Champions League revamp as Čeferin berates ‘disgraceful’ ESL plan
Uefa’s executive committee has today (Monday) approved the new format for the Uefa Champions League from 2024-25 onwards as it presses ahead with its plans in the face of the European Super League…
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Uefa ratifies Champions League revamp as Čeferin berates ‘disgraceful’ ESL plan
Martin RossUefa’s executive committee has today (Monday) approved the new format for the Uefa Champions League from 2024-25 onwards as it presses ahead with its plans in the face of the European Super League breakaway threat.
The announcement of the new format, which increases the number of group-stage teams from 32 to 36, came as Uefa president Aleksander Čeferin continued to berate those behind the Super League project, describing it as “a spit in the face of all football lovers”.
Uefa said this afternoon that the approval of the ‘Swiss model’ format has come “after two years of widespread consultations” and confirms the “joint commitment to the principle of open competition and sporting merit across the continent” as well as helping to sustain domestic leagues.
The change will see the creation of a single league instead of individual groups. Each club will play 10 group games, rather than six, with eight sides qualifying automatically for the knockout stage and the teams finishing in ninth to 24th position competing over two-legged playoffs to secure their spot in the last 16.
A similar format will be adopted for the second-tier Europa League (with eight matches in the league stage) and the new Europa Conference League (with six matches). Both competitions may also be expanded to 36 teams in the league phase in due course.
In announcing the approval of the new format, Uefa underlined that it will “initiate steps to ensure that greater financial solidarity will be delivered to a wider spectrum of clubs who do not participate in Uefa club competitions”.
However, the reform comes with Uefa facing its greatest-ever threat to the future of its elite clubs competition in the shape of the European Super League project unveiled by 12 leading clubs last night.
England’s Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have joined Italy’s AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus, plus Spain’s Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid as the founding members of the competition.
Three more clubs are to join ahead of the inaugural season, “which is intended to commence as soon as practicable”, with clubs intending to continue playing in their domestic league and cup competitions.
A furious Čeferin doubled down on his criticism of the plans during a virtual press conference this afternoon, with particular rancour reserved for Juventus’ Andrea Agnelli, who has resigned as president of the European Club Association to become vice-chairman of the ESL, and Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.
The Slovenian said: “I cannot stress more strongly at the moment that Uefa and the football world stand together alongside this disgraceful, self-serving project from a select few clubs in Europe fuelled by greed above all else.
“This idea is a spit in the face of all football lovers and our society as well. We must not let them take [football] away from us. I have seen many things in my life, I was a criminal lawyer for 24 years. I’ve seen many people. I’ve never seen anyone like that.
“If I start with Ed Woodward, but he called me last Thursday, saying that he’s very satisfied with reforms and he fully supports them. Obviously he already signed something else.
“[Agnelli is] probably the biggest disappointment of all. I don’t want to be too personal, but I have never seen a person who lied so many times as persistently as he did. I spoke to him on Saturday and he said these were only rumours, nothing going on. Then he turned off the phone. Greediness is so strong that all the human values evaporate. It’s always good to know in life, who is who.”
Čeferin underlined Uefa (and Fifa’s) stance that players who take part in the Super League would be banned from playing in the European Championships or World Cup. The 12 clubs have written to Fifa and Uefa to inform them that legal steps are already being taken in a bid to counteract action intended to prevent the launch of the breakaway competition, according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press.
Čeferin continued: “We didn’t know we had snakes working close to us, but now we know.
“[The] Super League is only about money, money of the dozen, I don’t want to call them [the] dirty dozen, but Uefa is about developing football, and about financing what should be financed, that our football, our culture survives, and some people don’t understand it.”
JPMorgan backing
The league is backed by $6bn (€5bn) in financing from bank JPMorgan. Reports of this financing and the piecing together of the ESL project emerged last October.The founding clubs are to receive €3.5bn ($4.2bn) “solely to support their infrastructure investment plans and to offset the impact of the Covid pandemic”, a statement from the ‘European Super League Company S.L.’ said. It promised that the competition would be built on a “sustainable financial foundation” and would require founding clubs to sign up to a “spending framework”.
JPMorgan has provided a debt financing deal amortised over 23 years and secured against future broadcast rights to the competition, people with knowledge of the terms told The Financial Times today.
Competing clubs are in line for a “welcome bonus” of between €200m and €300m each, it is reported. One person close to the Super League project told the Financial Times that the payment should instead be regarded as an advance on future revenues which would need to be repaid if any club chose to leave the competition.
The 15 member clubs are expected to jointly own the newly-incorporated company in Spain (European Super League Company S.L.), which is to share all future broadcast and sponsorship rights derived from the tournament.
Anas Laghrari, a banker at Key Capital, the Spanish financial advisory firm, has been named general secretary of the Super League. He is thought to have close ties to Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, who is to be the first chairman of the league.
Addressing the potential for the new league to skew financial power in European football even more heavily towards the continent’s biggest clubs, the league has claimed that it plans large ‘solidarity payments’.
“The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via a long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments which will grow in line with league revenues. These solidarity payments will be substantially higher than those generated by the current European competition and are expected to be in excess of €10bn during the course of the initial commitment period of the clubs,” the statement added.
According to the plans, the €10bn would be paid out over 23 years.
The breakaway threat is not new, albeit plans are now at a more advanced stage than ever before. Leading clubs, disillusioned at their financial share of revenues from the Champions League and the ‘damage’ to the brand caused by the inclusion of sides from smaller countries at the expense of other heavyweights, have issued similar threats previously before new agreements were ultimately thrashed out.
The pandemic and the resultant hit to European football finances have spurred the reform discussions. Some clubs and prominent figures within European football, including Real Madrid’s Pérez, have been agitating for a European Super League for many years.
The planned ESL would involve 20 clubs each season, with five qualifiers per season joining the 15 permanent members. Matches would be played midweek so that all clubs could continue to play in their domestic leagues.
