Super League details released
Founder has 'absolute confidence' league will start in 2000
Posted: Wednesday August 26, 1998 01:38 PM
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Beckham (right) and Manchester United are amoung the 16 teams who will be invited to join the league based on their peformance over the past decade AP |
LONDON (AP) -- The man behind plans to create a breakaway
European soccer Super League says the project is close to reality
and he's confident the competition will kick off by 2000.
Rodolfo Hecht, president of Media Partners, the Milan-based
marketing company, outlined his proposals to leading European clubs
this week in London.
"Now I definitely have the confidence and the mandate from the
clubs," he said in interviews published Wednesday in British
newspapers.
The 38-year-old Italian busnessman gave further details of the
project which would revolutionize European club soccer.
The basic proposal is for a European Football League (EFL)
comprising 32 teams in two divisions.
Under the plan, 16 "founder members" will be invited to join
the league based on their peformance over the past decade.
The 16 candidates so far are: Arsenal, Manchester United and
Liverpool from England's Premier League; Italian giants Juventus,
Inter Milan and AC Milan; Germany's Bayern Munich and Borussia
Dortmund; Spain's Barcelona and Real Madrid; Dutch club Ajax;
Marseille and Paris St. Germain of France; Benfica of Portugal;
Panathanaikos of Greece, and Galatasaray of Turkey.
The founder members would be guaranteed a place in the league on
a three-year basis, renewable subject to performance.
The other 16 sides will qualify on season by season performances
in the respective national domestic leagues.
A second competition -- a Pro Cup -- would involve another 56
teams, including at least six from England, in a knock-out style
competition similar to the UEFA Cup.
Hecht said each team in the EFL would be guaranteed nearly 20
million pounds ($32.8 million) for taking part.
Games are expected to be played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and
Thursdays, with each team involved in a minimum 15 games and a
maximum 22 games -- including playoffs.
Hecht said he waited to go public with EFL plans until the
concept was finalized. He said he now had "absolute confidence"
the league would begin in 2000.
Hecht said he was confident he would get the support of UEFA,
European soccer's governing body, but UEFA is expected to combat
the breakaway league by reforming its own competition.
UEFA's Committee for Professional Football, comprising the
chiefs of Europe's major domestic leagues, met in Geneva on Tuesday
and announced its opposition to the Super League project.
At a special meeting in Monaco on Saturday, UEFA is expected to
confirm the proposed expansion of the Champions League and a merger
of the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup to try to head off the Super
League.
Hecht rejected criticism that clubs from smaller European
countries would miss out on the spoils of international competition
if the Super League replaced the UEFA-run competitions.
"We have no desire to exclude anyone," he said. "It is the
clubs that are leading this."
Hecht, the son of film producer Gianni Hecht, who won an Oscar
in the 1970s for The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, started Media
Partners in 1992.
He was involved in the first pay-per-view soccer deal in Europe,
which was approved by the Italian League in 1996.
His business links extend to media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, a
former Italian Premier who owns AC Milan. Hecht worked for the
holding company in Berlusconi's media enterprise.
He said Berlusconi was not involved in EFL at this stage,
although he probably could be involved in the future, as most of
the revenue for the competition would be raised through television.
Hecht said he had already made contact with leading
broadcasters, including Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB.
He said broadcasters were lining up to pay "far in excess" of
what they pay for UEFA games.
"UEFA have not maximized clubs' potential," he said. "We wnat
to raise it to a different level."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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