UEFA unveils Super League plans
Posted: Friday October 02, 1998 05:56 PM
GENEVA (Reuters) -- UEFA's response to a threatened
breakaway European Super League took shape on Friday when it
unveiled plans for a revamped European Champions' League with
total prize money of between 600-800 million Swiss francs
($446-$595 million).
The European Club Football 2000 Task Force, charged with the
responsibility of formulating a new order for European
competition, said the winning club could expect to earn between
60-80 million Swiss francs depending on which of two proposals
UEFA decides on at its Executive Committee meeting in Lisbon
next week.
One concept involves a 24-team Champions League and the
other is for 32 teams.
The Task Force also revealed a plan to merge the European
Cup Winners' Cup and the UEFA Cup into one competition.
The proposed changes are in response to a proposed breakaway
competition organised by the Milan-based media sales company
Media Partners who are pushing for a 36-team pan-European League
with prize money of $1.2 billion.
They are also proposing a new knockout competition called
the ProCup comprising 96 clubs.
UEFA conceded that the 600-800 million Swiss franc figure it
was using to keep teams from deserting to the new league was
considerably less than the astronomical sums being bandied about
by Media Partners in an effort to lure them away.
Instead, UEFA secretary general Gerhard Aigner said Europe's
soccer governing body will base its pitch on "realistic figures
and conditions."
"On conditions that are facts today, we are not
speculating," said Aigner. "Tomorrow if the market gives us a
lot more money we will take it but we will not speculate on what
we might earn tomorrow and promise that today.
"UEFA is a risk free undertaking that may differ from other
projects and concepts that are elsewhere.
"Our projection of between 600 and 800 million Swiss francs
is a figure we can comfortably move between depending on which
concept we put in place.
"It could be more but for the moment we are being
cautious."
UEFA said it is already investigating new ways to increase
revenue to pay for the new league, including Pay For View and
splitting Champions' League games on two days instead of just
the traditional Wednesday.
"If we want to make more money we have to change the
concept," said Aigner. "The present concept has already
reached saturation as far as the possibilities of television
revenues are concerned.
"It's clear if we want to increase the income we have to
diversify."
Of the two concepts being considered for the remodeled
Champions' League, the one involving 24 teams is being given
greater consideration because its 15 match days will fit into an
already crowded soccer calendar.
The 32 team model would require two more match days which
UEFA says are not readily available.
"Dates are still a big question," said Aigner. "We know
we cannot exceed 16 and are most comfortable with 15.
"But we have a chance to fine-tune and reshape some things
but we must stay within these limits because there is no
space."
Both models would have three qualifying phases instead of
the current two.
The 24-team concept would be played in four groups of six
followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and a one match final.
The champions from the top eight ranked countries, along
with the runnersup of the top three plus the title holders
would qualify automatically for the group phase.
Third place finishers in the top three leagues would enter
the competition in the third qualifying phase along with the
runnersup from the next five top ranked nations.
The 32 team model would see teams divided into four groups
of eight.
The winners and runners-up in each group would advance to
the second group phase of four groups of four.
The winners and runners-up would go through to the
quarterfinals followed by semifinals and one match final.
The model for a combined Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup
competition is not as developed as the plans for the Champions'
League but it was clear after Friday's meeting that a merger of
the two competitions was inevitable.
UEFA's proposal for a new merged cup involves 114 teams
playing in preliminary qualifying rounds which would be followed
by a knockout competition.
Eventually 32 teams would play in a mini-league series of
eight groups of four before reverting to a knockout competition
from the quarterfinals onwards.
"It was almost inevitable with the increase of the number
of quality teams in the Champions' League that they are missing
in the other competitions," explained Aigner. "The competition
that suffers most is the Cup Winners'Cup and it made sense to
bring the Cup Winners' Cup into the UEFA Cup."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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