By Andrew Warshaw
December 11 – The umbrella body representing all of Europe’s major leagues has re-iterated its concern over the Continent’s financial haves and have-nots and has urged UEFA to hand more of its Champions League cash to those not participating in its elite competition.
The European Leagues says there must be a fairer distribution scheme in the 2021-24 cycle in order to prevent domestic leagues becoming “distorted” and that a meeting will take place with UEFA next week to kick off talks to this effect.
“We think there should be more money going to solidarity,” European Leagues president Lars-Christer Olsson (pictured) told reporters following the body’s virtually-held general assembly, “primarily with those clubs, associations and leagues who do not have participants in the Champions League.”
“There is a distortion in the domestic competitions which are generated by the (current) distribution of money from international competitions. We think the figure should rise from four percent to eight percent to non-participating clubs.”
“We also think it’s important that the Europa League and the (newly established) Conference League do not miss out too much because of the Champions League.”
Olsson rejected unconfirmed reports that post-2024 teams might be allowed by UEFA to enter the Champions League based on history rather than merit in order to stave off the threat of a breakaway league.
“There have been all kinds of rumours,” said Olsson. “But what I can say is that we have agreed with our members that all clubs playing in the international club competitions should be qualified on merit from their domestic leagues.”
“We don’t see any need for any additional entries. Our view is that the participants should reflect results in their domestic leagues.”
During their assembly, the various leagues adopted a report entitled ‘The Financial Landscape of European Football’ which laid out a number of key areas to protect the future of the game, as follows:
- Protecting competitive balance: Match unpredictability and competitiveness throughout the competition are fundamental to ensuring long-term success of club competitions and the interest of fans. The trend points to greater dominance by a fewer number of clubs in many competitions.
- Growing revenue gap between top clubs and others: The financial polarisation between clubs competing domestically and internationally is increasing and accelerating.
- Distortive impact of UEFA Club Competitions (UCC) payments: Club distributions from UCC are having a greater distortive effect in domestic leagues due to the increased size and concentration of these payments to a small number of top clubs in each league.
- Wage growth: The escalation of wages to levels that in some cases exceed club revenues creates an unsustainable long-term business model which poses systemic risks.
- Transfers: The importance of the transfer system as a financial redistribution model throughout the ecosystem.
- Calendar: Properly balancing the calendar between domestic and international competitions, understanding the great contribution and importance of domestic club competitions.
“We must protect competitive balance in the domestic competitions,” said Olsson, “and recognise the financial gap between the top clubs and others.”
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