Friday April 16, 2021
“Danger” through reform of the CL
If even the beneficiaries oppose it …
Their clubs would actually benefit from the planned reform of the Champions League, but fan clubs from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Paris St. Germain, among others, are raging against the ECA’s plans. The board of directors of Eintracht Frankfurt is also involved.
Shortly before the decision on the planned reform of the Champions League, even the supporters of the European top clubs, who are considered to be profiteers, are taking a stand against the extremely controversial innovations. In an open letter to the powerful European club association ECA and its president Andrea Agnelli, several fan groups describe the reform plans as “a serious threat to all football”.
The signatories of the letter include fan clubs from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Paris St. Germain, Manchester United and Ajax Amsterdam. The ECA is considered to be the “mastermind” of the reform, which will be decided on Monday by the Executive Committee of the European Football Union (UEFA) and which will apply from the 2024/25 season. According to fan representatives, “the reform will widen the gap between the richest clubs and the rest of the football world”. This is unacceptable: “Such a blatant grab for power would already be unacceptable under normal circumstances. At the height of a global pandemic, however, it is nothing more than the shameless exploitation of a crisis situation.”
The fans describe the plans as “fantasies” in order to “satisfy the insatiable greed of the ECA”. Therefore, the “ruthless reform plans” should be abandoned. Otherwise, the supporters threaten to withdraw: “At the end of the day, however, we are their business model. Contrary to some suspicions, there is no ‘fan of tomorrow’ who is already on the bench waiting to save their expansion plans.”
“Entry into a separate Super League”
Numerous clubs had protested against the innovations before the fan groups. The plans envisage an increase in the Champions League from 32 to 36 teams. In addition, up to four starting places are to be allocated via a ten-year ranking list of the clubs. Traditional clubs that do not qualify through the league could still slip into the premier class thanks to the successes of past days. In addition, the number of games in the so-called “Swiss model” should increase again.
One of the youngest critics is CEO Axel Hellmann from Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt. Like other club representatives before, Hellmann urged the German ex-member Rainer Koch to take the right action. “My expectation of our representative in the UEFA executive is that he will do all he can to ensure that sporting criteria alone enable qualification for European competitions,” Hellmann said in the “kicker” in the direction of the DFB vice-president: “Additions over Coefficients or wildcards lead the sporting competition based on the performance idea to absurdity and are the entry into a closed circle up to a separate Super League. ”
The fan alliance “Our curve” joined the appeal to Koch. The group was disappointed that the DFB, DFL and the German members of the ECA did not position themselves at all or not clearly enough in the run-up to the decision.
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