Monday 29 March 2021
More teams, investors, fair play
The premier class will never be the same again
The reform of the Champions League is imminent and will bring serious changes: In addition to additional teams, it is also about opening up and influencing investors and deregulating financial fair play. The resistance grows.
The most powerful men in European football are forging their future plans on several fronts these days. While the reform for a “new” premier class is imminent, an even more serious change is apparently already planned. It is about opening up to investors, the influence of financiers and the deregulation of financial fair play.
It should be quiet now. Because on Wednesday the Executive Committee of the European Football Union (UEFA) with DFB Vice President Rainer Koch will first wave through the profound changes to the Champions League from 2024 and thus offer the top clubs a million-dollar security. The splitting off of the big clubs, which had been a topic again and again recently, should be off the table.
This is “the only way”, said BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke recently with a view to the reform, “to prevent a Super League of the top international clubs”. Bavaria’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is hoping for a future competition that is “much more spectacular and livelier than the current group stage”. And Bayern board member Oliver Kahn promises “new revenue potential”.
No more limit for investors?
More participants, more games and more money: the rough plan is in place, but resistance to parts of the project grows before a decision is made. So far it is clear that in future 36 instead of 32 teams will compete in the preliminary round in the so-called “Swiss model”. But there are some unanswered questions that are explosive. How many games should there be? How are the additional places allocated? And how much are the payments for clubs that do not participate in the competition? The European Leagues league association continues to argue with UEFA about details. According to SID information, the German Football League (DFL) has joined the positions of the European Leagues. Unlike the influential club association ECA, whose president Andrea Agnelli recently described the project as “groundbreaking”.
Parts of the fans from Germany, on the other hand, have been storming for weeks, even more games in the packed calendar are absurd for them. The “Our Curve” alliance, for example, strictly rejects “further inflation”. The new reports on the possible UEFA plans for Financial Fair Play (FFP) are likely to heat the mood even further. According to “kicker”, the limit on investor money could be lifted completely. While donors have so far been allowed to compensate a club’s deficit of a maximum of 30 million euros within three years, they could then inject unbridled money. The DFL is said to have already presented a corresponding UEFA paper to the 36 professional clubs.
However, UEFA initially kept a low profile. The association is constantly examining “in consultation with all relevant interest groups and taking into account the developing circumstances how the FFP can be improved”, it said in response to a SID request. At the moment there are “no decisions or any announcements”. For Wednesday, the topic is at least not on the agenda. In Germany in particular, the tenor has actually gone in a completely different direction so far. Rather, the DFL’s “Future Professional Football Taskforce” had set itself the goal of “consistent implementation of tightened financial fair play” – and no further dilutions.
.