UEFA ARE SET to implement significant changes to the Champions League in order to satisfy the demands of some of Europe’s biggest and most wealthiest clubs.
One of the most notable alterations would be the top four teams from each of Europe’s top four leagues gaining automatic entry into the group stage of the competition from the 2018-19 season.
As it stands the leagues in Spain, Germany, England and Italy are ranked the highest, and would benefit the most from the changes.
Uefa presidential hopeful Aleksander Ceferin said this week that a European super league breakaway is “out of the question” and that it would lead to a “war” between teams and the continent’s governing body.
But their hand has been forced to some degree, as rumors of a breakaway European super league resurfaced, and in order to halt any further talk of that happening, the governing body’s executive committee is expected to accept their demands of reform when they meet this month.
Currently, the top three clubs from Spain, Germany and England qualify for the group stages automatically, with the fourth place team in those leagues entering a play-off.
This season, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Manchester City easily progressed through their ties, but Villarreal lost out to Monaco 3-1 on aggregate on Tuesday.
Serie A only has two automatic entrants this season and they stand to gain the most with an extra two automatic spots.
This year it would have meant that Roma, who lost to Porto would be in the draw, as well as Inter Milan who finished fourth in Serie A last season.
Dundalk’s run to this season’s play-off round, where they eventually lost to Legia, was aided by the fact that they could only meet teams who were champions in their respective leagues.
In the process, they avoided sides with more financial muscle from some of Europe’s biggest leagues like Pep Guardiola’s team.
In June, Real Madrid earned €94 million for lifting their 11th European Cup, but they along with several others, believe that more money can be generated from sponsorship and television rights if the biggest teams are guaranteed to be in that competition.
As it stands over a billion euro is shared between the teams that compete.
To put the figure earned by Los Blancos last season into context, the bottom team in this season’s Premier League stands to earn approximately €120 million, driven in the main by the league’s new bumper billion-euro domestic TV deal with Sky and BT.
In order to compete with their Premier League rivals, the Spanish authorities have also implemented changes to their way their domestic league operates.
This year will be the start of the revenue generated through TV deals being more equally shared throughout the league.
They have also introduced rules where clubs can be fined if the stands that are visible on television are not full, in order to enhance their ‘brand’.
But they also feel the Champions League needs to be more lucrative in order for Europe’s biggest clubs to remain financially competitive with Premier League teams.
As well as the possibility of weekend matches in the Champions League, much in the way the final of the competition moved from Wednesday to Saturday night in 2010 in order to maximise the TV audience, the entry of wildcard sides with historical pedigree has also been mooted.
However, if you felt the excitement on Tuesday night as Dundalk came tantilising close to become the first League of Ireland side to reach the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition, you should know that the continent’s richest clubs are determined to make sure that is as close as they get.
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