Anger over UEFA reforms with Champions League and Europa League
Thursday 8 September 2016 12:37, UK
Representatives of European football's professional leagues have angrily rejected UEFA's reforms of the Champions League and Europa League announced last month.
European Professional Football Leagues' board of directors has accused UEFA of breaching the terms of the deal that governs European club competitions.
This follows UEFA's move to give four guaranteed Champions League group-stage places to the top four leagues - the Bundesliga, La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A - and redistribute the prize money to better reward historic success in European football.
Under the present system, the top three leagues - Spain, Germany and England at present - have three places each, while their fourth-placed teams must contest a play-off over two legs for a place in the group stage.
The fourth ranked league, currently Italy, has only two guaranteed places plus one in the play-off round.
The EPFL, which is meeting at Ajax's De Toekomst headquarters in Amsterdam, says these reforms were made "without the support and consensus" from the domestic leagues.
"This decision will have a detrimental impact on domestic competitions and will lead to an exponential growth in the financial and sporting gap between the biggest clubs in Europe and all the others," a statement from the EPFL board of directors said.
"As a result of the decision taken by UEFA, the EPFL believes that UEFA has breached the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations.
"In the event that the EPFL were to terminate the MoU as a result of such breach, this would give all European leagues total freedom to schedule their matches as they see fit, including on the same days and at the same kick-off times as UEFA club competitions."
