Chelsea’s managing director Colin Hutchinson revealed in Monaco, where he was representing the club at the draw for the UEFA Cup, that the club had approached G14 in February about joining the group, but had yet to receive a reply.
“We spoke to G14 earlier in the year about the possibility of linking up with them, but we’ve not heard anything back from them. So we have had talks with Sergio Cragnotti (the Lazio president), among others, about setting up an alternative.”
The G14 – a lobby group set up by the biggest European soccer clubs to examine ways to fully exploit their commercial clout - first discussed the expansion issue at its meeting in Milan in May, but deferred a decision until its meeting in Monaco last week. However, objectors to expansion, led by Barcelona president Joan Gaspart, blocked the admission of more clubs for the time being. Glasgow Rangers, AS Roma, Parma, Hertha Berlin, Celtic and Sporting Lisbon are also thought to have expressed an interest in joining G14, though it is not clear which, if any, have been talks with Chelsea in setting up a rival grouping.
G14 spokesman Thomas Kurth told sportbusiness.com that clubs that were not members of G14 would still benefit from its lobbying activities. The expansion issue will be further discussed at the group’s meeting in Paris in November, when a proposal to change G14 statutes so that only 75 percent of the membership would need to vote in favour of admitting new clubs would be put to the membership. However, any change to the statutes would still require the backing of all 14 member clubs.
English soccer club Chelsea is in talks with Italian club Lazio about setting up a rival to the G14 group of top European clubs.
