A meeting of European soccer's governing body in Geneva rejected plans for a Super League, involving top teams such as Manchester United and Real Madrid, and said it may merge the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup.
UEFA spokesman Guido Tognoni said the meeting of top soccer officials from eight European countries agreed to study changing the format of the Champions League - Europe's top tournament - and possibly expanding it to 32 teams from 24 at present.
Tognoni told Reuters the officials rejected any attempt to form a Super League. "The essence of the meeting was that they mandated UEFA to reform the competitions," he said.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of the Committee for Professional Football in UEFA, a group set up to meet the challenge posed by what the football body refers to as a "private project".
"The unanimous result was to reject the private project," he said, adding the committee agreed to mandate UEFA to reform European competitions. "This was the essence of the meeting.
"We expect to complete the redesign of European competition by the end of the year," said Tognoni. He said UEFA's Executive Committee was expected to approve the recommendations at a meeting in Monaco on Saturday.
"The main options are the merging of the UEFA and Cup Winners' Cup and the refinement of the Champions League. The clubs want it to be our job to generate more money for them. Basically, the clubs want more money," he said.
Europe's top clubs have been holding talks with a Milan-based company which is leading efforts to set up a European Super League which would give the clubs a larger share of television rights and sponsorship revenue.
The company, Media Partners, held talks with representatives of several European clubs at a London lawyers' office on Monday to present its plans.
Tognoni said he expected top clubs to continue listening to the proposals of the "private project" but he rejected reports UEFA had not been adhering to European Union competition laws.
He said UEFA would seek to have its reforms exempted from European Union's competition regulations. "We are in discussions with the EU on this," he said.
Officials from England, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, France and Germany attended the meeting.
Committee Chairman Antonio Mattarese of Italy will present the plan to UEFA's executive committee in Monaco.
Reuters.
