The management committee were unanimously in favour of expansion, but the issue was taken off the agenda once it became clear that any proposal to expand would fail to get the required unanimous backing of all the clubs represented.
The management committee, comprising of Florentino Peres, president of Real Madrid, Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon, AC Milan president Adriano Galliani, Bayern Munich vice president Karl Heinz Rummenigge, and Ajax Amsterdam president Michael van Praag, were strongly in favour of expansion and wanted to discuss a criteria that would allow new clubs to be admitted.
However, it soon became apparent that Olympique Marseille president Robert Louis Dreyfuss and Barcelona president Joan Gaspart were strongly against expansion so the issue was referred back to the management committee for further review and will be back on the agenda when G14 meets again in Monaco in August.
The split is a setback for the lobby group, which is attempting to gain a legitimate voice in world soccer politics and cast doubts on its ability to agree on issues fundamental to the European game.
The meeting was the first to be opened up to the media and was described as a part of ?a process of consolidation?.
The group cited the collapse of the World Club Championships as evidence of the clubs? need for representation in the organisation of competitions.
G14 re-affirmed its criticism of UEFA?s handling of the central marketing of the Champions League and said that when existing agreements expired in 2003, the process should be opened up to competitive tender.
A meeting of the G14 group of top European soccer clubs has failed to agree criteria for the admission of new clubs, reports sportbusiness.com soccer writer Simon Banks from Milan.
