UEFA WARN CLUBS OVER ATLANTIC LEAGUE

Thu, 27/09/2001 - 23:00

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Clubs who form a breakaway northern European League will not be able to take part in the lucrative Champions League, according to European soccer's ruling body UEFA.

The idea of a so-called Atlantic League is attracting interest from clubs in Scotland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Sweden who want to quit their domestic leagues in the hope of generating more revenue than they do under UEFA's present structure.
UEFA opposes the idea and turned up the pressure on those clubs thinking of taking part on Friday.
"If they want to break away clearly they have the right to do that," UEFA spokesman Mike Lee said.
"But they wouldn't obviously be eligible to play in our competitions.
"We don't think it's a very sensible way forward."
Currently clubs qualify for the Champions League, Europe's premier club competition, on the basis of how they perform in their domestic leagues.
The interested clubs - Ajax Amsterdam, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord from the Netherlands; Rangers and Celtic from Scotland; Benfica and Sporting from Portugal; Anderlecht and Bruges from Belgium; IK Gothenburg and AIK Stockholm from Sweden and Brondby and FC Copenhagen from Denmark - are due to meet in Amsterdam on Friday.
Peter Fossen, a director of PSV Eindhoven, stressed on Thursday that the clubs were not seeking to break away from UEFA and accused the ruling body of not wanting to "to listen to our solution".
"We're a bit confused as to why they've made these declarations because there have been these discussions going on for some time," he said.
"They know only too well that we have initiated this consultation about the future of our competitions and we've invited them to play a part in that.
"We hope they'll play a part in those discussions. That's a much better way forward than public declarations and threats."
Reuters

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