UEFA Champions League 32-team format to stay for three years
UEFA is to maintain the current format of its top-flight Champions League with 32 teams and two phases, European football's governing body said on Thursday.
UEFA is to maintain the current format of its top-flight Champions League with 32 teams and two phases, European football's governing body said on Thursday.
UEFA' executive committee shrugged off recent proposals from its own director-general Gerhard Aigner that it should be reduced in size to reduce the burden on players and maintain television interest.
UEFA president Lennart Johannson announced UEFA had decided to support the current format of the UEFA Champions League with 32 clubs and two group stages following the completion of an extensive consultation exercise.
"We have turned to clubs, leagues, internal administration and it ended up that the absolute majority who support 32 teams, two phases. This is the present situation," Johannson said.
"It's a format that will be pursued for three years, afterwards it's difficult to predict," he added.
Aigner had said in a newspaper interview three weeks ago that he favoured getting rid of the second group phase but keeping the same number of clubs, although several formats had been under consideration.
"The market is going to evolve," Aigner told journalists afterwards, adding that three years was a short period compared to ten years of Champions League history and that UEFA would have to make another decision on the subject within about two years.
"If we want to achieve a balance, we have to reconsider our total offer to television," Aigner added.
He had argued in recent newspaper interviews that television coverage of football was becoming saturated and broadcasters were cutting down on the number of matches they showed.
"We have to look at the market carefully and there is an indication that football is not as important as it used to be," Aigner maintained on Thursday.
Aigner said television stations would not necessarily abandon top-flight European competitions but are already showing less national league or cup matches.
"We have to be aware there is a selection process going on and not every match is shown nowadays."
Aigner had questioned the value of the second phase of the Champions League, which is currently being played, involving four groups of four clubs. Some top clubs and players have complained about the burden of a potential 17-match European competition run on top of their national season commitments.
But UEFA officials have left open questions about qualifiers within the current format, including the possibility that national Cup winners should qualify directly for the Champions League.
Johannson also indicated that UEFA would continue to take a tough line with world football governing body FIFA about FIFA's budget and troubles with its collapsed marketing partner ISL-ISMM, at an extraordinary FIFA executive committee meeting in Zurich scheduled on December 18.
"We expect and demand there is a full audit," Johannson said of FIFA's balance sheet, dismissing a recent FIFA independent audit as simple financial report.
"We will ask the questions and the answer will be official" Johansson, a long-standing critic of alleged lack of transparency at FIFA, added. UEFA has already put a list of 25 questions to FIFA about the ISL issue.
Several UEFA executives have seats on the world body's executive committee as well.
In other decisions on Thursday, UEFA said it had asked Switzerland to host the European Under 21 chamopionship in May 2002, and had decided to abolish levies imposed on national football associations for national team matches.
A decision on the choice of a marketing partner for the 2003 Champions League was put off until next month while UEFA continued negotiations with shortlisted agencies IMG/TWI and Team Marketing.
The executive committee also decided to recommend acceptance of Kazakhstan's transfer from the Asian region into the European governing body to the next UEFA Congress in Stockholm in April 2002.