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Platini: Uefa Considering Scrapping Europa League to Enlarge Champions League |
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Football - 28 Nov 2012 - Michel Platini, the president of Uefa, has admitted that European soccer’s governing body is considering scrapping the Europa League, the continent’s second-tier clubs competition, in order to expand the top-tier Champions League, as part of restructuring plans in 2015.
The Europa League, formerly known as the Uefa Cup, does not generate nearly as much revenue for its participants as the high-profile Champions League and has continued to live in the shadow of the more prestigious competition despite a rebranding in 2009.
Asked whether the Champions League could be expanded at the expense of the Europa League, Platini told French newspaper Ouest-France: “There is an ongoing debate to determine what form the European competitions will have between 2015 and 2018. We’re discussing it, we will make a decision in 2014. Nothing is decided yet.”
One of the options being considered is expanding the main body of the Champions League from 32 to 64 teams and sacrificing the Europa League.
However, it is also possible that the Europa League could be retained, with the winners offered a place in the following season's Champions League. This would placate mid-ranked countries eager to see their clubs qualify for Europe while offering an incentive to teams from higher-ranked countries to make progress in the secondary competition.
Despite efforts by Uefa to raise the profile of the Europa League, the competition has come in for criticism from clubs because fixtures are played on Thursday evenings, ahead of domestic games at the weekend, and because teams have to play up to 20 matches just to reach the final and the financial rewards are not considered sufficient.
Platini denied that Uefa was concerned about a potential breakaway competition led by Europe’s richest clubs, saying: “It’s a question that is regularly brought up. It doesn’t worry me. I can’t see how it could work outside the Uefa framework. Who will referee them? In what stadiums will they play? A lot of people want them? I don’t think so?”
Meanwhile, Helmut Sandrock, the general secretary of the DFB, the German soccer federation, has said that controversial plans to stage the 2020 European Championships in multiple countries now have strong backing across the continent.
Platini has said that Uefa is considering playing matches at Euro 2020 in 12 different European cities, breaking from the traditional model of holding the championships in one or two countries.
The proposal met with a largely negative response when it was presented by Platini during Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine but appears to have found favour since, especially as Turkey, which was regarded as the most likely host in 2020, is already bidding for the Olympic Games that year.
Speaking after a meeting with Uefa in Brussels, Sandrock told ZDF: “We were surprised when we first heard the idea. But I myself had discussions to learn more about this idea and we know that there have been two strategy discussions with national federations already and there is a lot of support for such a Euro tournament.
“We discussed this idea at the DFB as we had supported the Turkey 2020 bid but we know there is wide support from our partners in Europe [for the Platini plan].”
The European Championships are being expanded from 16 to 24 teams for Euro 2016 in France and there are doubts over the number of countries capable of hosting a tournament of that size in 2020.
Turkey’s interest is compromised by the fact that Istanbul is bidding to stage the 2020 Olympics and Uefa and the International Olympic Committee have both ruled out the two events being held in the same country in the same year.
Platini said last month that holding the 2020 European Championships in a dozen cities would be a one-off arrangement to mark the 60th anniversary of the tournament.
Sportcal |
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