author: Darren Ennissource: Reuters
date: 17 March 2009
editing: fcbtransfers.blogspot.com
editor: kamikaze kontiki
European soccer's governing body UEFA and the continent's top clubs have no plans to create a "Super League" to replace the Champions League and UEFA Cup. UEFA officials told Reuters a European Super League is a "non-starter" for their president Michel Platini, playing down media reports it was mulling plans for such a competition.
Platini was quoted by France Football as saying UEFA was prepared to discuss plans from European teams to create a continental league to replace the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport said the project also had some backing from within UEFA.
"He (Platini) is always open to dialogue and to look at ways of adapting and improving UEFA competitions in line with the times. But he has his own philosophy and beliefs about the game and one such belief is that he is dead set against a super league," a senior official close to Platini told Reuters. France Football quoted Platini as saying: "If it was up to me, I would revert to European Cups as they were at the beginning, with just knockout rounds. But we must listen carefully to any suggestion. If clubs come and talk to us, we would listen to them and then decide."
The French publication also said the ECA talked about a "Super League" during a meeting last week in Nyon, Switzerland. But a spokesman for the European Club Association said the organisation - representing 137 clubs - "is very happy with the existing European competitions. ECA regrets these unfounded rumours which can only damage the harmony in the European football family," he said after the ECA executive discussed media the reports at a meeting in Amsterdam on Tuesday. "We have never had any intention of implementing such a competition. We have never discussed it and it has never been on our agenda."
The Super League would be made up of three divisions with 20 to 22 clubs in each tier, the two newspapers said. Promotion and relegation would occur between the divisions each season. Gazzetta said the global economic crisis had prompted the often-mooted Super League idea to resurface but gave no indication over when advocates wanted the tournament to start.
"Nobody in UEFA is working on a super league. It simply has not been brought up as a matter," another UEFA official said. The official, with knowledge of a recent meeting of UEFA's strategy committee - comprising of representatives of the ECA, leagues, players and UEFA - also confirmed that the issue of a super league was not raised by the clubs at the meeting.
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external links:
ECA website notice
Now is the Time for a European Super League
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