European Leagues, the association of European Professional Football Leagues, held its Club Advisory Platform in Madrid today. More than 200 clubs from across 38 European countries gathered for a historical meeting with one clear goal: to protect domestic football competitions and the long-term sporting and financial sustainability of all professional clubs in Europe.
At the end of the meeting, the President of the European Leagues Lars-Christer Olsson summarized the outcome of the Club Advisory Platform with the following statements:
- European Leagues must be involved in the decision making process regarding any proposals to alter the football calendar
- European Leagues and the vast majority of professional clubs in Europe are not against change as such, but have significant concerns about proposals that would alter the structures and/or competitiveness of their respective national leagues and competitions
- European Leagues and the vast majority of clubs in Europe, with the exception of a few rich and powerful clubs, firmly believe that sporting merit in their domestic leagues and cups must remain the qualification route for UEFA competitions
- European Leagues welcome the UEFA initiative to call for a meeting between the European Leagues’ Board and the UEFA Executive Committee tomorrow. The leagues hope for a constructive meeting to discuss the points and concerns raised by clubs and leagues over the past two days. The leagues also hope tomorrow’s meeting will lead to an opportunity for European Leagues and UEFA to work together to ensure that any proposals to develop European club competitions are not to the detriment of domestic leagues
The meeting was also attended by the two European fans organizations: SD Europe and Football Supporters Europe, which expressed their concerns about the impact of the potential reform on football fans and are sharing many of the concerns expressed by most of the participants.
Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga and host of the meeting in Madrid, added: “We are at an incredibly important moment where the future of European football is being decided. It is imperative that leagues, clubs, small and large engage and do not let anyone take decisions for them. I’m very pleased with the attendance and engagement at today’s meeting and hopefully we will have a constructive discussion to, together, shape the future of our sport and business.”
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