European Leagues members call on UEFA to allow enough time for a transparent process on UCC reform

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The Future of UEFA Club Competitions

The European Leagues gathered today for their annual General Assembly. On the occasion the Leagues unanimously endorsed their official proposal for the Revenue Distribution model for the 2021-24 UEFA Club Competitions cycle (with the specific proposal to UEFA to double solidarity payments to non-participating clubs from 4% to 8%, among other distribution proposals) and the Leagues’ starting points and principles for the development of UEFA Club Competitions post 2024. The European Leagues are expecting from UEFA a genuine, open and structured process which shall kick-off next week with the first round of meetings among the European Stakeholders. The process of negotiations and discussions on the future of European Club football must be run in  transparent way so to allow all Leagues and National Associations across Europe to debate, together with their domestic clubs, the four (4) interlinked dimensions of UEFA Club Competitions: Format; Calendar; Access and Revenue Distribution for the three (3) Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League. In addition, as the evolvement of UEFA Club Competitions is an important matter that impacts all domestic competitions, appropriate time must be given to allow for a proper decision-making process.

The Financial Landscape of European Football

During the Assembly, the European Leagues adopted unanimously the Report “The Financial Landscape of European Football”. The report clearly indicates that the future outlook of European football will depend on tackling the following challenges collectively:

  • Protecting competitive balance: Match unpredictability and competitiveness throughout the competition are fundamental to ensuring long-term success of club competitions and the interest of fans. The trend points to greater dominance by a fewer number of clubs in many competitions.
  • Growing revenue gap between top clubs and others: The financial polarisation between clubs competing domestically and internationally is increasing and accelerating.
  • Distortive impact of UEFA Club Competitions (UCC) payments: Club distributions from UCC are having a greater distortive effect in domestic leagues due to the increased size and concentration of these payments to a small number of top clubs in each league.
  • Wage growth: The escalation of wages to levels that in some cases exceed club revenues creates an unsustainable long-term business model which poses systemic risks.
  • Transfers: The importance of the transfer system as a financial redistribution model throughout the ecosystem.
  • Calendar: Properly balancing the calendar between domestic and international competitions, understanding the great contribution and importance of domestic club competitions.

The following European Leagues documents are available for download:

 

  • Report “The Financial Landscape of European Football”: click here
  • European Leagues for UEFA Club Competitions (UCC): click here
  • Leagues’ Proposal for the Revenue Distribution model of 2021-24 UCC cycle
  • Leagues’ Starting Points & Principles for the development of UCC post 2024

 

For more information, please visit our Support Your League platform: https://supportyourleague.com/

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