UEFA announced on Monday that it has approved the reform of the Champions League for the stage that should start in 2024, with the transition from 32 to 36 participating clubs, a few hours after the announcement of twelve major clubs about the creation of a future private competition, the European Superliga.
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The “Executive Committee (UEFA) has approved the format” of the next Champions League, which will have a mini-championship instead of the group stage, Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchetti announced in a press conference after the meeting of the organization in Montreux (Switzerland).
With the reform of the Champions League, UEFA had proposed to stop a competing Super League project, as it was finally proposed, triggering a predictable war in the continent’s football offices. “We are all united in the face of this useless project,” Marchetti said.
The European Super League, chaired by Spaniard Florentino Pérez (Real Madrid), involves the participation of 15 “founding clubs” each season in a guaranteed way in a tournament with 20 participants. Twelve of these founding clubs are already known and are of the greatest magnitude: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.
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UEFA President Aleksandar Ceferin has made a serious attack on the Superliga, reaffirming that the players of the clubs in that tournament will not be able to participate with their national teams in international competitions.
Ceferin emphasized the virtues of the Champions League reform, which, in his opinion, “preserves the importance of internal competitions”.
Giorgio Marchetti specified the details of the reform, confirming that there will be an additional ticket for the fifth nation with the best sports results, which would be France, which until 2024 is limited to three participants.
This reform has long been debated and postponed many times. The announcement of the European Super League a few hours before convulsed a day that was initially expected without shocks.
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UEFA also said it has postponed its final decision on the host cities of the European Football Championship until Friday (11 June-11 July).
Among the twelve places, Bilbao, Munich and Dublin are the three cities that could see the organization of the tournament withdrawn if they cannot give the guarantees that UEFA requires regarding the presence of spectators on their stadiums for the matches of the tournament.