the UEFA announced on Monday that it had approved the reform of its Champions League for the stage that is to begin 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 Super League.
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“The (UEFA) Executive Committee has approved the format” of the future Champions, which will have a mini-championship instead of the group stage, Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchetti announced at a press conference after the meeting of the organization in Montreux (Switzerland).
With the Champions League reform, UEFA had set out to curb a competing Super League project, as has finally been raised, unleashing a predictable war on the continent’s football offices. “We are all united in the face of this pointless project,” Marchetti said.
The European Super League, presided over by the Spanish 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 highest magnitude: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan.
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UEFA president Aleksandar Ceferin has charged hard against this Superliga, reaffirming that the players of the clubs in this competing tournament will not be able to participate with their national teams in international competitions.
Ceferin stressed the virtues of the Champions League reform, which in his view “preserves the importance of domestic competitions.”
Giorgio Marchetti clarified 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 often postponed. The announcement of the European Super League a few hours earlier convulsed a day that was expected without any shocks.
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Meanwhile, UEFA has said it has postponed its final decision on the host cities of the European Football Championship (June 11-July 11) to Friday.
Among the twelve venues, 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 on the presence of spectators in their stadiums for the matches of the tournament.