By Ewah Chika.
UEFA Champions League and Europa League Football seems to be growing every year judging from both sporting and financial aspect with an expected increase in revenue from £2 billion this season to £2.5 billion next season. This might have necessitated the now infamous reforms by UEFA after guaranteeing Champions League Group stage places to the top four leagues which are expected to be Spain, England, Germany and Italy starting from 2018.
Although this looks like fair and decisive decision, considering these leagues account for more than 80% of the revenue UEFA makes from the Champions League due to their large TV markets with Spain and England the main contributors. UEFA did not just stop there as those clubs with historic success in European Competitions will also be rewarded financially due to it's new point formula which gives them an undue advantage over smaller clubs from lesser leagues.
Though this new reform can be said to be fair as clubs from small leagues have continued to falter in the Champions League year in year out with the exception of Sharkar Donesk,
Benfica and FC Porto the only teams from less big leagues to have made the quarter final of the Champions League in the last five years. To vindicate the decision of UEFA, this season the likes of Celtic and Legia Warsaw to mention but a few have suffered embarrassing six goal losses in the opening day of the Champions League this season to the likes of Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund. In recent times, football has proven to be a lucrative business judging from the enormous amounts clubs generate yearly from commercial and sporting activities which has made it imperative that the G-14 group of elite clubs (European Club Association) which comprises of the likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid are not only compensated adequately but also encouraged to continue to play in UEFA European completions rather than break-out to form a Super-League which is expected to generate more TV viewership than the Champions League given the quality of teams involved.
Also to be considered is the fact that the new reform is a deviation from the principle of equity and fairness In football which UEFA have vowed to protect. This is because the new reform was made without the support and consensus from domestic leagues as it was clear it won't have seen the light of the day if due process and consensus was observed.
The new reform is widely expected to deepen the sporting, financial and commercial gap between the biggest clubs in Europe (Italy and Germany) whose top four teams are now guaranteed automatic slots in the group stage of Champions League whereas the likes of Legia Warsaw (Poland) and Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) will have to play in the qualifying rounds even after wining their respective leagues. UEFA should try and make the competition more competitive as this will grow the competition, making it less predicable and more interesting instead of focussing on making the big clubs bigger, thereby turning it into a boring and monotonous competition which the likes of Germany (Bayern Munich), Scotland (Celtic) and PSG (France ) have suffered recently .
It is shocking how the likes of Liverpool, Inter Milan, AC Milan and Valencia who are fallen giants in the competition having failed to qualify for years now will earn more money once they qualify just because they have rich history . To buttress further, UEFA seems to have forgotten that apart from Spain, the other top clubs do not deserve an increase in their present slots. In England , only Manchester City and Chelsea have made the semi-final since the 2010-2011 season. Germany is not an exception with only Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 making the semi's since Bayer Leverkusen made the final in the 2001-2002 season if one excludes Borussia Dortmund's 2012/2013 final appearance. Italy is the worst as only Juventus have made the quarter-final since Inter Milan's 2011-2012 quarter-final elimination by Schalke 04.
UEFA have clearly breached the Memorandum of Understanding between them and the Association of European Leagues which comprises of 32 leagues. This might see domestic leagues schedule their rearranged league fixtures and cup replays which will be played at the same time that Champions League and Europa League games are played (ripping up the agreement they had with UEFA).
Finally for now , new UEFA boss, Aleksander Ceferin must critically look into the pro's and con's of this new reform to see clearly if it anti-football as it is widely believed he was elected as Michel Platini's replacement due to his consensus-building and huge concern for smaller nations attributes having come from Slovenia unlike Dutch Von Praag who is seen as an allay of the biggest clubs.
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