Lobby group launched for lower-ranked European soccer clubs
European clubs feeling left out of soccer's politics and marginalized by wealthy Champions League teams launched a new lobby group on Monday.
The Union of European Clubs met in Brussels with about 40 clubs – including six from Spain, five from England and four from Germany – and claiming to complement and not be a rival to the established European Club Association. The ECA has a strong influence with UEFA, including in decisions on how the Champions League is run and distributes money.
"We do feel we aren’t represented anywhere in European football," Crystal Palace co-owner Steve Parish said.
Access to ECA membership with full voting rights is for clubs which regularly play in UEFA competitions that currently pay about 2.8 billion euros ($3 billion) in total prize money each season to the 96 teams involved.
UEFA and the ECA agree to distribute a few hundreds of millions from overall competition revenues in so-called solidarity payments among the hundreds of clubs who do not qualify.
Some of those clubs, and the domestic leagues they play in, have long raised concerns of widening gaps in wealth and competitive balance.
The UEC aims to change a mindset in which clubs "accept scraps left behind by the elite. Just enough to keep them docile," said Katarina Pijetlovic, an official with the new group.
No club supporting the launch on Monday — including Aston Villa, Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise — has yet been asked to join, though an annual meeting of members is planned this year.
The new group has targeted getting seats on UEFA decision-making bodies, Pijetlovic said, though a clear barrier is a document binding the European soccer authority to the ECA.
The ECA’s working agreement with UEFA recognizes it as the "sole body representing the interests of club football at European level."
Still, the UEC launch in the home city of the European Union was endorsed by European Commission official Margaritis Schinas, who has been a close ally of UEFA in opposing the Super League project by 12 storied clubs that failed quickly in April 2021.
Smaller clubs are "the real pillar" of sports’ place in European society, said Schinas, who is a vice president of the European Commission.
"UEFA should ensure that the commercial success of the elite level supports all the other levels," Schinas said, opening the UEC launch event.
Sevilla, the record six-time Europa League winner, was among clubs attending the launch supported by Spain’s La Liga, whose president Javier Tebas made a keynote speech.
Tebas has a long-running public dispute with ECA chairman Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the president of Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain whose finances and spending are often criticized by the Spanish official.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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