Top European clubs reported in super league talks
Nagel
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/sports/soccer/story.html?s=n/intl_sport
s/980719/soccer/stories/superleague_1.html
Kasper Nielsen
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Top European soccer clubs are meeting in secret in
London this weekend to finalise plans for a
new breakaway continental super league, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.
The newspaper said none of the clubs involved would confirm the talks were
taking place.
But it claimed to have established that representatives of Manchester United and
other leading clubs were meeting to establish
an ``elite, 16-strong midweek league which initially at least will have no
promotion or relegation.''
It said the new competition, which would inevitably kill off the UEFA Champions'
League if it went ahead, could start as
early as the 2000-2001 season and would generate tens of millions of pounds in
revenue. United were said to be the only
British club currently involved. Other sides mentioned were Barcelona and Real
Madrid of Spain, Inter Milan and Juventus
of Italy, Germany's Bayern Munich and Ajax Amsterdam of the Netherlands.
The idea of a lucrative super league has long been touted around Europe with
major clubs, dissatisfied with the Champions'
League format, known to be in favour while European soccer body UEFA is firmly
against it.
UEFA General Secretary Gerhard Aigner said in March that the soccer body would
do everything in its power to stop the
emergence of such a breakaway super league.
This month, UEFA agreed changes to the Champions' League format from 1999-2000
to introduce four groups of six teams
instead of six groups of four teams. That was aimed at giving each of the 24
teams more group games, significantly boosting
the income they can expect from television rights and prize money.
Only the champions from Europe's major soccer powers qualify directly for the
Champions' League, meaning that second
placed clubs in big leagues -- such as Manchester United this season -- have to
go through the qualifying stages.
In United's case, this means a trip to either Poland or Azerbaijan next month. A
Super League would remove such
inconvenience and unpredictability for the big clubs.
A MORI opinion poll in March showed that nearly 70 percent of soccer
organisations questioned, including the major clubs
such as AC Milan or Liverpool, thought that a European league was ``certain or
likely to happen'' by 2002.
AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi said then that ``there will be a super
professional football league like American
football, which will attract millions of viewers.''
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