G14 engage UEFA president, Michel Platini in the battle to maintain the Champions League present structure.


UEFA President Michel Platini has remained at pole ends with the elite clubs in Europe due to his proposal to remove one Champions League slot from each country's top League winners and allocate the slot to the winners of the domestic cup for those same countries. Under this new proposal, Spain, for instance, will have threee Champions League representatives from the La Liga and one from the domestic cup, instead all four representatives in the champions League coming from the La Liga. The elite G14 group, made up of Europe's top clubs, who this week announced plans to expand membership by the end of the year, possibly to as many as 40 or 50 clubs, have made it clear they will not support Michel Platini's to change the criteria for entry into the Champions League. Platini's proposal would give 16 cup winners a separate qualifying route into UEFA's premier club competition, and an allocation of four automatic places in the lucrative group stages.
G14's general manager Thomas Kurth said:

We're opposed to giving cup winners a place in the Champions League. We're very concerned about the quality of the competition and the damage this could cause.

The proposed changes were discussed by UEFA's Professional Football Strategy Council last month, but after some opposition from the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), Platini deferred the final vote by UEFA's executive by one month.

The EPFL, which represents leagues such as the English Premier League, Spain's Primera Liga and Italy's Serie A, was given until the end of October to come up with alternative proposals.
Football Association chief executive Brian Barwick, whose teams will gain immensely if the proposal is approved, agrees with Platini, saying:

Platini's proposal is a perfectly reasonable suggestion.