This week's Champions League secret debates that you did not know – and how they could change European football

This week, a meeting was held that could affect how you look at football, how it unfolds, and the success of your team. And you probably did not hear about it.

It was because it was, for all intents and purposes, a secret meeting. No agenda published by the press, and no statement made afterwards.

When the European Association of Clubs met with UEFA in Switzerland on Tuesday, important reforms of the Champions League were on the agenda. This was the first official meeting on the important changes to European football that have been going on for a long time. While ECA is the only representative of UEFA recognized football clubs, it actually represents only a number of elite clubs from all over Europe.

Weekend send-off

These superclubs were, according to the the Wall Street newspaper, Gathering around a table to discuss shifts of the Champions League matches on Saturdays and Sundays rather than the evenings of the week, as well as plans for the extension and reformatting of the competition for include relegation and promotion.

These were only initial discussions, and no change was to occur before at least 2024. However, the spectacular agenda items would begin to establish supremacy of the European tournament on the national leagues and would be considered as the first steps towards a European Super League that could possibly prevent the best teams from playing completely in the national leagues.

Encouragingly, there seems to have been some decline: Spain Mundo Deportivo reports that Barcelona is against such moves, while the English clubs represented are also skeptical. These changes will not happen soon.

Three big problems

But do not think this is the end of the question – there are still three major problems to solve.

The first is that, realistically, the opposition to these changes is based on financial reasoning. Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain would be clubs that would win the most in Champions League matches and at more significant moments. They win their own championship every season and have a hard time exploiting them. Winning in Ligue 1 is less expensive than being relegated to the Premier League.

On the other hand, La Liga has television contracts that benefit quite well in Barcelona and Real Madrid (and nobody else), and the Premier League remains one of the most lucrative sports franchises in the world.

No sensible general manager is likely to lose the benefits of these current facilities – but if you think that the leaders of the big teams of the first division make these decisions based on the benefits of English football, Ready 265 000 euros per week for that Radamel Falcao is selling you.

The second problem is simple: six out of four will not leave. The Premier League has six teams pretty good (and especially rich enough) to compete in the Champions League, but only four places. If this continues, they may well decide that the current system no longer works for them.

Finally, these semi-secret meetings do not inspire trust. A spokesman for UEFA confirmed that the meeting would take place once the details were leaked, but in-camera discussions like these only suggest that those present would have a hard time convincing supporters of their clubs if the arguments were held in public. And it was only the first meeting in this way.

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