UEFA's influential strategy council has come out against Michel
Platini's plans to hand Champions League places to domestic cup
winners, according to sources involved in the negotiations.
The sources, who did not wish to be identified, told Reuters
that the council had agreed on Monday not to recommend the cup
winners proposal to UEFA's executive committee.
The council did, however, agree in principle to Platini's wish
of having teams from a wider range of nations involved in the
competition proper.
The executive committee is set to make a final decision on the
reforms when it meets in the Swiss city of Lucerne at the end of
this month.
The strategy council, comprising four UEFA vice-presidents, and
four representatives each for the continent's clubs, leagues and
players, held a three-hour meeting with Platini on Monday.
The majority of council members left the discussions without
answering journalists' questions and UEFA said there would be no
detailed statement following the talks.
"All parties that were represented agreed that it would not be
appropriate to comment in detail in terms of the outcome of the
meeting," UEFA general secretary David Taylor told reporters.
"We've made excellent progress and the decision will be made
plain after the executive committee meeting on November 30."
Platini successfully campaigned for the UEFA presidency in
January with a pledge to open up the Champions League to clubs from
less powerful footballing nations.
He initially suggested UEFA could remove one of the four
qualifying places currently awarded to teams from the three
highest-ranking countries.
When that idea met with resistance, the former French
international came up with proposals to hold two separate
qualifying competitions.
The first would involve domestic cup winners from the 16 top
associations battling for four Champions League places while the
second would have national champions from the bottom 40 nations
playing each other for six Champions League spots.
Both the cup winners idea and the proposal to hold two separate
qualifying competitions have been strongly opposed by the
continent's top clubs and leagues.
Monday's strategy council meeting now appears to have ended any
chance of cup winners entering the Champions League, leaving the
executive committee to vote on Platini's overall plan to ease the
path of smaller clubs into the competition.
(China Daily via Agencies November 14, 2007)