Clubs whose players take part in the next two European
Championships and the 2010 World Cup will receive about US$252
million from UEFA and FIFA.
The agreement, announced by UEFA president Michel Platini on
Monday, is part of a deal to end the long-running disputes between
soccer's governing bodies and Europe's top clubs.
The G-14 group of Europe's 18 most powerful clubs will drop
their legal disputes with FIFA and UEFA, Bayern Munich chairman
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.
"From today the football family is reunited, thanks to Michel
Platini," said Rummenigge, who was representing the newly formed
European Club Association that will include the 103 highest-ranked
teams in European football.
FIFA will pay clubs whose players take part in the 2010 World
Cup in South Africa US$110 million.
UEFA will pay clubs 43.5 million euros (US$63 million) for the
2008 European Championship, and 55 million euros (US$79 million)
for the 2012 tournament, according to the current terms of the
deal.
The payments, which will only be for the finals and not
qualifying matches, work out to about 4,000 euros each day per
player for Euro 2008, and 5,000 euros for Euro 2012.
"Clubs who provide UEFA and FIFA with certain amounts of money
through these players should get some compensation and share in
these profits," Platini said after the meeting at UEFA's
headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The money will benefit all clubs that a player belonged to
during the previous two years, meaning smaller clubs will benefit
from the arrangement as well. If the payments had been made during
the 2006 World Cup, more than 300 clubs would have received
money.
The deal also means that the G-14 will be dissolved when it next
meets on February 15. The group was formed in 1999 by clubs
dissatisfied that they did not have enough say in the organization
of international tournaments.
"G-14 welcomes the fact that its original initiative to launch a
new, independent and fully representative organization to defend
the interests of clubs has now come to fruition," the group said in
a statement.
Top clubs welcomed the deal.
"It's a historic day that will benefit football in general and
certainly club football in Europe," Chelsea chief executive Peter
Kenyon told reporters after the meeting.
AC Milan director Umberto Gandini said clubs would now have "a
direct dialogue and a direct influence on the way the most
important decisions are taken at UEFA" through the European Club
Association.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily January 23, 2008)