Europe’s big clubs urged to put fans first ahead of Champions League reform

Europe’s big clubs were again urged to put fans first on Sunday ahead of a big week of talks on Champions League reform.

A proposal to allow two teams the safety net of a place in the new 36-team league phase of the tournament post-2024 based on their historic European performance has faced long-standing opposition from the continent’s domestic leagues and from supporters’ groups.

They argue that qualification should be solely based on domestic performance rather than coefficient ranking, with the leagues’ contention being that those two places should be awarded to countries whose league winners do not automatically qualify.

Proposed Champions League format

The European Club Association (ECA) supports the proposal to admit two teams based on the coefficient, and one of its vice-chairmen, Aki Riihilahti, said in March that he felt it was “fair” and that it “added value” to the competition.

Bayern Munich chief executive Oliver Kahn is also on the ECA executive board, but he heads into Monday afternoon’s board meeting in Madrid with his club’s supporters making fresh calls to abandon the coefficient spots.

Banners were displayed at Bayern’s Bundesliga match against Stuttgart warning  “wild cards undermine the integrity of the competition”, and attacking the proposed increase in group phase games from six to 10.

A further banner stated: “Football for millions of fans, not billions of euro.”

UEFA’s executive committee is meeting in Vienna on Tuesday and there remains an expectation within European football’s governing body that the shape of the continent’s club competitions from 2024 onwards will be rubber-stamped then.

However, sources close to the talks have told the PA news agency that new, different options concerning